Echaka Agba is an on stage/screen performer and filmmaker as well as teaching artist now based in New York and Chicago. She has performed on various stages in Chicago including Steppenwolf Theater Company, Goodman Theater, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and Writers Theater. In front of the camera, she has appeared on several network and cable programs including South Side (MAX), Work In Progress and The Chi (Showtime) and The Red Line (CBS). As a filmmaker she actively works in independent series development as well as co-creating/producing/directing the experimental short film collection, Where Could We Go: A Map Of Finding Home. Film festival selections include Film Diary NYC (2024), NewFest Film Festival (2022), Afrikana Independent Film Festival (2021, 2022) and Black X Film Festival (2021) Lagos Film Festival (2021) (Rome, Italy). She received a teaching fellowship at Acting Studio Chicago where she is a member teacher today.
Kristina (KVV/she/they) is an independent artist working to foster artist-led community exchange. Her self-produced mini-short, A Different Time, was a selection for WickedQueer (2021, Boston). She served as performance director for Reach+You, an interactive app-based serial performance created by Katrina and Jonah Goldsaito (Tribeca Festival Immersive Main Competition, 2022). She is a co-creator and member of a seven-person multi-disciplinary writing team for Make Believe Association’s Webby Nominated (2023) narrative podcast, Lake Song, (Tribeca Audio Premieres 2022) and was commissioned by the company for her original narrative podcast teleplay, , exploring themes around racial, ethnic, and sexual identity assimilation set in Jane Addams’ historic Hull House. Her first feature screenplay, Magnificat has been developed and advised through Sundance Collab and Gotham Writers Workshop.
Awards and honors: Princess Grace Award and Fellowship (Theatre, 2017) for acting and directing in residence with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Best Actress in a Feature: Iris International Film Festival in Cardiff, Wales, for the independent feature Molly's Girl. Acting resume available at https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1507314/
Troy Lewis moved from Texas to Zambia at the age of 7 where he grew up in the capital, Lusaka. He is now a filmmaker and writer based in Chicago, with a BA from Northwestern University in Film and Creative Writing—Fiction. In 2017, he served on the Jury for the Student Section at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. His sitcom pilot, executive produced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, is currently in post-production, and his most recently completed directorial project, Oglesby Park, premiered on The Wrap.
He served as editor for the Slamdance feature film, Tahara, as well as several installations and short films including Pangaea, screened at Sundance and aired on PBS' AfroPop; and as an assistant editor on features such as Once Upon a River and Saint Frances. In addition to film production, Troy has shot and edited commercial work for Remy Martin, Nickelodeon, Closed Sessions, and more.
His editorial and directorial work focuses on depicting unique perspectives through the textures and rhythms of daily life, evoking emotion and insight through sensory experiences.