Florencia Manóvil
Arnetta Smith
Tai Rockett
Giovannie Espiritu
Carla Pauli
Comika Beaudry
Mercedes Gibson
Amelia Paradise
Andre Le Blanc
Tom Paul

Florencia Manóvil, Co-creator/Writer/Director

Florencia Manovil is a feminist writer/director passionate about independent filmmaking, as well as environmentalism and social justice. 

Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Florencia moved to the U.S. at the age of 18 to pursue film studies, eventually settling in the queer haven that is the San Francisco Bay Area. Now a multilingual translator and subtitler, Nutrition Educator, writer, feminist and mother, Florencia is committed to bringing her underrepresented communities to the screen, as well as showcasing Oakland and the rest of the Bay Area.

Fiona’s Script, a film about a young bisexual woman finding her footing in life, was her feature directorial debut. Pre-production for her second feature, Star-Crossed, got put on the back burner so that she could focus all her attention on Dyke Cental, a "comedic dyke drama" tv show she co-created with Arnetta Smith.

Arnetta Smith, Co-creator/Writer

Arnetta Smith is a Midwesterner in love with social justice and equality. She is currently an undergrad at SFSU majoring in Africana Studies. In addition to the plethora of social justice issues found within the African American and Queer communities, she is concerned with the underrepresentation of queer people of color in the media. To help contribute to this vacuum, she created King Productions, a queer production company that has organized numerous fundraisers and shows intended to represent queer performers of color. Under this production company, Arnetta has performed as her male alter-ego “King McQueen”. Arnetta has also been serving as the Performance Chair for Butch Voices, a bi-annual conference for masculine-identified female-born individuals. 

Arnetta is currently co-writing and co-developing Dyke Central, a show dedicated to representing dykes of color living in the Bay area. She is also in the process of creating a new production and design company called Junkie Dreamers, scheduled to launch at the end of 2011.

Tai Rockett, Alex 

Tai Rockett is a poet delving into the realm of playwright. She is interested in expanding the stage so that the intimacy of story telling acts as a bridge between the audience and the performer, between communities of color and politics, between politics and a single body. Currently she is working on an MA in English with an emphasis in playwright. She hopes to work with youth through performance arts around identities and  social justice. In addition to her lifelong commitment with social justice organizing she hopes to write a play that will be performed on broadway and in international arenas. 

Giovannie Espiritu, Gin

Giovannie Espiritu was nominated alongside Academy Award Nominees Alfre Woodard and Amy Irving for BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS at Methodfest for the Mynah Films feature film, "Fiona's Script." Her PRIMETIME credits include a recurring role on ER (NBC), BONES (FOX),  GILMORE GIRLS (ABC), and TRAUMA (NBC). She has voiced characters in international video games and cartoons, directed several theater productions at the Herbst Theater and produced two films and a pilot through her own production company, Desert Rose Media.

She is also founder of TheYoungActorsWorkshop.com and SFActorsWorkshop.com, a school for people (kids and adults) who are serious about working in film & television. Her students have worked on shows such as TRAUMA, screen tested for the Ben Stiller film, "Little Fockers," and are represented by the top agencies in the Bay Area and Los Angeles including: JE Talent, Stars, Look, Ford, Marla Dell, Boom Models and Talent, All American Rascals, and William Morris Endeavor.

Carla Pauli, Fabiana

Carla Pauli has appeared in many film and theater productions around the Bay Area. She is currently working on her second feature film, playing the lead role in White Rabbit, with Boxcar Pictures. She has been very fortunate to be able to work on a number of independent film productions including Canary (Alejandro Adams), Alone Forever (Scary Cow Productions), and Jim Thorpe's Life (PBS). On stage she most recently played the role of Molly Pearson in Farragut North with OpenTab Productions and is scheduled to play Simple in The Merry Wives of Windsor (Curtain Theatre) and Pelleas and Melisande with Cutting Ball Theatre. Carla has studied at different Bay Area schools including American Conservatory Theater Studio, and is currently studying singing with Izetta Fang. She has worked with many local companies, including Woman's Will, Golden Thread Productions, Pacifica Spindrift Players, The Threshold Project, Brava, NCTC's YouthAware, Custom Made Theater, The Playwrights' Center of San Francisco, The Drama Mamas and a number of other independent companies. Carla is also a theater arts teacher with Spindrift School of Performing Arts, teaching and directing children's theater. 

Comika Beaudry, Jackie

Comika Beaudry (SAG/AFTRA/AEA) graduated from Emerson College in Boston with a B.F.A. in Theater and completed the Multi-Media Program at New College of California with an emphasis in comedic writing. She began her acting career in her hometown of San Francisco with Rhodessa Jones' revolutionary Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women, a company that facilitates theater in the city's county jail system emphasizing the connection between art and social change. Comika has studied acting with coaches like Lesly Kahn and Brian Reise in Los Angeles and has enjoyed roles in MyNetwork soaps, primetime television, independent films. She has toured the country in various equity productions; her favorite stage roles include Viola/Twelfth Night, Lou Bessie/The Old Settler, and The Duchess of Hapsburg/Funnyhouse of a Negro.

Mercedes Gibson, Sol

Mercedes Gibson is a genderqueer-mixed-black-butch-queen-Oakland-native.She has a hard time writing professional-sounding bios. She believes life is a stage and everything is drag. Mercedes originally got into performance to attain her life-long goal of seducing Queen Latifah. However, she discovered that entertaining people is delightful and transforming into a character is fascinating. Dyke drama is both painful and entertaining and Mercedes is honored to play Sol in Dyke Central.

Amelia Mae Paradise, Molly

Amelia Mae Paradise, Bearded Queen of the Femme Follies, is the original founder/director/choreographer of Diamond Daggers cabaret burlesque company (www.DiamondDaggers.com), an illustrious brood of queer, vigilante vaudevillian teasers. As a producer and the Artistic Director/Curator of Diamond Daggers Productions, she works with dozens of local avant garde performers and has been serving audiences of thousands per year for the past 10 years, at diverse venues including The Great American Music Hall, Bimbo's, The Place of Fine Arts, The Victoria Theater, The Ashby Stage, SomArts, ODC, Paramount's Great America, San Francisco Pride Mainstage, DNA Lounge, and The Berkely Reperatory Theatre. Regular shows feature a wide range of amazing performers, including Drag Queens & Kings, Burlesque Starlets, Chanteuses, Comediennes, Acrobats, Fire Dancers, and any manner of elegant, wild, and mind-blowing variety acts. She has produced (and appeared in) events for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), The National Center for Lesbian Rights, The National Queer Arts Festival, CounterPULSE, Good Vibrations, and Santa Cruz Dyke March. With Diamond Daggers, she has also headlined across Europe. Or perhaps you saw her on a random street breaking into a fully choreographed Fosse inspired improvisation when the moment was right, the shoes vintage, and the pavement just moist.

With a degree in American Studies and Flamenco, this sultry New Mexico native knows how to perform with unbridled fiery passion and technique alike.  You can dance with her at Amelia Mae Paradise's Bawdy Body Dance Workshop Series in Oakland & San Francisco.  Her teaching approach is based in feminist reclamation of the sensual body, historical context of vaudeville & fringe theatre, burlesque icons and the transformative power of comedy, playful edge-walking & risk-taking in safe space, and of course, a big dose of sparkle & sass!  Amelia also serves on the core-committee of Sistahs Steppin' In Pride, whose purpose is to nurture intergenerational and multi-cultural bridges and create a safe, sacred, and creative space to honor our Herstory.