IGNITE & Guest Speakers
Our IGNITE Colloquium features guest artists and industry professionals, as well as screenings, workshops, and seminars around creative and professional development for students. Featuring speakers ranging from award-winning film and television producers and directors to leaders in immersive and interactive storytelling, students gain valuable knowledge on a variety of topics in the emerging media arts.
IGNITE is held most Fridays during the academic year, and most are open to the public. Check out the IGNITE calendar below for Information on upcoming events.
2024-25 Speakers
Gale Anne Hurd
Hurd is the founder of Valhalla Entertainment, most recently known for the global cultural phenomenon, Emmy-winning and record-shattering TV series, “The Walking Dead,” and its multiple spin-offs. Hurd’s extensive producing credits include a range of Academy Award-winning films, with “Aliens” notably earning seven nominations and two wins. Her additional Academy Award-winning works include “The Abyss,” “The Ghost and the Darkness,” “Armageddon,” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” which was recently added to the National Film Registry by the U.S. Library of Congress. Hurd produced and co-wrote “The Terminator.” Some of her additional studio credits include “Tremors,” “The Relic,” “Aeon Flux,” Ang Lee’s “Hulk,” “The Incredible Hulk,” “Alien Nation,” and Sundance Audience Award winner “The Waterdance,” among many others.
Richard Dorton
Dorton aka Mocapman, is a veteran performance capture actor, director, stunt coordinator, producer, movement consultant, instructor and casting director with over 150 video game credits to his name. With 25 years of experience in motion & performance capture under his belt, Dorton has been in the middle of the ever-changing technology and processes used in today’s world of motion capture.
Josie Azzam
Azzam grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska and attended the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln before earning her MFA in Film Editing from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. Her feature film career includes work as an assistant editor on Marvel’s Black Panther, Goosebumps, and How To Be Single. As an editor, Azzam’s other credits include Summer ‘03 (SXSW 2018), Don’t Look Deeper (Quibi, Catherine Hardwicke), and Rap Sh!t (HBO Max, Issa Rae). A recipient of the 2020 Sundance Sally Menke Memorial Fellowship, she also served as co-chair of the Motion Picture Editor’s Guild Women’s Steering Committee and is an alumna of the American Cinema Editors Diversity Program. In 2025, she brought her industry expertise home to Nebraska, where she now produces content for Nebraska Public Media.
Julie Ann Crommett
Crommett is a powerhouse in media and storytelling, driving transformative change at the intersection of entertainment, business, and culture. As the Founder and CEO of Collective Moxie, a global storytelling, media strategy and audience engagement agency, she advises top studios, brands, and creatives on innovative strategies that reshape industries. Previously, she led multicultural audience engagement at Disney, influencing billion-dollar hits like Encanto, Black Panther, and Raya and the Last Dragon, and spearheaded global DEI initiatives at Google and NBCUniversal.
Nolan Tredway
Found covered in moss near the Korvik River, Nolan was raised in the Great North by a mountain and a burning forest. He learned the art of storytelling from his time among the Volkos, before studying art at the University of Nebraska and Fundacion Ortega y Gasset in Toledo, Spain. He is currently the co-director of Tugboat Gallery and founder of the performance art collective, kindred.
Jessica Julius
Jessica Julius is Vice President, Creative Development/Experiences at Sphere Studios, an immersive content studio focused on creating multi-sensory entertainment exclusively for Sphere, a cutting-edge entertainment platform first launched in Las Vegas in September 2023. In her role, Jessica leads the development and oversight of new, innovative content and experiences designed to maximize the capabilities of Sphere’s transformative medium. With over 20 years of experience in film development and production, Jessica previously held the position of Producer and Vice President, Creative Development, at Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Nancy Nguyen
Nguyen is an emerging documentary editor based in Los Angeles, California. She was an editor on New Wave (Tribeca) and In Living Memory, part of the Daytime Emmy-nominated series Asian American Stories of Resilience and Beyond (PBS/WORLD Channel). Nguyen recently assisted on Heightened Scrutiny (Sundance), about the Supreme Court fight for gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Currently, Nguyen is working on a docuseries about Southeast Asian communities across the U.S. ahead of the 50th year anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.
Joe Calarco
Called a “theatre man of imagination and vision” by the New York Times, Joe Calarco is an award-winning director and playwright whose work has been seen around the country and the world. Calarco’s adaptation of the play, Shakespeare’s R&J derived from Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet ran at the Nebraska Repertory Theatre in the Spring 2025 semester.
Daniel Byers
As a filmmaker focused on wildlife, climate, and indigenous rights, Byers has worked in over 60 countries—from tracking cartels along the rivers of Honduras to chasing snow leopards through the mountains of Afghanistan. His award-winning films and photographs have been featured in hundreds of film festivals and publications around the world, including the Smithsonian, UK Guardian, BBC, and National Geographic. Byers also writes and directs fiction. His first feature film, Eradication, was released in 2022, with his second in the works for next year. He completed his MFA at Columbia School of the Arts in 2022.
Brad MacDonald
MacDonald is an interaction designer, artist, musician and storyteller using technology and expertise in user experience to craft narratives for museums, cultural institutions and corporate partners. He is particularly interested in the creative process, universal principles of design, and the emotions that drive experiences regardless of platform. He served as the Director of Creative Media at the Smithsonian Arts + Industries Building, Project Director for Digital Experiences at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and was invited to participate in the master planning charrette for the Museum of Us in San Diego, and has taught workshops on iterative design at Balboa Park, ECSITE, and throughout Europe and China.
