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FilAm Creative presentsThe 10th Filipino Hollywood Actors Panel
Saturday, June 24, 2023
From 2:00pm to 5:30pm (PDT)
at The Clubhouse
1607 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027
(Drive into JONS Marketplace Parking Lot, located at right between JONS and Fashion Today)
* $25 - General Admission for 2 panels for 1 day!
TICKET LINK: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/10th-filipino-hollywood-actors-panel-networking-tickets-647198747877
The Filipino Hollywood Actors Panel is a panel discussion and networking event featuring our special guest industry panelists who represent the craft of acting across the board while shining a spotlight on Filipino talent in Hollywood today.
Hear our panelists discuss about their explorations of the process and profession of acting; their reflections on personal experiences and artistic influences that informed and shaped their careers; their discussions of past and current projects and share valuable insights into the craft and the industry.
Get a chance to ask our panelists questions, learn about open opportunities, and build your network.
2023 INDUSTRY GUEST PANELISTS:
- SAM MORELOS is a proud first-generation Filipino American artist. Her first on-screen role is as a series regular playing Nikki in "That 90’s Show" (which is renewed for Season 2). And, it was announced that she will be playing Rapunzel's daughter Zelle in Disney's "Pocketwatch," an offshoot of "Descendants: The Rise of Red.`"
Prior credits include school productions at California School of the Arts - SGV and understudying the lead in the award-winning play Poor Clare with the Echo Theatre Company.
Morelos is also a singer, having sung solos at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Filipino American Symphony Orchestra. Morelos has been performing since she was five years old, falling more in love with performing and the authenticity of acting every time she steps on stage and set.
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- APRIL ABSYNTH is a Filipina-American actress and singer. She has played the roles of Jacque, a series regular in the comedy-drama "Blindspotting" (2021 - ), as well as her leading role as Rachel in the award winning action comedy film turned comic book series "Lumpia with a Vengeance" (2020). Her starring feature film performance has played at sold out premieres across the country from New York City (Asian American International Film Festival), to Hawaii (Hawaii International Film Festival), to conventions such as Comic Con San Diego and Wondercon in Los Angeles.
Her original work as a singer-songwriter includes her duo No Rest Till Death, whose title “Hungry for a Fight” has been featured as the theme song of her film "Lumpia with a Vengeance." She continues to sing and perform with multiple bands throughout California.
April was born in Northern California to singers, Pete and Cristeta, who both immigrated to the US from the Philippines in the 70’s and 80’s. She was raised in Fremont by her parents and in Oakland by her sister, Criselle, and their grandparents. She was influenced by their musicianship and artistry, with her father and grandfather being artists and painters, her grandfather also a poet, professor, and a writer, and the singing that was introduced to her by her mother and sister at church. Her grandfather on her father’s side served as a Filipino soldier alongside the United States during WWII.
April attended American High School where she began acting in musical theater, which then continued onto Ohlone College (Kim in Miss Saigon) and San Francisco State University where she studied Theater. At age 15, she began working as a singer and dancer at Paramount’s Great America for many years. After a decade of teaching at a Montessori, bartending at nightclubs throughout the Bay, touring with bands, and office managing at a record label in Oakland, she began auditioning for on-camera work, where she then landed the Filipina-American roles of Rachel and Jacque, whose stories are inspired and rooted in the Bay Area.
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- ASHLEY ARGOTA TORRES can currently be seen on CW's "All American" as Gia and on Netflix's "Freeridge", which debuted as the #3 show on Netflix when it premiered in February. Her television movie "Modeled With Love", which marks her first starring role, will be released later this year.
She started acting at five years old. She appeared in multiple television shows including "The Division", "MAD TV", "The Wayne Brady Show", and "The Shield".
After guest starring on Nickelodeon's "iCarly", Ashley starred as the loyal, quirky, fun-loving assistant, Lulu, on the hit Nickelodeon show "True Jackson, VP". The show ran for three seasons. Directly after filming that show, she booked her second starring role in another Nickelodeon show where she played Kelly in "Bucket and Skinner's Epic Adventures". After filming, she briefly attended her dream school, New York University, before returning to Los Angeles for work. Ashley recurred on Freeform's "The Fosters" as Lou, the lead singer of the band Someone's Little Sister.
In 2019, Ashley and her husband, Mick, started Mismo Productions and released their podcast, also named "Mismo". They interview creatives about their day to day lives in the business to show everyone that no matter where someone is in their careers, we are all uniquely the same-- we're all MISMO.
Ashley often teaches acting classes at Actors Giving Back in Los Angeles, CA and is on the Advisory Committee for The Actor's Fund's "Looking Ahead Program".
