MIC: Emerald Fennell - October 25

Emerald Fennell (Writer, Director, Actress and Author)

When: Wednesday, October 25, 2023 - 6:00-7:15 pm CT
Note: Speaker sessions are subject to change based on evolving guest schedules.

Please join us for a Q&A session where we sit down with Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) to discuss her career trajectory, her roles and responsibilities, and her views on the current state of the media industries. Emerald Fennell's film Saltburn will premiere at the Austin Film Festival on October 26th. 

To RSVP, fill out this form & we will send out the location information at noon on the day of the event. 


Speaker Biography

Emerald Fennell is an Academy Award®, Golden Globe®, Emmy®, DGA, PGA and WGA nominated writer, director, actress and author who has established herself as a prolific multihyphenate in film, television and theatre.                                                 

Fennell’s feature directorial and screenplay debut, Promising Young Woman, which she also produced, was released in theaters December 25, 2020 from Focus Features. The film stars Carey Mulligan, who received a Best Actress Academy Award® nomination for her role, and was a breakout success out of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Fennell’s feminist, timely take on the revenge genre was recognized as one of the top scripts of the 2018 Blacklist. She was later nominated for three Academy Awards®, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won for Best Original Screenplay, received two Golden Globe® nominations for Best Screenplay and Best Director, six BAFTA nominations including Best Film, Outstanding British Film and Original Screenplay, as well as DGA, PGA and WGA nominations and won two Film Independent Spirit Awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay.                 

Most recently, Fennell wrote the contemporary musical stage version of Cinderella alongside Andrew Lloyd Webber, which debuted in 2021 at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London’s West End. The show continued its run on Broadway in March of 2023 under the name Bad Cinderella at the Imperial Theatre in New York.                                                         

Her debut short, Careful How You Go, which she wrote and directed, premiered at Sundance in 2019. She also served as the showrunner on Season 2 of Killing Eve, for which she was nominated for two Emmys® and the show was nominated for a Golden Globe®.                                                 

In front of the camera, she can be seen alongside Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie releasing on July 21, 2023 from Warner Bros. Fennell starred in Seasons 3 and 4 of Netflix’s award-winning drama series, The Crown, playing Camilla Parker Bowles, for which she has received rave reviews, an Emmy® nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, and the series won the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Other recent on-camera film credits include The Danish Girl, Pan and Anna Karenina

Off screen, Fennell has published three novels: Shiverton Hall along with the sequel, The Creeper and Monsters (2017 Carnegie Medal nominee), all of which were incredibly well-received and drew comparisons ranging from Roald Dahl to Bret Easton Ellis. 

Spring 2024 MIC Speakers

Feb 16. - Austin Animation Panel

Guests include Carrye Glazar (Executive Producer, Austin Community College Television), Brad Graeber (CEO, Powerhouse Animation Studios), Austin Harper (Supervising Producer, Rooster Teeth), Evan Narcisse (Senior Writer, Brass Lion Entertainment), and Craig Staggs (CEO, Minnow Mountain).
4:00 - 5:15 pm CT

Feb 20. - Scot Cru

Independent International Television & Media Consultant
12:30–1:45 pm CT

March 21 - Austin-Based Film Festivals Panel

Guests include Neha Aziz (Artistic Director, Austin Asian American Film Festival), Alka Bhanot (Co-Founder, Indie Meme), David Finkel (Director, Austin Jewish Film Festival), Todd Hogan (President, aGLIFF), and Gabriel Ornelas (Executive Director, Cine Las Americas).
4:00–5:15 pm CT

Apr. 1 - Patrick Schumacker

EP and Co-Showrunner of Abbott Elementary, Delicious Non Sequitur Productions and WB Television
5–6:15 pm CT

Apr. 9 - Amanda Harrell

Former EVP, Business and Legal Affairs, Alternative and Specials, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios
12:30–1:45 pm CT

Apr. 23 - Lee Solomon

Partner, Apollo Global Management LLC
12:30–1:45 pm CT

Fall 2023 MIC Speakers

Aug. 28 - Launching Your Career Panel

Guests include Ben Harizman (Executive Assistant to the CEO, OBB Media), Zachary Smith (Line Producer's Assistant, 20th Television), Hemrani Vyas (Assistant Manager of Programming, TCM), and Rachel Wang (Associate Producer, Up Entertainment).
5:00–6:15 pm CT

Sept. 11 - Launching Your Career, Screenwriter & Agent

Guests: Davia Carter (Tulsa King), Jim Ehrich (literary agent, Rothman Brecher Ehrich Livingston) & Cindy McCreery (RTF Interim Chair, Honey Girls)
5:00–6:15 pm CT

Sept. 18 - Brent Weinstein

Chief Development Officer, Candle Media
5:00–6:15 pm CT

Sept. 25 - Gail MacKinnon

Senior Executive Vice President, Global Policy & Government Affairs, Motion Picture Association
5:00-6:15pm CT

Oct. 2 - Dr. Thomas Schatz

Professor Emeritus, University of Texas at Austin
5:00–6:15 pm CT

Oct. 9 - Business of Music Panel

Guests include Wofford Denius (Attorney, Eisner, LLP), Jonathan Eshak (Co-President, Mick Music), Margaret Galton (Promoter, C3 Presents), Dan Goscombe (Managing Director, Cal Financial Group), and Kevin Shivers (Partner, WME).
5:00–6:15 pm CT

Oct. 16 - Amanda Barclay

Director, Comedy Series, Netflix
5:00-6:15pm CT

Oct. 23 - Christopher Casanova

Vice President, Film & Television, Black Bear Pictures
5:00-6:15pm CT

Oct 25 - Emerald Fennell

Writer, Director, Actress and Author
Promising Young Woman, Saltburn
6:00-7:15pm CT

Oct. 30 - Pastor Alvarado III

Executive Producer and Creative Director, Riverside Entertainment
5:00-6:15pm CT

Nov. 6 - Lucy Huang

Senior Production Executive, Amazon Studios
5:00-6:15pm CT

Nov. 9 - Bob Berney

CEO, Picturehouse
9:30-10:45am CT

Nov. 13 - Entertainment Law Panel

PJ Shapiro & Greg Slewett (lawyers and partners, Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole)
5:00–6:15 pm CT

Nov. 27 - David Tran

VP, Distribution Strategy and Analysis, Lionsgate
5:00-6:15pm CT

Dec. 4 - Austin Entertainment Industry

Guests include Alfred Gomez (Director, Programming & Development, Blind Nil), Jennifer Hutchins (Producer), Laura Kincaid (Director of Operations, ATX TV), Attia Rasul (Content Hub Editor, Atmosphere TV), and Vince Robinette (Controller, Amazon Studios and 20th Century Fox/Disney).
5:00–6:15 pm CT