Jillian Mayer
hrough, videos, sculptures, online experiences, photography, performances, and installations, Mayer explores how technology affects our lives, bodies, and identities by processing how our physical world and bodies are impacted and reshaped by our participation in a digital landscape. Mayer investigates the points of tension between our online and physical worlds and makes work that attempts to inhabit the increasingly porous boundary between the two. Mayer’s artwork has a consistent thread of modeling how to subvert capital-driven modes of technological innovation.
Mayer’s films have screened at festivals including Sundance, SXSW, Rottenberg Film Fest, and the New York Film Festival. She is a fellow of the Sundance Institute’s New Frontiers Lab and New Narratives on Climate Change Lab.
Eric Shamlin
Shamlin is a three-time Emmy-, two-time Peabody-, and sixteen-time Cannes Lion-winning creative executive with over 26 years of experience. While working at the intersection of traditional storytelling and emerging technology he’s built teams and delivered high-profile collaborations across the entire media ecosystem. He currently sits on the Board of Governors of the Television Academy, the Board of Delegates for the Producers Guild of America and holds multiple Advisory roles for the SXSW Festival.
Juan Obando
Obando has worked between Colombia and the United States and currently resides in Phoenix, AZ, USA, where he is an Associate Professor at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. He holds a BA in Design and Architecture from Universidad de Los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia) and an MFA in Electronic and Time-Based Media Art from Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN). Obando’s works have been exhibited in México, France, Colombia, Germany, and the US.
Past Colloquium Speakers:
2023-24
- Katie Wiliams, Digital paint supervisor at ILM Vancouver. Her work has appeared in The Marvels, Fast X, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Black Panther: Wakanda Foreverand many more blockbuster films.
- Signe Baumane, Brooklyn-based independent filmmaker, artist, writer and animator. She has made 17 award-winning animated shorts, including My Love Affair With Marriage, which premiered in June 2022 at Tribeca Festival and has screened at over 90 festivals winning twenty awards. It was nominated by the European Film Academy as Best Animated Feature.
- Michael Svoboda, Filmmaker, writer, educator and mentor who’s coached dozens of Hollywood artists in the practice of storytelling.
- Francesca Carletto-Leon, Award-winning video game developer and educator specializing in emotion-first design and collaborative multiplayer experiences. Their work combines programming, electronics, and traditional art formats to create playful experiences. Carletto-Leon has worked in the games industry as a designer, producer, and writer with Filament Games, Fullbright Games, Contigo Games, and more.
- Mikhael Tara Garver, Has worked across brands, arts organizations, social justice organizations, and civic organizations as a pioneer in the experiential field.
- Peter Flaherty, Director and interactive artist whose work has shown in over a hundred international venues, including theaters, galleries, and museums. He conceived and directed The Dial, an interactive narrative combining augmented reality & projection mapping, which premiered at Sundance in 2019. He created and directedThe Surrogate, a groundbreaking Virtual Reality narrative that melds 360 video with a computer-generated explorable environment, which was a SXSW Interactive Innovation Award Finalist in 2016. He was Creative Director for Marvel Studios and Disney’s Eternals AR, released in November 2021.
- Michaela Wadzinski, UNL alum is an animator, filmmaker, storyboard artist and writer. Michaela has worked on storyboards for several animated television series and created award-winning animated and live-action shorts.
- Franklin Sioux Bob, Actor and writer, known for 2022’s Cannes-selection War Pony.
- Willi White, Producer and director, known for 2022’s Cannes-selection War Pony.
- Andrew Schneider, OBIE award-winning, Drama Desk-nominated performer, writer, and interactive-electronics artist creating original works for theater, dance, sound, video, and installation since 2003.
- Anna Marie Piersimoni, Digital media specialist and educator who’s worked with the AFI Enchanced TV Workshop.
- Rick Goldsmith, Two-time Academy Award-nominated director and the principal filmmaker and president of Kovno Communications. Goldsmith’s work is primarily concerned with film and video projects that address cultural and social themes in American life, democratic ideals, and the concerns of youth.
- Mike Smith, Motivational speaker, skateboarder and founder of The Bay and co-founder/co-executive director of Rabble Mill.
- Gigi Johnson, Transformational, immersive experience builder and creator in XR and music imagining and envisioning the future of creative work.
2022-23
- Danny Elfman, Four-time Oscar Nominee Film Composer, Collaborator with the Lied Center for Performing Arts
- Paul Vanouse, Interdisciplinary Artist, Collaborator with Fiendish Plots
- Dan Mirvish, Director, screenwriter, producer, author
- Jen Landis, Artist and Entrepreneur
- Duncan Ransom, Founder and CEO of The Endless Collection, Technical Director, story artist, animator
- Erik Weaver, Head of Virtual and Adaptive Production-Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California
- The Bragg Brothers, Writers, Directors, Collaborator with the Ross Media Arts Center
- Wesaam Al-Badry, Investigative Journalist, Interdisciplinary Artist
- Melanie Coombes, Award-winning Producer Of Animation, Documentary and Dramatic Film, Television
- Elizabeth Baquet, UNL Alum, Podcast Executive for Mosaic Media
- Mitch Benes, Executive Director of redthread
- Tory Lenosky, Emmy-nominated Producer, Collaborator with the Ross Media Arts Center