ANDREW FROMER is a Los Angeles native and grew up as an active member in the Jewish community through Stephen S. Wise Temple. He attended Windward School in Mar Vista, where his acting career began in plays and musicals. After completing his BFA in theater at UC Santa Barbara and an exciting year of living in Israel, Andrew took a dive into filmmaking and has since branched into production by helping prepare for distribution two feature films he has acted in: AMP Creative’s Highway to Havasu (dir. Jeff Janke) and Mockingbird Pictures’ The Sweet Life (dir. Rob Spera). Andrew also edits, directs, and hosts his own podcast on the entertainment industry, SideKickBack Radio, which can be found at www.sidekickback.com. He is very excited to be on board for an exciting year with NEXT@theBraid.
KYRA MORLING is an actor, writer, and artist recently graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a B.A. in theater. She’s split her time between Los Angeles and New York City working at The Hammer Museum, Gagosian Gallery, Royce Hall, Bowery Poetry Club, The Hole, and Marciano Art Foundation. As a performer, she has trained with Atlantic Theater Company, Upright Citizen’s Brigade, Second City, and has been featured in both Hollywood and Edingburgh Fringe. Her heart lies with Project Nongenue, an LA- based theater company in which she was a founding member. Find out more at kyramorling.com.
ORA YASHAR is an Executive Assistant on the Netflix series ATYPICAL. Working on a show which empathetically explores what it means to be “normal” and draws crucial attention to the lives of individuals with autism is especially meaningful for Ora, who previously worked as a behavior therapist in the autism community. Further nourishing her love of storytelling is Ora’s ongoing involvement as a Script Consultant for Sundance’s Episodic Lab. Through a collaboration with Women In Film, Ora wrote an Emmy nominated PSA for the Santa Monica Museum of Art and directed a 2x Telly Award winning PSA for the ALS Association. As a public-spirited individual, Ora volunteers at the Motion Picture and TV Fund which supports the aging entertainment community in living with dignity and purpose. She earned her MFA in Directing from Chapman University.
JULIE LANCTOT, a graduate of UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, and Television, has participated in the LA theater community as an actor and assistant director. Most recently, she played Rosaline in Chase What Flies’ production of Love’s Labor’s Lost and Isabella in Method and Madness’ production of Measure for Measure. Julie assistant directed Dangerous Liaisons at Antaeus last Fall and is currently assisting on a staged reading of the Jacobean tragedy Women Beware Women. Now dipping her toes into the world of writing, she is developing an original web series with some of her closest friends. Julie is enjoying the process of becoming a hyphenate and looks forward to continuing her journey with JWT.
DAPHNA SHULL is a three-time NEXT Arts Council Fellow, literary manager, and writer, born and raised in Tampa, Florida. She received her bachelor’s degree in media production from Florida State University and recently self-published The Quiet Things, an illustrated, original screenplay on Amazon. Daphna works as JWT’s Artistic Associate and as a museum educator for the Zimmer Children’s Museum.
Calling herself a modern day gypsy, JUDITH GOLDSTEIN has lived in four countries, four states and countless cities- absorbing the culture, art and traditions from every place she’s had the pleasure of experiencing. Judith has worked in food industry as a cook, food writer, and historian. In 2014, she graduated from the University of Gastronomic Sciences with a Master’s in Food Culture and Communications. In addition to her passion for gastronomy, Judith immerses herself in photography, writing, and dance. Her love and enthusiasm for art and food has always been the anchor that united her dynamic journey and she hopes to bring her passion, world experience and love for the humanities to the NEXT @ The Braid community.
CHANDLER TURK is a writer for film, television, and theatre. He is currently the writers’ production assistant for Disney’s upcoming series “High School Musical: The Musical” which will premiere on their new streaming service Disney+ in late 2019. Turk earned his BFA at NYU Tisch’s Department of Dramatic Writing in 2018. He has previously worked for the Inkwell Theater as the associate producer of Chickenheads (September 2018) and Journey to Alice (January 2018).
AYSHA WAX is a writer, director and comedian. She is fun, witty and unintentionally the loudest person in the room. Aysha loves creating stories that are fun, festive, and feminist. Her webseries Wannabees that was co created by Marian Bruno was sold to Fox Digital in 2014. Aysha has also had her sketches featured on Buzzfeed, Funnyordie, Wifey TV, and WhoHaHa. Aysha has performed improv and sketch around Los Angeles at iO West, the Upright Citizen’s Brigade, Westside Comedy Theater, The Pach Theater and the Groundlings. Aysha also spent eight years teaching Hebrew School around Los Angeles, which inspired her one woman show Hebrew School Horror that she toured around LA and NYC. When Aysha is not creating things she moonlights as a dating consultant with her partner Rebecca Leib. Their dating classes are known as “Feeling It” dating. Aysha can help you level up dating wise while enjoying the process and maybe finding a partner in the process. In essence, Aysha is here to make your life a little better and more fun!
ARNON Z. SCHORR is an Israeli/American modern-Orthodox Jewish filmmaker who lives and works in Los Angeles. His award-winning shorts and features have screened in festivals around the world. His most recent short film about Jewish pirates, “The Pirate Captain Toledano”, an official selection at 48 film festivals and competitions, is now available on Blu-Ray, DVD and streaming on Amazon.com