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- GIOVANNIE ESPIRITU's identity is inherently political: A bisexual, once-undocumented immigrant Filipina mom who spent time in a Biblical doomsday cult as a teen. Her first short film, “Ultra-Feminist,” got an Honorable Mention at Outfest:Fusion, and her second film, “ALLY 3000,” won over 12 awards at film festivals mainly in scriptwriting and social justice. Her newest short doc film, “Legacy,” won the Hyundai Evolve Innovation Award is in the film festival circuit. It has exhibited at the OutMuseum, and will be showing in the New Americans Museum in San Diego. Most of her work has taken aim at dismantling the patriarchy, healing generational trauma, and exposing systems of bias with humor. Her IRL and reel life mantra is to “Break Hearts Wide Open and Create More Moments of Joy.” As an actor, she was once nominated alongside Academy Award nominees Alfre Woodard and Amy Irving for Best Supporting Actress, but she didn’t know what to do with that information other than put it on her business card.
Her primetime credits include a recurring role on "Young Sheldon" (CBS), "ER" (NBC), "Bones" (FOX), "Gilmore Girls" (ABC), and "Trauma" (NBC). She can be seen as the lead in the Amazon series, “Dyke Central,” which was featured in After Ellen, BuzzFeed, Bust Magazine and Curve Magazine as a top LGBTQ series to watch, Nancy on the Tubi Original “Titanic 666,” alongside AnnaLynneMcCord and will be on Season 4 of "9-1-1: Lone Star" as Joni.
In her spare time, she rock climbs and advocates for Domestic Violence Awareness/Prevention and LGBTQ equality. She has served on the Board of Directors for C.O.R.A. (a Bay Area domestic violence hotline and agency) and been awarded a Certificate of Recognition from the Senate and California Assembly for her community service. She was recognized as one of 23 "Most Influential Filipina Women in the World" in the Innovator & Thought Leader category by the Filipina Women's Network.
She is a proud member of the Alliance of Women Directors and the Producer's Guild of America
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KIAN TALAN is a Filipino-American actor who got his big break as Alex Tennant on "NCIS: Hawai'i." He just wrapped season 2 and the show has already been picked up for a 3rd season. He can also be seen on ABC's "The Good Doctor" and NETFLIX "Brainchild."
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TIMOTHY GRANADEROS is an actor, known for "T@gged" (2016), "Thirteen Reasons Why" (2016), and "We Are Your Friends" (2015). He is originally from Portage, Michigan, but resides in Los Angeles. He began acting and modeling in various commercials and print ads, and eventually segued into television and film. He is also a standout soccer player and all around athlete.
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ELLEN D. WILLIAMS is a multi-hyphenated artist who grew up in Los Angeles, CA. She is most known for her recurring work as Patrice on the hit CBS comedy, "How I Met Your Mother," and
Nicole Baskets playing opposite Zach Galifianakis on the FX dramedy, "Baskets." Other credits include: "Barry," "Bless This Mess," "Superstore," "I’m Sorry," "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," "Life in Pieces," "The Mindy Project," "Criminal Minds," "The Real O’Neals," "Pitch" and "Kevin From Work."
A theatre graduate of California State University, Long Beach, Ellen has also performed regionally in theatres in Los Angeles, the Pacific Northwest, and most recently for The Ashland
New Plays Conference and Ojai Playwrights Conference.
She is an ABC Talent Showcase Alum from the Los Angeles cast of 2008. Years later she joined as a director from 2012-2014. After a four-year hiatus she returned in 2019 and in 2020 was one of three directors who directed in an all virtual platform.
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GEOFFREY MICLAT has been Clint Eastwood’s casting director for the past twelve years. His films include: "American Sniper" (2014), "Sully" (2016), "The Mule" (2018) and "Richard Jewell" (2019). He is currently casting "Juror #2," Clint Eastwood’s latest project.
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SUMALEE MONTANO holds a breadth of perspectives within the industry, originating her career as an investment banker and now as an actress-producer.
Onscreen she has worked extensively in film and television as a series regular and recurring guest. Past projects include "Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol," "This Is Us," "VEEP," "Star Trek Picard," "S.W.A.T.," "Scandal," "ER" and more. Sumalee was recently cast in the Shondaland Netflix series, "The Residence," a screwball whodunnit set in the White House, where she plays Chief of Staff Dana Hammond.
A prolific voice actor, Sumalee has lent her voice to over 200 animated projects to date across film, television and triple-A video games, including Sony's landmark success "Ghost of Tsushima" plus multiple Star Wars and World of Warcraft games.
