Before Jenny Bicks wised up and became a full-time writer, she worked in advertising, where she sold Clearasil® and Maxwell House coffee, and served a short stint as a member of the performing troupe of Gotham City Improv. She eventually realized she was a better writer than performer and went on to serve as a writer and executive producer for HBO’s “Sex and the City.” Her work on the series earned her several awards, including an Emmy, multiple Golden Globes, Producer’s Guilds and three WGA nominations. In between she wrote for several other shows, including “Seinfeld” and “Dawson’s Creek.” Bicks also created and executive produced “Leap of Faith,” a single-camera half-hour comedy that aired on NBC.
Bicks also works in film. Her movie “What a Girl Wants” premiered in April 2003, and she recently completed the screen adaptation of the best-selling “The Nanny Diaries” for Miramax Films. Bicks has rewritten several films including “Beauty Shop,” “Serendipity” and “Never Been Kissed,” and she is now writing “Honeymoon” for Sony Pictures. Bicks also is developing a one-hour “dramedy” for Warner Brothers Television and a half-hour single camera comedy for Showtime.
Bicks wrote and directed her first short film “Gnome,” starring Lauren Graham, in July.
Bick’s essays have appeared in numerous publications including Los Angeles Magazine and Allure. She is a sought-after interviewee, having appeared on NPR, Fox News and the “Bridget Jones” special edition DVD.
A born and bred New Yorker, Bicks divides her time between New York, Maine and Los Angeles.
Christopher Black got his start in the film industry working for a small theatrical art house distributor in the San Francisco Bay Area during the independent film boom of the early 1990s. He currently manages dual responsibilities for the Starz Entertainment Group, developing and producing original feature documentary projects for the Starz movie channels on a variety of film- and entertainment-related subjects.
Black’s recent projects include “The Art of Action: Martial Arts in the Movies,” “The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing,” “Sam Peckinpah’s West: Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade,” which nabbed the Outstanding Documentary Award at the 2005 Western Heritage Awards and was runner up to Steven Spielberg’s “Into The West” at this year’s Golden Boot Awards, and “Midnight Movies: From The Margin to the Mainstream,” which was the lone documentary chosen as an official selection at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Projects in the works include a profile of the American gangster picture, a loving homage to the glory days of “slasher” films and a piece on Hunter S. Thompson’s unique and longstanding ties to Hollywood.
Screenwriter and actress Camilla Carr began writing at her grandmother’s house in Texas when she was 7 years old, and by age 15, she had completed 22 novellas (which are safely hidden away in a drawer). After moving to Los Angles and following the success of her first published novel, Carr was hired to write “The Kathy Willets Story” for ABC. Since then, Carr has scripted a musical titled “High and Mighty” for Dolly Parton, the frequently aired “Escape from Terror” for the Lifetime Network, and “The Marjorie Farber Story” for ABC based on the Dr. Carl Coppolino murder trials. Her adaptation of Pulitzer Prize-winning crime journalist Edna Buchanan’s novel “Nobody Lives Forever” recently aired on ABC as well.
Her background as an actress has served her well as a writer. Carr is the recipient of three Drama-Logue, AGLA Media, Oscar Wilde and Robby awards. Carr created the unforgettable character Mardian in the 2001 world premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winner Beth Henley’s “Sisters of the Winter Madrigal,” Maxine in “Night of the Iguana,” Anna in “The Inspector General,” Gina in “The Wild Duck,” Betty in “The Stick Wife,” and co-produced and originated the role of Dr. Kitty Cochrane in the original “Last Summer at Bluefish Cove.” As a series regular on “Another World” at the beginning of her acting career, Carr created the religious fanatic Rita Connally, who fought daily with Ray Liotta’s smoldering Joey. Her guest-starring role as the bigoted Imogene on the award winning “Killing All the Right People” segment of “Designing Women” was included in the NBC television special “Funny Women in Television,” the recent “Designing Women” revival on Lifetime, as well as the Television Hall of Fame.
Carr’s critically acclaimed first novel “Topsy Dingo Wild Dog” was published in the United States and England, and her short stories, “Massacre” and “Working Saturday” can be found in both editions of “Texas Short Stories.”
Most recently, Carr adapted Nobel Prize-recipient Thomas Mann’s last novella “The Black Swan” for the screen. Brenda Blethyn will star and co-produce with Carr, and actress Holly Hunter has optioned the screen rights to “Packard Jordan’s Final Appeal to the Texas Sate Parole Board.” The original story was published in UC Irvine’s literary journal Faultline. Also in the works is Carr’s new play, “All About Bette,” which will star Carol Kane as actress Bette Davis and be directed by David Schweizer in 2006. The play was workshopped at The Public Theatre this past fall.
Diane Connors is a Vice President of Special Events at Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, a division of The Walt Disney Company. For the past decade, Connors, an avid film buff, has produced over 200 film premiere parties including "The Village" premiere in Prospect Park, Brooklyn; the "Pearl Harbor" premiere aboard an aircraft carrier in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; "The Rock" premiere on Alcatraz Island, San Francisco; and "The Alamo" premiere at the Alamo in San Antonio.
Working for Disney is an exciting culmination of Connors’ years in the event industry and her love of cinema and all the performing arts. Her previous event related positions included a stint at a large national corporate event company and 5 years as the Associate Director of Development at AIDS Project Los Angeles, where she helped to raise over $50,000,000 through a variety of special events, many of which were tied directly to the entertainment industry.
Additionally, Connors spent many years in the hospitality business, several on the French/Dutch Island of St. Maarten, where she served as the Resident Manager of a small luxury hotel. Connors thoroughly enjoyed island life, despite the fact that there was only one movie theater on the island!
In her limited free time, Diane, who is a Disney Mentor, continues to travel to exotic destinations.
She also watches classic and indie films, loves to entertain at home, attends concerts at the Hollywood Bowl and visits friends in Savannah — this is her fourth trip here!
Richard Turner is the vice president of business affairs and programming at Starz Entertainment Group. He is responsible for all agreements related to licensing of motion pictures to Starz, both from major studios and independents. Turner also supervises the legal work for Starz’s original productions and provides guidance on Starz’s ventures into new methods of television and Internet distribution. Prior to Starz, Turner served as an attorney at Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Turner is the chairman of the board of the Denver Film Society, which produces the Starz Denver International Film Festival, now in its 28th year, and operates the Starz FilmCenter, a year-round cinemateque located in Denver. Turner is a regular attendee at international film festivals, including Telluride and Toronto, and in 2004 participated in a panel discussion at the Toronto International Film Festival on digital distribution of motion pictures.
Turner is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara and Pepperdine University School of Law.
Jenny Bicks
Camilla Carr
Diane Connors
Richard Turner
