Keynote Speakers

Meg LeFauve

Nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar for the Pixar blockbuster INSIDE OUT, LeFauve won an Annie Award for that screenplay. She also wrote Pixar’s Golden Globe nominated THE GOOD DINOSAUR, and received “story by” credit on Marvel’s box office hit, CAPTAIN MARVEL. She also wrote the recent Netflix animated film MY FATHER’S DRAGON. She is currently writing Inside Out 2.

LeFauve began her film career as a producer and President of Egg Pictures, Jodie Foster's film company. As a producer, she was nominated for an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and was awarded a Peabody for the Showtime film, “The Baby Dance.” LeFauve also produced “The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys” which won the 2003 IFP Spirit Award for Best First Feature.

LeFauve has been a consultant to Screen New South Wales and Screen Australia and has been a mentor at many writing labs, including The Sundance Labs, Cinestory Script Sessions, and the Meryl Streep Lab. LeFauve taught at AFI and served as co-chair of the Graduate Producers Program at UCLA's School of Film and Television, where she taught master level story and development classes for over seven years.

Meg co-created the podcast THE SCREENWRITING LIFE with Lorien McKenna, which regularly charts in the top film/tv podcasts.

Raised in Warren, Ohio, LeFauve graduated from the Syracuse University Newhouse School and currently lives in Studio City, California with her husband and two sons. 

 

Lorien McKenna

Lorien McKenna is an Emmy-nominated and NAACP Image Award-winning Showrunner, Writer, Producer, and Playwright. Most recently, she was the Showrunner of TAB TIME for YouTube Originals. A former Story Manager at Pixar Animation Studios, she worked on the films RATATOUILLE, UP, BRAVE, INSIDE OUT, and THE GOOD DINOSAUR. She was the Associate Producer for Paramount Animation’s WONDER PARK and the Co-Executive Producer for CURIOUS GEORGE with NBC/ Universal. She’s written and developed for Disney, Comedy Central, Hulu, NBC, and Netflix.

Lorien co-hosts the podcast THE SCREENWRITING LIFE along with screenwriter Meg LeFauve. She is a mentor for The Cinestory Foundation and The Nostos Screenwriting Retreat in Tuscany. Lorien received a BA in English Literature and an MFA in Playwriting from St. Mary’s College of CA, where she also taught as an Adjunct Professor. 

 

Phil Lazebnik

Philip LaZebnik has written screenplays for films including Pocahontas, Mulan (which won the 1998 Annie Award for best animation screenplay), The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar, Asterix and the Vikings. He wrote the book for the musical "Fairy Tale" about Hans Christian Andersen with songs by Stephen Schwartz, and wrote the book and lyrics for "Oktoberfest: the Musical" with music by Harold Faltermeyer. In collaboration with Mads Æbeløe Nielsen he wrote the book for the theatrical musical version of Djævelens lærling (or The Devil's Apprentice), a best-selling Danish fantasy novel of the same name by Kenneth B. Andersen, with songs and music by Madeline Myers. He wrote the book for DreamWorks' theatrical musical version of The Prince of Egypt with songs by Stephen Schwartz, which premiered at the Dominion Theatre in London's West End on February 25, 2020. LaZebnik also wrote episodes for Wings, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. LaZebnik has served on the board of directors of the Writers Guild of America West (2001–02) and the Writers Branch Executive Committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (2001–03).

 

 

Jeff Melvoin

Emmy award winner Jeff Melvoin has been a writer-producer on over a dozen dramatic series, serving as showrunner on eight of them. In all, he’s helped produce over 470 hours of primetime television, most recently as an Executive Producer on season three of the BBC America series, Killing Eve. Other Exec Producer credits include Designated Survivor, Army Wives, Alias, Early Edition, and Picket Fences. He was Supervising Producer of the CBS series Northern Exposure, for which he won an Emmy and two Golden Globe Awards. Other writer-producer credits include the NBC series Hill Street Blues and Remington Steele.

Melvoin is also the founder and chair of the Writers Guild of America’s celebrated Showrunner Training Program, now entering its nineteenth year. In February 2015, he received the Morgan Cox Award, the WGA’s highest recognition for Guild service. In making the announcement, Guild President Chris Keyser said, “If this is a Golden Age of television, the program Jeff so lovingly shepherds deserves its fair share of credit. Thanks to him, as an art form and as a business, we are better at what we do.”

His book, Running the Show: Television from the Inside, will be published by Applause Books in September 2023.

Melvoin has taught at USC School of Cinematic Arts, UCLA, Harvard, and the Sundance Institute, has spoken on college campuses throughout the United States and at media conferences around the world, and is one of several executive producers featured in the 2014 documentary, Showrunners.

He is a past board member of the Mystery Writers of America (Southern California Chapter) and the Writers Guild of America, West. Before entering television, Melvoin was a Time magazine correspondent. He is married to Martha Hartnett Melvoin and has two sons, Nick and Charlie.