BRAVEMAKER LAUNCHES INAUGURAL ‘CREATIVE MULTI-HYPHENATE SUMMIT’; ATTACHES ROSTER OF AWARD-WINNING FILM & TV PROFESSIONALS
(Steven Canals, Dominic Colón, Tiffany Thomas, Sachin Bhatt)
Full-Day Intensive Brings Together NAACP Image-Nominated,
Peabody Award-Winning, and Emmy Award-Winning Talent for
Panels, Workshops, and Hands-On Programming
Tuesday, April 7, 2026 – Redwood City, CA – BraveMaker, the Bay Area–based creative community and organization behind the BraveMaker Film Festival, has officially announced the inaugural BraveMaker Creative Multi-Hyphenate Summit, a full-day creative intensive taking place Saturday, April 11, 2026, in Redwood City, California. The summit brings together a cross-disciplinary lineup of working entertainment professionals from Los Angeles, New York City, and the Bay Area for a day of panels, workshops, pitch sessions, and intentional collaboration – built specifically for emerging and mid-level filmmakers, writers, directors, producers, and actors ready to expand beyond a single creative lane.
The event features an acclaimed roster of talent including: Steven Canals, Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning co-creator and executive producer of FX's POSE; Dominic Colón, writer on Netflix's Boots and co-creator of the upcoming The Book of Jose for BET Studios and STARZ; Tiffany Thomas, Emmy Award-winning producer and staff writer on Disney+'s The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder; D'Angelo "D'Lo" Louis, Creative Executive at Ryan Coogler's Proximity Media and Associate Producer on Judas and the Black Messiah and Creed III; Sachin Bhatt, actor, writer, and producer whose credits span Peacock's Queer As Folk, Netflix's Boots, and Apple TV+'s The Morning Show; Yhá Mourhia Wright, NAACP Image Award–nominated filmmaker and founder of YháWright Productions; and Jalen Blot, NAACP Award-nominated writer/director and 2024 ColorCreative Directing Fellow through Issa Rae's “Find Your People Program.”
"I became a multi-hyphenate filmmaker because I got tired of waiting around as an actor for someone else to make my dreams come true," said BraveMaker founder Tony Gapastione. "The lanes are multiplying, the industry is changing, and we must evolve with it."
Attendees will have the opportunity to hear directly from industry professionals across the spectrum of indie and studio film – from a co-creator who built one of television's most groundbreaking series, to a producer who came up through California's correctional system to working on a billion-dollar Marvel film, to a filmmaker who produced the winning short at the 2024 American Black Film Festival’s HBO Short Film Competition. The range of career paths represented is itself part of the summit's message: there is no single route, and no single role, that defines a creative career.
“Where most industry conferences skew toward networking mixers or one-directional panel formats, the BraveMaker summit is structured as an immersive, hands-on lab,” continues Gapastione. “Participants will be able to move across disciplines and build the kind of relationships that could translate directly into future collaborations and projects.”
The summit is open to filmmakers and creative professionals at all stages – from those still building their first project to those navigating the jump from independent to studio work. Programming includes interactive panels, discipline-specific workshops, and structured pitch and collaboration sessions built around participation. Additional information on the event can be found at https://bravemakercs2026.eventive.org/welcome
ABOUT BRAVEMAKER
Founded by Tony Gapastione, BraveMaker is a Bay Area–based creative community and production company serving filmmakers, actors, writers, and multi-disciplinary artists. Through weekly creative support groups, professional development classes, quarterly acting and screenwriting intensives, monthly film screenings and mixers in the Bay area and Los Angeles, an annual film festival, and a weekly podcast, BraveMaker operates as both an ongoing community hub and an active production company. Its work spans narrative features and shorts, documentaries, commercials, and PSAs – with a mission rooted in justice, diversity, and inclusion. The Creative Multi-Hyphenate Summit marks BraveMaker's first large-scale, single-day industry event. https://bravemaker.com/
