Meet Our 2026 Moonshot Pilot Accelerator Guest Experts

During their time in Moonshot’s Pilot Accelerator program, our fellows spent a few weeks perfecting their pitches before meeting with development execs at major studios. These are the industry experts who helped them hone their craft before Pitch Week.

Each of our guest lecturers represents a different part of the industry, and they’re all beneficial in helping mentor our fellows through the process of working on their pitches. Bringing these guests in also provides a great opportunity for our fellows to network as they emerge into the industry, and all of our guest experts are more than happy to share their wisdom and experience.

Here’s some more about each guest expert involved in our 2026 Moonshot Pilot Accelerator: 

Jasmine Russ

Senior Vice President, Fabel Entertainment

Jasmine Russ is Senior Vice President at Fabel Entertainment, specializing in dramaturgical creative development and boots-on-the-ground producing. She serves as Executive Producer on Prime Video’s Ballard and Bosch: Start of Watch, and develops and produces an extensive slate of scripted series from inception through production. Originally from Australia, she is based in Los Angeles.

Learn more about Jasmine by visiting Fabel’s page.

Samara Bay

Speech & Dialect Coach

Samara Bay has spent two decades in one of the most intimate laboratories available: the moment before someone extraordinary steps into the spotlight, when their inner wisdom either shows up or goes into hiding.

She's advised political candidates and Fortune 500 leaders, female founders and high schoolers, rising athletes and literal rockstars — and discovered the same truth in every room: the difference between a forgettable moment in the public eye and one that changes minds and changes culture is permission to care out loud.

She's the author of the #1 bestselling Permission to Speak (Penguin Random House), founder of the social impact consultancy Permission Inc., and Professor of Practice at USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. Her TEDx was just named an Editor's Pick — a distinction given to fewer than .1% of talks. She's recently run workshops with Estee Lauder Companies, YouTube, Google, Compass, Chief, and Emerge America, and her work has been featured in Time, The New York Times Magazine, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, NPR, CBS Sunday Morning, and Glamour. Visit Samara’s website here.

Quincie Li

Literary Manager, Kaplan/Parrone Entertainment 

Quincie Li is a literary manager at Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment, where she represents writers and directors in film and television. She began her career as an assistant in the television literary department at ICM Partners and worked at Thruline Entertainment before joining Kaplan/Perrone. Quincie grew up in Orange County, California, and graduated from Vanderbilt University.

Rebecca Neipris

Senior Associate, WADR Law

Rebecca Neipris is an intellectual property attorney with decades of experience in strategy, writing and consulting. She advises founders, creators, producers and indie companies on a wide range of legal matters. Rebecca specializes in soft IP. She leads the firm's trademark practice; serves as production counsel for film, TV and digital projects; and is a commentator on emerging issues like the right of publicity, regulation of online content, and international geographical indications for food and cultural products. Outside of the office, Rebecca has a podcast called "Crossnerds."

Rachelle Williams-BenAry

Showrunner 

Rachelle Williams-BenAry is a writer/showrunner/executive producer. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Rachelle graduated from Boston University with a B.S. in Film and Television.

Rachelle first staffed on season 3 of the Starz comedy series Survivor's Remorse and continued on as a story editor for the show's fourth and final season.

Rachelle (along with co-writer Lauren Houseman) won the 2017 Women's Image Network Award for Best Writing for her season 3 episode of Survivor's Remorse.

In 2021, Rachelle served as co-showrunner and executive producer for season 2 of the critically acclaimed HBOmax original series Love Life and was nominated for a NAACP Image Award. After Love Life, Rachelle took over showrunning duties for season 2 of the Bresha Webb-led STARZ comedy Run the World. 

Rachelle's other credits include the Netflix animated series Tuca & Bertie, the Tracy Oliver BET+ series First Wives Club, ABC's Mixed-ish, Raphael Bob-Waksberg’s Long Story Short and Barbershop (scheduled to come out on Amazon Prime Video in 2027).

Rachelle is currently writing a pilot for Netflix, supervising a project for Paramount+ and raising two wonderful boys along side her amazing husband. She has no free time. 

Lucy Tashman

Agent, Independent Artists Group

Lucy Tashman doubles as a Television Literary Agent and the Director of Content Development at Independent Artist Group. Her clients include Anthony Hemingway, Dara Resnik (Daredevil, I Love Dick), Amy Rardin (Every Year After, Echo) and Rom Lotan (EMBASSY). In addition to managing writers and filmmakers, Tashman spearheads IAG’s content development efforts across all divisions. She bolsters production slates in film and television for IAG’s crossover clients including Mary J Blige, Taraji P. Henson, Joseph Sikora, Nyle DiMarco, and Cedric the Entertainer.

Manal Hammad 

TV literary agent, Verve

Hammad was at Abrams Artists Agency before joining Verve. 

Hammad began her career at boutique agency Preferred Artists, following the leadership when they joined Abrams to start the agency’s literary department in 2015. That same year, she was promoted to agent — the first in the newly formed department to be upped.

As a first generation American, Hammad has made it a priority to represent underrepresented literary talent and brings with her a roster of diverse clients from various backgrounds.

Kate Torgovnic May

Showrunner 

I started my career as a journalist, where I wrote about female cab drivers and sketchy colleges for Jane Magazine, bike polo players and Jewish tattoos for The New York Times, and South Korean animators and all-female local governments for The Atlantic. 

I also spent a year on the road following three cheerleading squads for my narrative nonfiction book, CHEER!: Inside the Secret World of College Cheerleaders. And put in many years at TED Talks, working with every kind of speaker you can imagine to help tell their story in video and print. 

But writing for television is my passion. I served as a consulting producer on The CW’s Hellcats, a series based on my book, and quickly fell in love with creating characters and scripting stories based on real-life insights. Since then, I’ve been a writer on NCIS, penned movies for Hallmark, and created an original audio series for Broadway Video and Audible. I continue to develop shows that drop you inside wild, fascinating, unexplored female worlds.