L WORD MISSISSIPPI: HATE THE SIN

Bios

Ilene Chaiken

Executive Producer

ILENE CHAIKEN is best known as the executive producer of the SHOWTIME series THE L WORD®. She has spent the last few years making fans across the broadcast networks. Currently showrunning Fox's Empire, she has previously come aboard pilots for Jerry Bruckheimer, McG and Joel Silver, and most recently ran the ABC drama series Black Box. She is developing a new scripted drama for SHOWTIME and continues her work on THE REAL L WORD, with the documentary L WORD MISSISSIPPI: HATE THE SIN, premiering on Showtime. Chaiken hails from Elkins Park, Pennsylvania and currently resides in Los Angeles.

 

Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz - Magical Elves

Executive Producers

DAN CUTFORTH was born and raised in England. He started his career at the BBC in 1990 as a researcher in the quaintly-named “Light Entertainment” department. He moved to independent production company Planet 24 to join the team that started up The Big Breakfast, an anarchic and influential morning show.  In the mid-‘90s, Cutforth moved to New York to head up U.S. operations for Planet 24. While working there, he helped develop Survivor and produced The Keenan Ivory Wayans Show.  After a six- month sojourn in the UK to re-launch and re-brand The Big Breakfast, Cutforth returned to the US to produce two seasons of the prime time series Whose Line is it Anyway? before joining forces with Jane Lipsitz to create Bands on the Run for VH1.

JANE LIPSITZ grew up in New York City. She began her career in the music business, working first at ICM then at Polygram Diversified Entertainment, where she earned her stripes as a producer during the 40-hour television coverage of Woodstock. In the mid-‘90s, she was hired as an independent producer for VH1’s development department as the network was in the process of abandoning its programming diet of Dire Straits videos and ancient stand-up comedy to become one of the most influential and successful cable networks.  By the time she left her position as Senior Vice President of Development and Production, she had developed, produced and overseen hundreds of shows including Pop Up VideoThe List and Bands on the Run.

In 2001, Cutforth and Lipsitz founded Magical Elves and since then have been nominated for numerous Emmys, culminating in a win in 2010 for Outstanding Reality Competition for Top Chef. In 2008, they received a Peabody Award for Project Runway, the first reality show to be honored by the organization. Project Runway is one of four Magical Elves shows named by Entertainment Weekly in their list of the “20 Best Reality Shows of All Time” along with Top ChefBands on the Run and Project Greenlight. February 2011 saw the Magical Elves first major motion picture release, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. The film received critical acclaim and is currently the 3rd-highest grossing documentary of all time. They followed that film up in 2012 with their directorial debut, Katy Perry: Part of Me. Other notable credits include NBC’s Fashion Star, Last Comic Standing and Treasure Hunters, Showtime’s, The Real L Word and Time of Death, TNT’s, Cold Justice, WeTV’s, Braxton Family Values, Bravo’s, Around the World in 80 Plates, Gallery Girls, Work of Art, Top Chef Masters and Top Chef Just Desserts and the documentary Hunger Hits Home for The Food Network.

 

Lauren Lazin

Director

LAUREN LAZIN is an award-winning filmmaker with over 20 years’ of experience as an executive producer of well-respected, highly-rated, pop culture-defining unscripted television.  A former SVP of MTV News and Documentaries, she has spent the past several years developing, executive producing and showrunning high-profile series and specials, and directing and producing award-winning documentary features. Lazin has received an Academy Award nomination, an Emmy Award, and has been nominated an additional 12 times for the Emmy. Lazin's latest hit series is Newlyweds: The First Year, an eight-part series she co-created, directed and executive produced for Bravo. She is also the showrunner and EP of Bravo’s Extreme Guide to Parenting.

In 2012, Lazin was director and showrunner for Sperm Donor: 74 Kids and Counting, a special for The Style Network which was nominated for a 2012 Emmy Award. On film, Lazin directed Tupac: Resurrection, which was nominated for a 2005 Academy Award; and I'm Still Here: Real Diaries of Young People Who Lived During the Holocaust, which was nominated for two Emmys.  Additional feature film credits include The U.S. vs. John LennonJihad for Love, a feature film about Gay Muslims, which premiered at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival and the 2008 Berlin Film Festival and went on to win a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Documentary; Soul Train: The Hippest Trip in America, which was nominated for an Emmy; and Last Days of Left Eye. Her highly rated specials include The TRL Decade and Yo! The Story of Yo! MTV Raps. Lazin has directed, produced, written and edited over 40 documentaries for MTV and PBS, including Sex in the 90’sMTV Rockumentary, MTV Cribs, Diary, My Super Sweet 16, as well as award-winning MTV News specials on topics ranging from drug abuse and racism, to religious intolerance and sexual health. Lazin directed and executive produced Get Schooled: You Have The Right, which featured Lebron James, Kelly Clarkson, and President Barack Obama.  Her President Obama’s Race to the Top Commencement Challenge special was produced in cooperation with the White House and received an Emmy nomination.

Other series of note include Transgeneration, a co-production of Logo and The Sundance Channel, that was awarded Best Documentary at the 2006 GLAAD Awards and Coming Out Stories for Logo (2007 IDA Award nominee). Lazin is currently executive producing documentary series and specials, including The After Party, which will premiere on MTV 2 in 2014.

 

 

L WORD MISSISSIPPI: HATE THE SIN

Production Credits

SERIES

Executive Produced by............................................... ILENE CHAIKEN

............................................................................................. JANE LIPSITZ

....................................................................................... DAN CUTFORTH

.......................................................................................... CASEY KRILEY

Directed by...................................................................... LAUREN LAZIN

Produced by................................................................... LAUREN LAZIN

Supervising Producer......................................................... AZON JUAN

Line Producer....................................................... JESSICA NAVARRO