Business Panel
"Connecting The Dots...How to Make it Happen (with help)"
Feel confused completely or just need more guidance on how to start, how to proceed, how to finish, and how to get the dang thing out into the world? This panel is for you. Industry experts: Andrew Stevens, Mary Elisabeth Ellis, Nina Parikh, and Ryan Parker join us to answer all your questions.
Andrew Stevens
Andrew Stevens, President/CEO of Stevens Entertainment Group, has produced and/or financed over 190 feature films through his various production and distribution companies. Unique in the motion picture industry, Stevens has functioned in almost every capacity in the entertainment business, from creative development of motion picture stories, and screenplays, to foreign sales, distribution, post-production, deliveries and collections. He is an accomplished screenwriter, director, as well as being named “one of the most prolific producers in Hollywood” by the Hollywood Reporter. Additionally, Stevens is an academic author of several books on producing, screenwriting and filmmaking, an educator and public speaker and was a successful actor for more than 20 years. Outside of the entertainment business, Stevens has been successful in both commercial and residential real estate development, and song-writing for film, with over two dozen credited songs in film and television to date,.
Mary Elizabeth Ellis
Mary Elizabeth Ellis, a writer/performer, often known for her epic recurring role as “The Waitress” on FX’s long running hit series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, originally hails from Laurel, Mississippi. Her TV credits include the Mike Shur Netflix series A Classic Spy with Ted Danson, It’s Florida, Man (HBO), Unstable (Netflix), Santa Clarita Diet (Netflix), Lodge 49 (AMC), The Grinder (Fox), and New Girl (Fox) among others. On the feature front, Ellis plays Momma Anita in Paul Thomas Anderson’s film, Licorice Pizza and Olivia in the Amazon studios film RedOne opposite Chris Evans. Other feature credits include the Fool’s Paradise, the Disney+ feature Godmothered, How it Ends, which premiered at Sundance, Masterminds, as Owen Wilson’s hilarious wife Michelle, the gem of an indie The Last Time You Had Fun, which premiered at the Los Angeles International Film Festival and The Free State of Jones opposite Matthew McConaughey. Ellis co-wrote and starred in the indie film A Quiet Little Marriage which won The Grand Jury prize at The Slamdance Film Festival as well as the Adult Swim special Mother May I Dance with Mary Jane’s Fist, which was an adaptation of a live show she created with Artemis Pebdani at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. Her directorial debut short film, The Last to Leave, is currently playing film festivals. One of her favorite projects to date was the stage play Trevor at Circle X theatre with Jimmi Simpson and Laurie Metcalf which returned her to her theatre roots. And, yes, also the murderous daughter-in-law Kimber in Taylor Swift's "Anti Hero" music video. Ellis currently resides in Los Angeles.
Nina Parikh
Nina Parikh has been with the Mississippi Film Office for 27 years, currently serving as the director. Established in 1973, the Film Office is one of the oldest of its kind in the world. The office’s mission is to foster the growth of the film industry in Mississippi, connect filmmakers with necessary resources and to cultivate and promote filmmaking by, for and about Mississippians.
She studied filmmaking at the University of Southern Mississippi and New York University, began her career as a freelance camera assistant, worked in the industry as a producer, and teaches a film production class at Millsaps College. She produced the Mississippi made film “Ballast” which won two awards at Sundance Film Festival in 2008. She serves on the boards of 3 college-level institutions, advising on film & media curriculum development; developed the curriculum and served as director for the Canton Young Filmmakers Summer Program; and co-wrote a book about digital video for the amateur.
Nina is a co-founder and advisory board member Mississippi Film Alliance, a non-profit supporting indigenous filmmaking. She also serves on the boards of the Association of Film Commissioners International, South Arts, Mississippi Book Festival, Creative Mississippi, and Mississippi Humanities Council. She was a producer of TEDxJackson and co-founder of the Crossroads Film Festival & Society.
Ryan Parker
Ryan Parker is the founder and Executive Director of the Mississippi Film Society and, for the last ten years, has worked as a consultant in film marketing, PR, and distribution. He has helped orchestrate campaigns for over 100 films, many of which have been Oscar-nominated or -winning documentary and narrative features. He is a co-Executive Producer of the documentary Union, which premiered at Sundance 2024 and was shortlisted for the 2025 Oscar Best Documentary. He is also an Executive Producer of On Wings of Eagles, I’ll Push You, and Camp Manna.
Ryan completed his PhD in Religion and the Arts at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, with a focus on film and religion, particularly the history of religious cinema and contemporary independent religious films. He is the author of Cinema as Pulpit: Sherwood Pictures and the Church Film Movement, the co-editor of and contributor to Joss Whedon and Religion: Essays on an Angry Atheist’s Explorations of the Sacred, and a contributor to Light Shining in a Dark Place: Discovering Theology through Film and The Undead and Theology. He holds a BA in English from Mississippi College and an MDiv from Wake Forest University Divinity School. He is an adjunct professor in the film department at the University of Mississippi.
