With $50 million to deploy and a first slate of projects set to be unveiled in March, Cook says the smart money should already be looking south. Akunna Cook found her way to the entertainment sector via an unconventional path. A former career Foreign Service officer who served in China, South Africa and Baghdad before returning to Washington to work on U.S.–Africa […]
Khadija Alami is an award-winning Moroccan Producer of feature films, documentaries, and short films, and owner of K Films. She has established her company K Films, on an international level, as a well-respected service company and co-producing partner. Khadija has a strong working relationship with studios, production companies, executives, and producers from around the world and is at the forefront of promoting film and television production in Morocco.
In January 2016, she bought 17 hectares of land in Ouarzazate and built her own studios, becoming the first woman in Africa to own and manage professional movie studios.
She is also President of Meditalents, an association that teaches the art of scriptwriting to young writers, President of the Ouarzazate Film Commission, and of the Producers Chamber in Morocco.
In 2017, Alami was selected to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She is the first Arab female producer and second Moroccan filmmaker to receive that honor. She regularly participates as a mentor in inclusion initiatives and diversity programs led by the Academy to shape the future of the movie industry.
Over the last three decades, Georgia has pioneered the use of mass media for purposeful social norms, behavior-change and demand-creation content. Her focus was on HIV and sexual reproductive health issues affecting young people worldwide, with a USP of working with the MTV brand. This included founding and running the MTV Staying Alive Foundation, executive producing the “MTV Staying Alive” documentaries, the award-winning documentary “Meeting Mandela,” and conceiving and creating the multi- award-winning campaign “MTV Shuga,” ongoing since 2009 across Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, and India (“MTV Nishedh”).
Concurrently, as Senior Vice President of Social Responsibility for Paramount Global and head of Paramount’s Social Impact Studio, Georgia was responsible for developing social initiatives for Paramount’s portfolio of brands internationally. She launched the Social Impact Studio for Paramount+ International (July 2021), creating content with purpose and impact. She left both MTV Staying Alive and Paramount Global at the end of 2023, after 30 years with the company.
In 2023, Georgia was recognized by UNAIDS for her 25 years of leadership working in HIV prevention. She is a Fellow of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the Apolitical Foundation. She is a Board Member of Girls Not Brides, Inua Dada, and Next Narrative Africa Fund, and an Academy Member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Georgia was named in Cablefax’s list of “Most Powerful Women in the Media 2022.”
Today, she is Founder & CEO of GA-Agency, harnessing the power of storytelling with mission-driven organizations.
Victor Williams is a distinguished global business leader with over 25 years of achievements driving transformative business growth across the United States and Africa.
Williams is the Founder and Managing Partner of Lions Range Group, a firm that invests in compelling sports, technology, and creative economy opportunities globally with a particular focus on Africa.
From 2020 to 2023, as Executive Vice President of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and CEO of NBA Africa, Williams led all the league’s basketball and business development initiatives in Africa, significantly enhancing the growth and popularity of the NBA brand on the continent. He oversaw the formation and capitalization of NBA Africa as a standalone entity with external investment, to conduct the league’s business in Africa. Williams also led the launch and growth of the Basketball Africa League (BAL), the NBA’s first professional league outside North America; the establishment of new NBA offices in Nigeria, Egypt and Kenya; the launch of the first NBA Stores in Africa; and scaled up marketing and fan engagement initiatives, grassroots, and talent development programs including NBA Academy Africa, media and corporate partnerships, and merchandising and licensing.
Prior to joining the NBA, Williams had more than two decades’ experience as a banking industry leader. As the Executive Head of Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB), Africa Regions for Standard Bank Group, he oversaw the strategy, execution and financial performance of Standard Bank’s business with corporate, sovereign and institutional investor clients in 19 countries across sub-Saharan Africa. In this pan-continental role, Williams was responsible for the growth of global markets, investment banking, and transactional services businesses across Africa, and helped lead Standard Bank’s expansion into Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia and South Sudan.
