 Reggie Hudlin—Reginald Hudlin is a critically acclaimed director, with both successful film and TV projects under his belt. His film House Party started a trend of teen hip-hop comedies through the 90’s. In the 2000’s he shifted his focus to television, where he did directorial work on The Bernie Mac Show, Everybody Hates Chris, and Boondocks. He also wrote the new Black Panther series, where he worked with John Romita Jr. For the first arc, and reinterpreted the Black Panther mythos. |
 Axel Alonso—Axel Alonso is an american comic book creator, known primarily as an editor at DC Comics from 1994–2000, and at Marvel Comics from 2000 to the present. At DC, he edited books such as Doom Patrol, and a number of books published under their Vertigo line, such as Animal Man, Hellblazer, Preacher and 100 Bullets. As Senior Editor at Marvel Comics, he edited Spider-Man and X-Men related books before ascending to Vice President, Executive Editor in 2010, and Editor-in-Chief in January 2011, replacing Joe Quesada. |
 John Dokes—John Dokes has worked for Marvel for over 10 years in both the Publishing and Digital Media divisions. He has overseen major releases and promotions and was responsible for the 2007 launch of Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited. He is now the Senior Vice President of Integrated Sales and Marketing. John has also worked with several world renowned brands including Volkswagen, Chrysler, and MTV Networks. His creative outlets have included writing an issue of X-Force and serving as a vocalist with the George Gee Swing Orchestra, 2010 saw the release of his first CD, entitled “John Dokes Sings, George Gee Swings.” |
 Nichelle Nichols—Nichelle Nichols is a talented actress, and singer. She has volunteered her time to the space program, both in recruiting and serving on the Board of Governors for the National Space Society. However, she is known internationally as a legend for her role as Lt. Uhura in the Star Trek television series, where she was the first black woman to portray a character on TV who was not a servant, but rather a high-ranking official. She has recently played CJ, a CEO of a galactic cab company in an Internet sci-fi musical/comedy called The Cabonauts. |
 Mike Richardson—as the founder of Dark Horse Comics, Mike Richardson has published some of the most acclaimed and popular comics in the industry today. Starting with Dark Horse Presents #1, produced in his own comic shop, Richardson has grown Dark Horse into the largest independent comics publisher in North America. He has also produced several successful films based on the properties that Dark Horse publishes. He is currently producing a movie adaptation of Emily the Strange, as well as several other Dark Horse projects. |
 Prodigal Sunn—Prodigal Sunn is a member of the hip hop group Sunz of Man, associated with the Wu-Tang Clan. He has produced two studio albums with the Sunz of Man, and has collaborated with Jay-Z, Outkast, and others. In 2005 he released a debut album called Return of the Prodigal Sunn. He has also won a Grammy Award in France for the single LA SAGA/I AM that featured Prodigal Sunn. |
 RZA—RZA is the founder of the Wu-Tang Clan, and a Grammy Award-winning music producer, rapper, and writer. He has produced, written, and performed on many successful albums, and also produced original music for a few movies, including both volumes of Kill Bill. He’s also had parts and been in cameos in several films throughout his career, and has a part in 2010’s Repo Men. |
 Method Man—Method Man is a member of the Wu-Tang Clan and is a successful hip hop artist and producer. His debut album, Tical, sold one million copies, and he has performed or produced on several acclaimed records since then. He has collaborated with some of the biggest names in the industry, including Jay-Z, P. Diddy, The Notorious B.I.G., among others. He also has a thriving acting career, with recurring roles on The Wire, Oz, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He has also helped write a Wu-Tang Clan graphic novel. |
 Sidney Clifton—Sidney Clifton is a producer for animated films such as both the Hellboy Animated features, and children’s television such as Weebles: Welcome to Weebleville. She has also produced two films with Stan Lee’s company, entitled Stan Lee Presents Mosaic and Stan Lee Presents: The Condor. Sidney has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy award for her work on Hellboy: Sword of Storms. |
 Marv Wolfman—in his forty-year career in comics, Marv Wolfman has created some of the most memorable and enduring characters in comics. He created Blade, the conflicted vampire hunter, while writing The Tomb of Dracula for Marvel. At DC, he created The New Teen Titans, an update of the Teen Titans, and it became a huge hit. He then wrote the bestselling event Crisis on Infinite Earths, which revamped the history of the DC characters. He has recently completed a miniseries based on the God of War videogames for Wildstorm Comics. |
 Michael Jai White—Michael Jai White is both an accomplished actor and martial artist. He has built a lasting and strong career in film while also attaining black belts in seven different martial art styles, accumulating 26 titles during his career. His breakout role was the titular character in the film Tyson, based on Mike Tyson’s life. Since then he has starred in several different genres of film, from Why Did I Get Married? to The Dark Knight. In 2009 he starred in the blaxploitation homage/parody Black Dynamite, which he also co-wrote. |
 Jimmy Diggs—Jimmy Diggs has the Hollywood success story that everyone wishes they had. He was a Vietnam vet working as a security guard for a movie studio, looking to write science fiction. A producer friend asked him for a pitch, as a favor, and a studio found it worth buying. Since then he has written multiple TV episodes, articles, and short stories. His first major successes were several episodes that he sold to Star Trek, the first of which was based on actual events he experience in Vietnam. These days he runs his own production company called “House of Diggs Production.” |
 Kel Mitchell—Kel Mitchell started his acting career as a teenager on the sketch comedy show All That. His frequent comedy partner, Kenan Thompson, and he went on to be the stars of their own show, Kenan and Kel. He also played a part in the 1999 film Mystery Men, a story about a group of misfit superheroes. Since then he has been a frequent guest star on several TV shows, and recently had his own segment on G4’s Attack of the Show, where he plays multiple characters. |
