Civil rights activist Hilda Simms became a national celebrity for her leading role in the first all-Black performance of the Broadway show Anna Lucasta. Frustrated by her struggling career and the lack of roles for Black actors, Simms worked as the creative director for the New York State Human Rights Commission to address racial discrimination in the entertainment industry.
German-Mexican actress, researcher and academic
Argentine storyteller who became a Mexican citizen, playwright, theater director, musician, and professor of literature and acting at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León (UANL)
Yolande Moreau is a Belgian comedian, actress and director.
Tracy Rector is a storyteller, educator, filmmaker, coordinator, co-founder of Longhouse Media non-profit organization, multi-media artist, and a 2016 Stranger Genius.
Visual activist who documents Black gay, lesbian, transgender, and intersex people in South Africa.
A 2020 MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant winner, Nanfu Wang uses film to explore the relationship between individuals and governments. Like a rigorous investigative journalist, Wang employs immersive, vivid storytelling and a first-person narrative structure in her documentary films to examine the ideas of responsibility and freedom, particularly in her native China.
Poet, editor and Mexican cultural promoter.
Although she did not pick up a camera until she was thirty-two, Ava DuVernay has made history as a writer, director, and producer. She was the first African American woman to win Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival, be nominated for a Best Director Golden Globe, direct a film nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, and direct a film with a budget over $100 million.
A prominent actress and the first openly transgender person nominated for an Emmy, Laverne Cox has promoted visibility and awareness on behalf of the transgender community.