Previously, as a Managing Director of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the United States with Wells Fargo Securities, Williams led the IT and Business Services M&A practice and executed several multi-billion dollar transactions, providing strategic insights to senior executives and boards of directors of Fortune 500 companies on complex merger and financing transactions. Williams started his investment banking career in mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs in New York where he rose to Vice President.
A dual citizen of Sierra Leone and the United States, Williams holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and two undergraduate degrees, with academic honors, from Brown University. He was named among the 100 Most Influential Africans of 2021 by New African Magazine. He serves on the Board of the Smithsonian Museum of African Art in Washington, DC, and Harvard Business School’s Africa Advisory Board. He has also served on the boards of public companies and non-profit organizations in the United States, Nigeria, and Kenya.
Tunde is a seasoned global executive with extensive business development, project finance, and direct investment experience in the infrastructure, telecoms and other sectors in Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Americas, and Europe. Since 2017, Tunde has been a Washington-based senior advisor to project developers, private equity fund managers, and governments on investments in the climate and infrastructure sectors in emerging markets. He is also an Adjunct Professor for Northwestern University’s Master of Science in Energy and Sustainability (MSES) Program.
From 2021 to 2022, Tunde was a Special Advisor on Climate Investments to the CEO of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority. In this role he developed NSIA’s ESG Strategy, built NSIA relationships with other global investors in the climate finance sector, and structured a groundbreaking joint venture vehicle with Vitol S.A. that will invest in de-carbonization projects in Nigeria.
From 2015 to 2017, Tunde was a Senior Manager in IFC’s Venture Investments Group based in Washington, DC where he led business development in Sub-Saharan Africa for VC/fintech sectors.
As IFC’s Senior Country Head for Singapore and Malaysia and Co-Head of the World Bank Group Infrastructure Hub based in Singapore (2011-2015), Tunde developed and supervised over $500 million of investments in the East Asia/Pacific region. He also served on the Executive Committee of the IFC East Asia and Pacific Department.
From 2004 to 2011, as IFC’s Country Head for Mozambique and Angola based in Maputo, Tunde established and built IFC’s business in both countries while serving on the Executive Committee of the IFC sub-Saharan Africa Department.
Prior to joining IFC in 2004, Tunde was an Assistant Director at Emerging Markets Partnership, a private equity firm based in Washington DC, and a key member of the team that managed the $400 million AIG African Infrastructure Fund. He also structured and executed complex infrastructure finance transactions in Latin America, the United States, and Turkey with InterGen based in London and Miami, and MUFG Bank based in New York.
Tunde has served on the boards of the Aavishkaar Fund (India-focused VC fund), Lateral Capital (Africa-focused VC Fund), the International Baccalaureate (IB), and the United World Colleges International, and is currently on the board of New Forests Africa Investments VCC (Africa forestry-focused PE Fund).
He holds an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School, an MA in East Asian Studies (with a focus on Japan) from the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, an MS in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, and a BA in Engineering Science and Economics from Oxford University. He also attended the International University of Japan in Niigata, Japan, as a Japanese Government (MEXT) Scholar, and completed the Immersion Program at the Middlebury College School of Japanese. He speaks Yoruba, Portuguese, French, and Japanese.
Tom Lynch, through the Tom Lynch Co, has created, written, directed, and produced some of the most successful television shows in the world for the youth-centered demographic. From live-action comedies, animated musicals, reality-based variety shows, to one-hour dramas, Lynch has always worked to create inspiring content.
From his early apprenticeship with Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Honoree, Don Kirshner, music became a big part of the Lynch canon. He soon found himself producing and directing rock concerts, music videos, and network variety specials. At the same time, Lynch started to hone his writing craft in comedy clubs around Los Angeles and New York in the early 1980’s.
