Karen Walton is a Canadian screenwriter and creative executive-producer whose critically-acclaimed work includes a modern cult horror classic, episodes/staff writing popular television series, and true-story Made For TV Movies. A celebrated graduate of the prestigious Canadian Film Centre’s Norman Jewison Film Program, Karen was born and raised in Nova Scotia, spent her teens and twenties in Alberta, where she earned a Bachelor of Honours in Drama. Karen's credits include penning her debut original screenplay for the independent Canadian feature film, Ginger Snaps (2000), episodes of the original US adaptation of Queer As Folk, as well as Flashpoint, The Listener, and Bell Media/BBC America’s sci-fi sensation, Orphan Black — starring Tatiana Maslany. Karen’s work as a screenwriter has been recognized with awards and honours from the Writers Guild of Canada, The Canadian Comedy Awards, The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, the Toronto International Film Festival’s sole Special Jury Citation for Screenplay, a Women In Film and Television - Toronto’s Crystal Award for Mentorship, The Banff World Media Festival, and the Canadian Academy of Cinema & Television. Her career highlights include winning two Canadian Screen Awards for Best Dramatic Series as Co-EP of Orphan Black, Best Writing in a Movie or Mini-Series, and the Canadian Academy’s Margaret Collier Award for her contributions to the profession of screenwriting in Canada. Karen has lived and worked in the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples (now called Toronto), since 1994.
Sol Miranda (she, her) was born & raised in Puerto Rico and is widely known for her roles as "mole woman" Donna Maria Nuñez on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and the medium Beatriz on Archive 81, both series #1 globally on Netflix. Most recently, she co-starred in Daniel Poliner's indie feature Come Find Me, a Latinx mother-daughter story with Victoria Cartagena and Tovah Feldshuh. Last year, Sol co-wrote a short film with Daniel titled Asynchronous which he directed, starring Adam LeFevre, Reed Birney & Sol. With a career that spans more than thirty years, she has performed in regional theaters, Off-Broadway, Puerto Rico & Europe.
Christina Raia is a New York based Writer/Director who focuses on character-driven and socially conscious horror and comedy, using genre as a lens to represent, discuss and dissect social issues, otherness and real world anxieties. Her work, consisting of a dozen short films, a web series, and two feature films, has screened at regional festivals all across the country, most recently at Sidewalk Film Festival and Chattanooga Film Festival, and has been covered on various press outlets, such as Indiewire and BuzzFeed. Her mixed race background and particularly her mother's Indo-Trinidadian culture play a major role in Christina's interest in portraying underrepresented perspectives across diverse spectrums of identity in her writing and directing. In 2021, Christina was selected for film incubator Breaking Light Studio, where Lilly Wachowski serves as head of creative development. Through them, Christina has begun development of her next feature, a horror-comedy titled Silent Night, the first draft of which was a 2016 quarter finalist in Slamdance’s Screenplay Competition. Learn more about Christina and her work at christinaraia.com.
Sunny Edelman, Moderator
As a Classically trained actor, Sunny has directed and performed roles from Shakespeare to Clare Boothe Luce, working in regional, Off Broadway theaters, as well as in an Emmy winning television program and numerous Indie films. She received a B.A. in Theater Arts from S.U.N.Y New Paltz and studied with Iza Itkin, Robert Castle, Bob Luke and Peter Sklar. Sunny also took classes at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England.
Sunny is an Associate Casting Director for Hudson Valley Casting and has worked on such films as “The Dead Don’t Die”, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”, “What We Found” and “Driveways” to name a few.
She has worked with a number of film festivals, in a few different roles. She was the events coordinator for The Hudson Valley International Film Festival and The Catskills International Film Festival. Festival Director of the North By Northeast Film Festival and host at The New York State Film Festival. Ms. Edelman is both honored and excited to be working at the Lake Placid Film Festival.
A fierce advocate for women in film, Sunny is currently the President of Upstate NY Women in Film and Television.
Micah Khan, Moderator
Micah Khan is a writer/director who has directed and produced over 30 short films. His passion for equity and bringing impactful stories to life is unmatched. Micah brings this same energy to set where everyone is made to feel loved and supported.
Micah recently wrapped his feature debut, The Zombie Wedding, which is the first film launching the Weekly World News IP-Driven studio slate. The 19-person ensemble cast includes Cheri Oteri (SNL), Seth Gilliam (The Walking Dead, The Wire), Heather Matarazzo (Scream, The Princess Diaries), Kevin Chamberlin (10 million on Tiktok, Tony Nominated), Christine Spang (Succession), Siobhan Fallon Hogan (Men in Black, Wayward Pines), Vincent Pastore (The Sopranos), Ajay Naidu (Office Space), Mu-Shaka Benson (Wu-Tang, Blacklist), Micky Dolenz of the Monkees, Deepti Menon (Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Donald Chang (Squid Game), Katie Kuang (Wounded Fawn), Krystina Alabado (Means Girls on Broadway) and Jay DeYonker (American Horror Story).
His latest short film, Meetcute on Danceworld, was featured on MovieMaker Magazine, tweeted by Ben Stiller to his 5.4 million followers, and David Benioff of HBO’s Game of Thrones said of it “Never seen anything quite like it before. I was smiling the whole way through. It’s fresh, original and it kicks ass.” Before that, his action short film, Safe House, was the winner of Robert Rodriguez's People's Network Showcase Contest and premiered on El Rey Network.
His screenplays have been placed in Austin Film Festival, Screencraft, a finalist at 1497’s South Asian Writers Lab, and was recently selected as a mentee for Mentorship Matters BIPOC Writers Initiative sponsored by Amazon and AMC Networks. Micah is currently collaborating with MovieMaker Magazine on a series of interviews on the craft of filmmaking where he's interviewed Oscar-nominated filmmakers like Denis Villeneuve, Spike Lee, Joe Wright, Zach Braff, and many more.
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