Brehm Center

Reel Spirituality Conference 2007: Just TV?

Is it just TV or is it something more? Can a mere television show alter public policy or inspire social change? Reel Spirituality invites you to join acclaimed producers like Nancy Miller (The Closer and TNT's new Saving Grace) and Larry Wilmore (The Bernie Mac Show, “Mr. Brown” on The Office) as we ask the sharpest questions about the smartest shows.

Join us Saturday, October 27th as we consider  Just TV?

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Register HERE 

Larry Wilmore 

Larry Wilmore is the Emmy award-winning creator of The Bernie Mac Show and The PJs.   Drawing upon his stand-up comedy roots, Wilmore has appeared as the diversity trainer "Mr. Brown" on The Office and "The Senior Black Correspondent" on The Daily Show. Larry has also written for In Living Color and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. His writing and producing has been recognized with a Peabody Award and the Humanitas Prize. Larry and his family live in Pasadena.  He enjoys a fine cigar. 

Nancy Miller 

NANCY MILLER created the new TNT series SAVING GRACE starring Holly Hunter.   Set in Nancy's native Oklahoma, Saving Grace brings together a self-destructive cop and a tobacco-chewing angel for a combustible mix of sexuality and spirituality. Nancy was Co-executive Producer for the series The Profiler, Executive Producer for Leaving L.A., Any Day Now, and CSI: Miami, and a Consulting Producer for Threat Matrix. She has written for a number of other shows, including Law & Order and The Cosby Mysteries.

Dean Batali

Dean Batali is a writer and producer of some of television¹s most popular and provocative shows. He wrote for the first two seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Most recently Dean served as Executive Producer for That 70¹s Show. He is currently writing for the Fox News comedy show, The Half Hour News Hour and developing new television pilots for two networks.

Leilani Downer 

Leilani Downer has written for several network television sitcoms including A Different World for NBC and Good News for UPN. She was executive story editor for ABC¹s Growing Pains, and was a producer on Hangin¹ With Mr.Cooper on ABC, Fresh Prince of Bel Air on NBC, Sister, Sister on the WB, Rewind for FOX.  Currently she is developing several of her own independent projects.

Leilani is the Director of the Peter Glenville Short Film Program for Act One, Inc, and Executive Producing two of the program's short film projects, entitled "Pie 'N Burger" and "Saturation."  Both films will make their debut at several film festivals in 2007/2008.

Matt Greenberg 

MATT GREENBERG's feature writing credits include this summer's 1408  for  the Weinstein Company; Reign of Fire for Disney/Touchstone; and Halloween:H20 for Dimension. In the field of television, Matt created the drama/satire Invisible Man for USA/Sci-Fi channel which developed a cult following.

Matt is currently writing a feature adaptation of C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters for Walden Media and his remake of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is presently at Fox 2000, with noted director Andrew Niccol attached. He's graduate of Yale University and lives in Los Angeles with his wife and children.   If there is a writer's strike, you may find him at the IN-N-OUT BURGER working the drive-thru window.  
   

Diane Winston 

Diane Winston, Ph.D., is the Knight Chair in Media and Religion at USC.  Diane has worked as a reporter for the nation's leading newspapers, including The Baltimore Sun, The Dallas Morning News, and The News and Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is the author of "Red-Hot and Righteous: The Urban Religion of the Salvation Army" (1999) and co-editor of "Faith in the Market: Religion and the Rise of Urban Commercial Culture" (2002) and co-edited the upcoming collection, Faith in High Definition:  Television Drama after 9/11 (2008).

Thom Parham 

Dr. Thom Parham is a writer, producer, and script consultant whose television credits include the CBS dramas JAG and Touched By An Angel, and the Family Channel sitcom Big Brother Jake. His film production company, Dos Negros Entertainment, recently released the short films, Jaded and Someone Else. Thom is also an Associate Professor of Theater, Film, and Television at Azusa Pacific University and teaches for Act One:  Writing in Hollywood.

Valerie Mayhew 

VALERIE MAYHEW's television writing credits include THE X-FILES (Fox), CHARMED (WB), THE VISITOR (Fox), THE INVISIBLE MAN (SciFi), VENGEANCE UNLIMITED (ABC),  and THE FUGITIVE (CBS).  With a degree in theater from the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City, Ms. Mayhew is also the
Artistic Director of The Winged Lion Players which specializes in bringing professionally-produced musicals to non-traditional performance spaces and communities.  Currently focusing on her personal interest in the intersection of performance and worship, Ms. Mayhew is studying at The Brehm Center for Worship, Theology and the Arts at Fuller Theological Seminary. Additionally, Ms.Mayhew has just completed her first novel, and is busy raising her two children with screenwriter husband Matt Greenberg

Ronald Moore 

WRITER/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Ronald D. Moore got his start in the entertainment business on the writing staff of Star Trek: The Next Generation. He served as a producer and showrunner for the ground-breaking series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Roswell and Carnivale.

Moore is Writer/Executive Producer of Battlestar Galactica, now in its third season.  Battlestar was recently was honored with a prestigious Peabody Award and as an official selection of the AFI (American Film Institute) 2005 top television programs.

  Moore is a native of Chowchilla, California and attended Cornell University, where he studied political science. He lives in California with his wife, Terry and three children, Robin, Roxy and Jonathan.