KIDS Incorporated, the first variety show for kids, The Secret World of Alex Mack, Emmy-nominated NBC series Scout’s Safari, China’s first Nickelodeon’s Kids Choice Honors, four time GLAAD-nominated series for South of Nowhere, and Emmy-winning Class of 3000 for Cartoon Network featuring Outcast’s André 3000, and Make it Pop are just some of the series that Tom Lynch has created. His latest series, I Woke Up A Vampire on Netflix reached the streamer’s list of global top 10 TV shows with its first season in 2023 and second season in 2024.
Sahar Yousefi is a film financing executive and producer. After starting her career at the National Film Board of Canada, Sahar went on to work on many award-winning films selected for festivals such as Sundance, Venice, Hot Docs, SXSW, and SFFILM, as well as projects financed by the Sundance Institute, the Doha Film Institute, Telefilm Canada, the Red Sea Film Institute, Hot Docs, the British Film Institute, Chicken and Egg, Catapult, Firelight Media, the Bell Fund, the Canada Media Fund, Ontario Creates, and the NFB. Her previous work also includes commissions by the CBC, Mirum Agency, the ArtScience Museum in Singapore, and VICE Arabia, among others. As a financing executive, Sahar was an Advisor to Qatar Film Committee, where she led equity financing assessments for films and media companies. Prior to that, she was also Head of Investments and Production at the technical partner of the Riviera Content Fund.
Sahar is an alumnus of several selective fellowships and programs, including Sundance Catalyst, EAVE, the Gotham, ACE, Film Independent Fast Track, Torino SeriesLab, Eurodoc, Hot Docs Accelerator, the RIDM Talent Lab, Berlinale/EFM Doc Toolbox, DOC Business Leap, the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra, and the Rotterdam Lab.
Alongside her work in film, Sahar is also co-founder of specialty coffee distributor Hadsel Coffee, which provides rare coffees to the Asian and European markets.
Talitha Watkins is President and Head of ColorCreative Management, a management and production company. ColorCreative was founded by Issa Rae, Deniese Davis, and Talitha Watkins with the mission to empower creators to reach their greatest potential by disrupting the creative industries and championing innovative and inclusive entertainment.
Formerly a motion picture agent and cultural executive at leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Watkins is based in Los Angeles and represents producers, writers, directors, and actors. In addition, Watkins helped to build out CAA’s multicultural business and capabilities including launching the multicultural leadership event, CAA Amplify.
Previous to CAA, Watkins spent seven years as Vice President of Multicultural Marketing at Universal Pictures, where she worked across all marketing divisions, including publicity, media, digital, creative, research, and partnerships, to maximize the studio’s outreach efforts to African American audiences. While at Universal, she worked on numerous films, including the multicultural blockbusters Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7, and the record-breaking Straight Outta Compton. She was also instrumental in supporting the success of African American films, such as the box-office hits The Best Man Holiday and Ride Along.
Prior to Universal Pictures, Watkins was an Assistant General Manager with Telepictures Productions, Inc. and oversaw operations, sales, and marketing for five female-focused digital properties in the Warner Bros. portfolio, including Ellentv.com, Extratv.com, and TyraShow.com, as well as work in a development capacity for Essence.com.
Watkins is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a board member of the WIF, Saturday Morning, and Made in Her Image.
Watkins received her BBA in Marketing from the Fox School of Business at Temple University. She lives in Los Angeles with her daughter, Selah.
Tommy Oliver is an Emmy- and Sundance-winning filmmaker, entrepreneur, and photographer whose work spans film, television, and documentary. He is the Founder & CEO of Confluential Films, a production company and financier creating culturally specific yet universally resonant entertainment, and Black Love, a beloved media brand dedicated to authentic storytelling and community.