Offscreen Sumalee is an advocate for telling intergenerational stories that uplift multicultural talent in front of and behind the camera. A co-founder of LinLay Productions, Sumalee has produced or executive produced multiple films, including Nikyatu Jusu’s "Nanny," the first horror film to win the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2022 (Blumhouse/Amazon). "Riotsville, U.S.A." examines the history of police militarization in America and was nominated for Best Documentary at the 2022 Independent Spirit Awards (Magnolia/Hulu). Sumalee also produced and stars in "The Deal," a sci-fi adventure that she based on her real-life relationship with her Filipina mom (The Roku Channel).
Most recently Sumalee executive produced "Black Barbie: A Documentary' and "Razing Liberty Square," two films that are currently lighting up the festival circuit.
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DEA VISE (Casting Director) has cast "The Harvest," "God's Not Dead," "Boone The Bounty Hunter," "America's Most Wanted," and many more.
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REGGIE LEE (Actor) starred as 'Sgt. Wu' on NBC’s hit sci-fi police drama “Grimm.” Most recently, he starred as Head Deputy District Attorney Thomas Choi on CBS’s “All Rise” and as Angelo Soto on Netflix’s “Lincoln Lawyer”. Prior to “Grimm”, he was best known for his role as Secret Service Agent Bill Kim on the popular FOX show "Prison Break." Since having starred as 'Lance Nguyen, in Universal's high-octane blockbuster “The Fast and the Furious” in 2001, Lee has had memorable roles in film playing 'Tai Huang,' the villainous right-hand man of Chow Yun Fat in “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End", starring opposite Jason Statham in Lionsgate’s "Safe", in Sam Raimi’s Universal thriller “Drag Me to Hell", and in Ben Stiller’s directorial debut “Tropic Thunder", opposite Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. He also had supporting roles in “Here Comes the Boom” with Kevin James and Salma Hayek, and “The Dark Knight Rises” with Joseph Gordon Levitt and Christian Bale. More recently, Reggie starred in “Sweet Girl” opposite Jason Momoa. He has also recurred and guest starred in countless television shows. Aside from directing and coaching actors, he is currently creating and producing projects that forward the visibility of Asian Americans and the depth of their lives within the fabric of the melting pot that is America.
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- JEFF FRANCISCO (Moderator)
Jeff Francisco is native of the Philippines, born in Manila and relocated to Daly City / San Francisco when he was 11 years old. He attended college at San Francisco State University and graduated from Academy of Art where he studied Advertising. Simultaneously he studied Acting in various acting schools in San Francisco, where he quickly started booking numerous roles in theater productions. Also a hip-hop dancer, he snagged a role in the second installment of the hit franchise, “The Matrix”, as a dancer and fell in love with film and TV, which led him to making the move to LA where he quickly started working in television. As an actor he is best known for his role as Alvin Aquino opposite Neve Campbell, Jaime McShane, and Reggie Lee in the wildly popular Netflix Series "The Lincoln Lawyer" based on the best selling books by Michael Connolly. He also made an appearance in the Gerard Butler and Mike Colter suspenseful action thriller “Plane” by Lionsgate. His past credits includes “Numb3rs” on CBS and “Make it or Break it” on abc family. He currently serves as the Director of Live Events with FilAm Creative where he recently co-produced a creative panel with the creators and cast of Fox’s “The Cleaning Lady.” When he is not in front of the camera or working for the community, he also enjoys working behind-the-scenes as Producer, Art Director, 2nd AD, and Production Coordinator. He also has years of experience as a graphic designer and as a photo editor.
- EDWIN A. SANTOS (Founder/Producer) is an actor, film producer and podcaster. With 20+ years of professional experience in the entertainment industry. As an actor, his work can be seen in the feature films, "Girl Lost: A Hollywood Story," "Blue Dream," and "The Last Exorcist." As a producer, his work includes the award-winning "Mad Cowgirl" with Sarah Lassez, James Duval, Devon Odessa and Walter Koenig, and "Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance" with Bai Ling and Tommy Wiseau. He is the Founder of the Filipino Hollywood Actors Panel, Host & Producer of the Artists, Creatives & Business Podcast with the Filipino American Chamber of Commerce of Hollywood (2020-2021), and a current member of the 2023 FilAm Creative Executive Board as its Social Media Director.
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FilAm Creative (FAC) is a not-for-profit, all volunteer community organization dedicated to the advancement of Filipino-Americans in entertainment and media.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Clubhouse, 1607 N Vermont Ave,Los Angeles,CA,United States
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