Dan Lin’s nonprofit content material accelerator for POC creators is continuous to develop.
Rideback Rise has tapped Diana Mogollón, the founder and former head of Warner Bros.’ Stage 13 digital content material studio, to function its first-ever CEO. She is going to take the reins from Rise founding govt director Sabrina Pourmand, who was employed alongside Tracey Bing as head of content material in February 2023. Pourmand and Bing will likely be departing Rise.
“Diana is an inspiring chief with a formidable observe report of bringing underrepresented voices to the forefront, as evidenced by her imaginative and prescient and tenacity in constructing the Stage 13 studio to champion POC storytellers. On behalf of the Rise board, I’m thrilled Diana is taking the assistance at Rise and making use of her distinct imaginative and prescient, ardour and management to advancing the Rise mission and dealing with Rise’s supremely gifted storytellers of coloration to drive narrative change,” mentioned Lin, who stepped down from Rideback the manufacturing firm earlier this yr to run Netflix movie however retains his seat as board chair of the nonprofit he based. “I might additionally like to precise gratitude to our founding govt director Sabrina Pourmand, whose interim tenure brilliantly set Rise on its present path to being an trade change agent, and to our first-ever head of content material, Tracey Bing, a formidable producer and champion of artists who labored tirelessly to recruit and operationalize the Rise cohort.”
Within the coming weeks, Mogollón is anticipated to announce the brand new members of her staff, who will be a part of Rise expertise and artistic improvement supervisor April Chang.
The subsequent cohort will itself expertise change and progress. Whereas the inaugural class consisted of 5 fellows (together with one writing staff) and 10 residents who every acquired $50,000 and $10,000 in funding, respectively, the 2024-25 cohort will permit for as much as 15 fellows, every receiving $40,000 stipends along with entry to improvement funds to assist them possibility IP and create visible pitch supplies, together with proof-of-concept movies. Functions for the second cohort will likely be open for the month of June on the Rise web site.
“In a short while, Rise has established itself as a highly-respected establishment doing the mandatory work to advance narrative change by creating mainstream content material by various creators, and I’m honored to have been entrusted to steer Rise at a time when the trade is contracting and the necessity to amplify POC tales is each actual and good enterprise,” Mogollón mentioned in a press release. “Since stepping in, I’ve been in awe of the excellence of our present cohort, and I’m excited to welcome our second cohort of Fellows later this fall. We’re decided to make a distinction in bringing extra POC voices to the forefront of movie and tv with tales that interact audiences throughout the board.”
Mogollón has expertise on this house, as Stage 13 was created partly to present alternatives to filmmakers from underrepresented backgrounds (it was behind Netflix’s Particular, amongst different collection) earlier than it was shuttered within the Warner Bros. Discovery regime. Previous to that, she was govt vice chairman and normal supervisor for NBCUniversal’s Latino Gen Z/millennial-focused mun2 cable community.
Figuring out of Rideback Ranch’s Historic Filipinotown headquarters, the present cohort of Rise fellows and residents has been creating their tasks whereas receiving mentorship from creatives reminiscent of Adele Lim, Robert Rodriguez and Chris Weitz; collaborating inmasterclasses and hearth chats with Jason Blum, Phil Lord, Kemp Powers, Jessica Gao and Hasan Minhaj; and getting artistic advisement from writer-showrunners together with Jessica Sharzer, Doug Jung and Amanda Idoko.
Rise’s institutional donors embody the Ford, MacArthur and Doris Duke foundations in addition to the Murphy Household Fund, The Asian American Basis, the Panda CommUnity Fund, Zelnick Belzberg Charitable Belief, Comcast NBC, the UTA Basis, the Horn Basis and Salmira.