Oliver’s producing credits include The Perfect Find (Netflix), Fancy Dance (Apple TV+), Young. Wild. Free. (BET+), The Perfect Guy (Sony, which opened #1 at the US box office), and Kinyarwanda (Sundance and AFI Fest Audience Award winner, ranked #6 on Roger Ebert’s Top 10 of 2011). In nonfiction, he produced the Emmy- and Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (HBO), six seasons of the groundbreaking docuseries Black Love, AFI Audience Award-winning documentary Juice WRLD: Into the Abyss (HBO), and the critically acclaimed 40 Years a Prisoner (HBO). As a filmmaker, he has written, directed, shot, and edited acclaimed features including 1982 (Lionsgate), 40 Years a Prisoner, and Juice WRLD. Upcoming projects include Hamlet, starring Riz Ahmed, and the horror film Goons, starring Michael Rainey Jr. and Chlöe Bailey.
A noted photographer, Oliver’s work is featured at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, with more than 70 photos in its permanent collection.
He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Producers Guild of America (where he serves on the National Board and co-chairs the Independent Producer Committee), the Writers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America, and the Television Academy. A dedicated mentor, he supports emerging filmmakers through Sundance, PGA, Doc NYC, and the Academy Gold program. Oliver is also the recipient of Carnegie Mellon University’s Alumni Achievement Award, serves on the Carnegie Mellon CFA Dean’s Council, and was named by Goldman Sachs as one of the “100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs”.
Bianca Nepales is a results-driven entertainment executive and educator with 15 years of experience spanning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), strategic operations, and talent development within the entertainment, technology, and education sectors. She currently serves as the Special Advisor of Industries and Impact at UCLA, where she guides the Dean of Theater, Film and Television on broad industry partnerships and impact initiatives that connect emerging technologies, creative practices, and workforce development across the film, television, and technology spheres.
As the inaugural Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Lionsgate, Bianca designed, implemented, and scaled organization-wide DEI solutions for over 1,700 employees, establishing best-in-class onboarding and development frameworks that strengthened creativity, innovation, and inclusive leadership across global productions.
Bianca previously led nonprofit programming and global talent initiatives as Managing Director at Teach For America, expanding learning systems and cross-sector partnerships that served nearly 10,000 professionals worldwide. As a faculty member at Loyola Marymount University for over a decade, she developed and delivered hands-on curricula, mentored educators, and drove curriculum innovation to accelerate student career readiness.
Her deep expertise at the intersection of industry, social impact, technology, and storytelling uniquely positions Bianca as a trusted partner for film funds and organizations working to advance equitable, innovative, and measurable impact in media and entertainment.
Ozi Menakaya is an accomplished entertainment executive with over a decade of experience at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), the world’s leading entertainment agency, where he rose to become a literary film and television agent. During his tenure, he founded CAA Africa, the first Africa-focused initiative at any major Hollywood institution. In this role, he worked with both local African talent and globally recognized artists of African descent—such as Lupita Nyong’o or Philippe Lacote —structuring domestic and international deals that mirrored the agency’s renowned packaging model. He also collaborated with governmental stakeholders across the continent to explore avenues for political and cultural partnership. Ozi has built deep relationships across the global entertainment ecosystem, from studio chiefs and major buyers to top-tier creatives and on-screen talent. His expertise in the diverse film industries across Africa enables him to effectively package, finance, and champion projects that resonate both locally and globally, while maintaining strong connections with key industry decision-makers on the continent. In 2024, Ozi launched Continental Entertainment, a management and production company, further advancing his mission to elevate African storytelling and foster dynamic creative and commercial exchanges between Africa and the world.
Darcy Heusel is a senior executive and cultural strategist developing a new company focused on culturally resonant storytelling and audience engagement. At NEON, she served as a creative, acquisitions, and distribution executive, and co-headed its boutique label SUPER LTD, leading campaigns for Oscar®-nominated and critically acclaimed films. Her work at NEON spanned a diverse slate that included Best Picture Oscar® winners, Palme d’Or recipients, auteur-driven works, and cultural touchstones such as Parasite, Honeyland, Flee, The Quiet Girl, Saint Omer, Origin, Monsters and Men, and Amazing Grace. Throughout her 15-year career in independent film, Darcy has championed underrepresented voices and pioneered models that merge theatrical distribution with grassroots impact. She serves on the boards of Next Narrative Africa Fund and Black Women in Film NY.
