Avril Z.

Director, producer, showrunner, writer and former educator, Avril Speaks, joins us to discuss her journey into filmmaking.

Like most of us, Avril developed a love for film and television at an early age. Her fascination later grew into being drawn to rich, character-driven and complex stories about women and spirituality, decorated in questions as opposed to easy resolutions. Interesting because as a producer on Netflix's Files of the Unexplained, Avril talks about not leaning into the obvious regarding the process of shaping this series about strange real-life occurrences and phenomena.

Hailing from Queens, New York, it was only after enrolling in a class at Howard University that really ignited her interest in film as a viable career choice. In this conversation, she shares why attending the famed and acclaimed historically Black university has helped her maneuver through Hollywood's lack of diversity. We also talk about why being proficient in certain soft skills is as necessary as networking and how to navigate in a seemingly extroverted industry as an introvert.

A phenomenal storyteller with over 20 years of experience, Avril was a producer on the SXSW Grand Jury award-winning film Jinn, written and directed by Nijla Mu'min. Her other projects include directing and producing the Discovery+ & NowThis docu-series, Uprooted as well as the African America, which received an NAACP Image Award nomination. Avril's produced the feature films, Hosea, Dotty & Soul and Black America Is... and was an associate producer on TNT's series, American Race.