 Ehrich Van Lowe—Ehrich Van Lowe is a producer, screenplay writer, and author that has worked on shows such as The Cosby Show, Even Stevens, and Homeboys in Outer Space. He has also written episodes for The Cosby Show and Roc, and was nominated for an Emmy for his work. He has recently stepped into the young adult fiction genre, with his novel Never Slow Dance With a Zombie, a horror novel with a comedic twist. He has recently followed it up with an e-book entitled I Want You Back, which is available on his blog, vanlowe.blogspot.com. |
 Stacey McClain—Stacey McClain is a television writer, story editor, and producer, and is also a book author. She has been a writer for The Parkers, Keke and Jamal, Hidden Blessings, and Sinbad and Friends. She has also been a story editor for The Parkers, and a producer for The World’s Funniest Moments. She has also recently written a series of books about breaking into Hollywood showbusiness, aptly titled The Breaking In Series. |
 Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur—Chuck Creekmur is the co-founder of AllHipHop.com, a website that has been described as the “CNN of hip-hop.” AllHipHop.com is a hip-hop news website that was originally started to provide a platform for Creekmur’s partner, Greg Watkins, to publicize his music label. Creekmur was a freelance journalist at the time, and they merged their endeavors. AllHipHop.com has won multipled awards and accolades from the hip-hop and Internet community. |
 George Arthur “Rusty” Cundieff—Rusty Cundieff is a critically acclaimed writer, director, and producer. Early in his career, he wrote, directed, and co-starred in Fear of a Black Hat, a faux-documentary that parodied the growing hip hop industry. Fear of a Black Hat was a critical success, and afterwards he directed the horror anthology set in an urban neighborhood, Tales from the Hood. He has also directed several episodes of The Chappelle Show, and recently directed and starred in a parody of MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” that centered on Barack Obama. |
 Cheryl Lynn Eaton—Cheryl Eaton is a woman with a mission. Her agenda is to bring together and celebrate black women in comics, whether they are consumers, writers, artists, or characters. To accomplish this task, she founded The Ormes Society, named after the influential cartoonist Jackie Ormes. After frustration with seeing black female comic creators “operating in a vacuum without emotional support or networking opportunities,” she decided to create a networking site to change that. She runs the Society’s website, as well as a blog called Digital Femme. She is also the creator of the webcomic entitled Simulated Life. |
 Mark and Mike Davis—known sometimes as “the Madtwiinz,” the Davis brothers are both animators and comic book illustrators. They have done freelance animation work for most of the major studios in Hollywood, and have formed their own company called Imajimation Studios. They also have a publishing arm called Street Legends Ink. The Davis brothers are the creators of the comic Blokhedz, a story about an aspiring rapper with the ability to turn his music into reality. Blokhedz has been praised for its gritty and honest look at inner-city life. They have recently signed a deal with Gatorade to do a series of short episodes of an animated Blokhedz series, and are currently finishing that. |
 Jeffrey Wright—having had parents that overcame incredible obstacles, Jeffrey Wright grew up knowing that there is no limit to what a determined man can accomplish. At age 16 he graduated high school, and graduated college at 20. He earned a law degree at Georgetown University, discovered his love for business, and earned an MBA shortly thereafter. During this time, he entered seminary and became a licensed Baptist preacher. In 1994, he made a decision that combined his love for business and for ministry: serving as the president and CEO of Urban Ministries Inc., a faith-based publishing company. In the years that Jeffrey took the position, UMI has tripled in size and continues to publish enriching Christian media for the African-American community. |
 Mike Gold—Mike Gold is a 30-year veteran of the comic book industry, having served as group editor and director of editorial development for DC Comics, founder and editorial director of First Comics Inc., and publisher of Classics Illustrated. Presently editor-in-chief of the online comics publisher ComicMix LLC, Gold is also editorial director for ArrogantMGMS, creating intellectual properties and overseeing media and ancillary rights and packaging comic books published by numerous comic book imprints, including Image, Acclaim and IDW.He was a pioneer in the creation of an American market for graphic novels and has edited over 50 graphic novels and anthologies, including the bestsellers The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, EZ Street, Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters, The Joker: Stacked Deck, GrimJack: Killer Instinct, Jon Sable Freelance: Bloodtrail and American Flagg!. |
Ludacris—Chris “Ludacris” Bridges is an internationally acclaimed rapper and actor, with over 20 million records sold worldwide. He has received the Screen Actor’s Guild award, multiple Grammys and BET awards, and a Critic’s Choice Award. He has also been politically involved with the Obama campaign through his music, as well as using his position to speak out against politicians he disagrees with. He is the founder of the Ludacris Foundation, which helps middle school students discover or become involved in the arts. Ludacris has also had seven main roles in his acting career, and ten studio released albums. He has just released his tenth album, Battle of the Sexes, this year.
Denys Cowan—Denys Cowan is an Eisner Award-nominated artist with a prolific body of work in the comics industry. He also has an extensive career in the animation industry, and was a producer for the Static Shock and Boondocks animated series. He co-founded Milestone Media, and co-created Hardware, Milestone’s first title. He most recently served as Senior Vice President for BET Animation.
Dwayne McDuffie—Dwayne McDuffie is an Emmy-nominated writer, who has written for comics and television. He co-founded Milestone Comics, and wrote episodes for the Static Shock animated series. He was a writer for the Justice League animated series, and a producer and story editor for Justice League Unlimited. He has recently story-edited for the Cartoon Network hit, Ben 10: Alien Force.