Nitin Gajria is the Managing Director for Google’s Publisher Partnerships across Asia Pacific, helping content creators, news outlets, developers and publishers of all shapes and sizes fund their businesses and in turn safeguarding a free and open internet.
Prior to this role, Nitin was the Managing Director for Google in Sub-Saharan Africa and has maintained his passion for tech on the continent by co-founding A54 – an Africa-focused community of early stage tech investors. At Google, Nitin has also previously led the business in Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos and YouTube across India and South East Asia. He has also worked across industries ranging from cosmetics and detergents to infant nutrition having spent time at Procter & Gamble and Mead Johnson.
Nitin is keenly interested in technology start-ups and is an angel investor himself. He is a husband and a father. While he hails from Mumbai, he also calls Singapore, Sydney, Manila, Ho Chi Minh City and Johannesburg home.
Effie T. Brown is an award-winning film, television, and digital producer, the CEO and majority owner of Gamechanger Films, and one of the industry’s most influential advocates for inclusion and authentic storytelling. For more than two decades, she has been a pioneering force in Hollywood—building platforms for underrepresented voices, elevating bold new talent, and expanding whose stories reach the screen.
Raised in suburban New Jersey, Brown discovered the communal power of cinema at age eight when her father took her to see Alien. Experiencing a theater filled with people of different backgrounds—together—and watching a woman save herself affirmed two pillars that continue to guide her career: film as a tool for inclusivity and bringing people together, and the insistence that marginalized people can and must be the heroes of their own stories.
After her family relocated to California, Brown graduated from St. Lucy’s Priory High School in Glendora and studied film production and theatre at Loyola Marymount University, grounding her in both the creative and practical disciplines of filmmaking. Following graduation, she interned on Robert Townsend’s The Five Heartbeats and was selected for Film Independent’s Project Involve (1993), a career-launching fellowship for filmmakers of color that solidified her commitment to creating opportunities for marginalized creators. Mentored by Laurie Parker (producer for Gus Van Sant), Brown secured her first paid role on Rough Magic—the first US film starring Russell Crowe—directed by Clare Peploe. She subsequently served as Director of Development for Tim Burton and worked on Jane Campion’s In the Cut, gaining invaluable insight into studio filmmaking.
Akunna Cook is the CEO and Founder of Next Narrative Africa, a multimedia production company and investment fund building the financial infrastructure for the next century of African storytelling. Bridging the worlds of high-level diplomacy, economic policy, and entertainment, Akunna is currently launching the Next Narrative Africa Fund, a $50M blended capital vehicle designed to capitalize the global Black narrative.
Previously a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Biden-Harris Administration, Akunna oversaw U.S. bilateral relations in Southern Africa and led economic diplomacy strategies for the creative industries. She leverages this unique geopolitical expertise to capture the “alpha” in the Global South, utilizing data analytics and capital-protection strategies to de-risk investments in the booming African content market.
Earlier in her career, Akunna was the inaugural Executive Director of the Black Economic Alliance, where she raised over $6 million in the first year and organized the first televised presidential forum focused on Black economic progress. She began her career at the State Department, where she served as a career diplomat in China, South Africa, Iraq, and Washington, DC.
A seasoned diplomat, lawyer, and strategist, she has spent her career navigating the highest levels of policy and economics and is now applying that rigor to the creative economy.
Akunna holds degrees from the Harvard Kennedy School and the Yale Law School. She graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in economics and business from Howard University. Akunna was named among the 100 Most Influential Africans of 2025 by New African Magazine and was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She serves on the boards of the Alliance for Justice and Harambeans.