Echaka Agba (she/her) is an award winning theatre, film, and television and teaching artist based in New York and Chicago. She has performed on various stages in Chicago including Steppenwolf Theater Company, Goodman Theater, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Theatre Wit and Writers Theater. In front of the camera, she has appeared on several network and cable programs including Work In Progress and The Chi (Showtime), Chicago Med (NBC), and South Side (HBO) and has actively worked in independent series development in Chicago. Echaka is a member of the Mezcla Media Collective and the Sundance Collab Institute having studied under Rebecca Murga and a graduate of The School At Steppenwolf. 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). Her narrative podcast teleplay, Jane: 1891, about Jane Addams Hull House, assimilation, and the opening of the Butler Art Gallery, was commissioned by Make Believe Association where she is currently a member of a seven-person writing team for a new serial narrative podcast, Lake Song (Tribeca Audio Premieres, October 2022). Her short screenplay, 2 Spruce Street, was an official selection of the Scario Film Festival. She is currently completing her first feature screenplay, Magnificat: The Mary Year (developed and advised through Sundance Collab and Gotham Writers Workshop).
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.