Maurice Black, PhD, is a film producer and creative consultant who works with writers, filmmakers, academics, executives, and nonprofit leaders to create powerful, impactful stories that drive change, growth, and success. He has years of nonprofit executive experience in marketing, communications, donor cultivation, and strategic capacity-building.
Maurice served as producer on Miss Virginia, has executive produced a number of award-winning documentaries, and has overseen talent development programs that supported hundreds of up-and-coming filmmakers to professional success. He has consulted on film and video productions that have reached tens of millions of people and won industry awards.
Maurice earned his PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania, where he specialized in literary modernism. He was formerly an editor at Penguin Random House in New York City.
Erin O’Connor, PhD, is a writer, film producer, and creative consultant. She is best known as writer and producer of the award-winning 2019 film Miss Virginia, starring Emmy® winner Uzo Aduba (Orange Is the New Black, Mrs. America) and Golden Globe winner Matthew Modine (Full Metal Jacket, Stranger Things). Called a “must-see” by USA Today, the film has aired on BET and is available on Netflix.
Films Erin has worked on have received a wide range of awards, including the Berlin Crystal Bear, the Academy Nicholl Prize, the Oscar shortlist for documentary feature, and an Oscar nomination for best documentary short.
Before moving into film and television, Erin was a professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, where she specialized in narrative, the history of ideas, and cultural theory. Her book Raw Material: Producing Pathology in Victorian Culture has been called “a superb and provocative study,” “a tour de force,” and “one of the year’s most provocative and challenging books.”