"To paraphrase the philosopher Goethe: Upon the moment of commitment, the world conspires to help you. Always remember: The harder you work, the luckier you’ll get."

Susan Shapiro, an award-winning writing professor, freelances for The New York Times, New York magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Elle, Oprah, Wired, and The New Yorker. She's the bestselling author of 13 books her family hates, including Five Men Who Broke My Heart, Lighting Up, Unhooked, The Bosnia List, and the inspiring writing guide The Byline Bible. She lives with her scriptwriter husband in Greenwich Village.

"The creative work of my life is the result of expressing the inner revelations I experience through my painting."

Rassouli is an artist and author of Iranian descent best known for his distinctive style of Fusionart. His paintings invite the viewer to consider the exciting place of union between Eastern philosophy and Western technology.

Rassouli’s creative process is unique: He always begins with a canvas primed with black paint, and he brings the light of vision to the darkness, unearthing the emerging images like revelations as he creates. He paints with rags, with his fingers, and occasionally with brushes. His work has been exhibited widely in the United States, Europe, and Asia, and he has created several major murals. Many of Rassouli’s paintings have been featured in numerous books and periodicals, and he shares his approach to creativity through public talks, radio and television interviews, films, and—above all—through his paintings themselves.

“You are like a feather floating on the breath of God.”

Kosar Abbasi is a dancer and choreographer who expresses her inner revelations through her performance art. She is best known for combining various rhythms and global dances in new and unique ways.

Born in 1984 in southern Iran, Kosar was unable to pursue her art within the religious atmosphere of revolutionized Iran. She moved to India at the age of nineteen, where she joyously studied Ayurveda at Pune University and became a scholar of Indian, Middle Eastern and Latin dances. Soon, she began to share her unique movements in stage performances, while choreographing and instructing numerous dances. Later, as a member of a dance troupe, she performed Iranian, Malaysian, and Japanese dances on the stage and acted in the movie production of Tamil. After immigrating to the United States as a refugee, Kosar joined the movement of Fusionart and soon became the managing director of the movement, freely performing, choreographing, and teaching Fusionart as a creative practice focused on uniting opposites.

“I feel rewriting is part of the process, and I’ve never been afraid to let go of something I like, and find something better."

Pamela Oland (née Phillips) is a Grammy-nominated lyricist known for her work with Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, The Whispers, Peabo Bryson, The Jacksons, and Gladys Knight, as well as numerous television and film projects.

"We just wanted to make timeless, ageless, everyday clothing that you could really wear all year round. Sophisticated. Modern. It’s the soul of the brand, but still with a bit of signature sexuality."

Manny Mashouf is an Iranian-American clothing designer, businessman, and philanthropist known for founding Bebe Stores. The manager and chairman of Bebe stores, he took the company public. In 2006 Mashouf was worth US$1.5 billion—resulting in Forbes listing him as the 242nd richest American.

“When I was a kid I wanted to be a belly dancer and then I went to a children’s theater and I realized people got to play pretend for a living. That is a thing, that can be a job—and then I wanted to work in a children’s theater and have that as my job forever and ever."

Grace Phipps, also known professionally as Gracie Gillam, is an American actress, writer, singer, and dancer. She is best known for her roles as "Lela" in the Disney Channel's feminist, early-1960s-Beach-Party-Movie musical franchise "Teen Beach Movie" (2013) and "Teen Beach movie 2" (2015), as well as spunky BFF "Amy Martin" in ABC Family's "The Nine Lives of Chloe King" (2011). She can also be seen on television as tortured preacher's daughter "April Young" on "The Vampire Diaries" (2012-13), fallen angel "Hael" on "Supernatural" (2013), daycare employee/love interest "Megan" on "Baby Daddy" (2013) movie star diva "Brady Braxton" on "Austin and Ally" (2014) put-upon tennis star "Erica Young" on "Hawaii 5-0" (2015), murderous Stockholm Syndrome victim on "CSI-Cyber" (2015) and murder complacent sorority girl on "Scream Queens" (2015). She can be seen in films like "Some Kind of Hate" (2015), "Dark Summer" (2015), "Tales of Halloween" (2015) and Dreamworks' "Fright Night" (2011), which the actress booked directly after graduating high school from The North East School of the Arts in San Antonio, Texas, with a degree in Musical Theatre. In 2016 the actress moved to New York to attend Columbia University's school of general studies where she studies Film and Art History and stars as apocalyptic marine chick "Sarge" in SyFy's "Z Nation" (2017-18) during her summer breaks.

“The thing that’s been incredible for me as a writer—in a world that’s normally very isolated—is suddenly finding myself within a community of artists… their process is inspiring you in some way, their work somehow feeding into yours.”

Suzanne Heathcote is the showrunner of and an executive producer on the third season of Killing Eve. Heathcote was born in the United Kingdom. She started off her writing career at the Royal Court Theatre, where she attended the Young Writers Program and Advanced Writers Group. More recently, she moved to the United States and served as a writer and executive story editor on AMC's Fear the Walking Dead. In 2019, she signed a two-year overall deal with AMC studios under which she took over as head writer and executive producer from Emerald Fennell for Killing Eve's third season.

“Vulnerability is a prerequisite for an actor’s ability to function in any framework of material.”

Eric Morris. As one of the most renown acting teachers in Hollywood, he’s coached celebrities like Jack Nicholson, Johnny Depp, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and so many more. He has written seven books on acting, and has been teaching his unique acting system in Los Angeles, New York, all over the United States, and around the world for fifty-three years. His approach to acting is to teach actors “how not to act” but to become “professional experiencers” which means that instead of imposing emotional behavior they must experience in reality what the character is actually experiencing in the material. This is accomplished by using their own life experiences as choices to address and fulfill the life experiences of the character in the piece. His inherent passion for reality and truth have resulted in the development of his system.

His books “No Acting Please”, “Being and Doing”, “Irreverent Acting”, “Acting From the Ultimate Consciousness”, “Acting, Imaging and the Unconscious”, “The Diary of a Professional Experiencer” and “Freeing the Actor” are used in hundreds of colleges, universities, and acting schools all over the world.