Hoyt Richards – Award winning Actor/Writer/Filmmaker and Founder/Executive of Tortoise Entertainment

Originally from the Main Line area outside Philadelphia, Hoyt was a scholar-athlete who graduated from Princeton with a BA in Economics where he also played football. In his early career, Hoyt worked as a fashion model for Ford and Wihelmina Models and is considered by many to be the world’s first male supermodel. Over his fifteen-year career, Hoyt was the face of numerous campaigns for the industry’s top designers and he appeared in over three hundred commercials.
In 2000, he moved to Los Angeles, where he began working as an actor and now has…

Miguel “Mike” Medina is a Dominican-American actor, writer and filmmaker. Born and raised in Washington Heights neighborhood in he NYC borough of Manhattan.

Following his graduation from City College of New York, he has written four short films. They include: The Grade, Bittersweet Holiday, Torn Feelings and From Dad, To Bobby. His work in Torn Feelings, made him a finalist for Best Screenplay at the Oniros Film Awards.

Kristian Day grew up in America’s heartland. At age 21 he broke in to the film industry as a foley artist and sound designer. By age 28 he started working as a production coordinator on major unscripted shows and slowly moved into commercials and branded content as a production manager and first assistant director.

At age 30, he couch surfed Los Angeles for 30 days with random strangers he had never met before. At the end of the 30 days, a feature in the Des Moines Register was written documenting both his 30 days surfing and then opening up his house to fellow travelers. Cityview Magazine then invited him to write a monthly column about the random travelers…

Ellie is an American writer and filmmakers.
Ellie does quite of dabbling. She has released the first eighty pages of her fantasy series on Wattpad simply because she loves to share her writing. In 2013, Ellie wrote and co-directed “Carry On” a silent short film. She is currently working on another short film, a visual poem, to be released in the summer of 2019. Ellie has a passion for the film festival circuit. She has volunteered and interned for several festivals over the years including SFFILM. In 2016 her passion for film festivals led her to the first annual Grand Foundation Student Film Festival. To this day she remains with a suspended spot…

Kristen Butler (Producer, Writer) began her career in the film industry as an editor, working on projects such as Mandie and the Cherokee Treasure, 77 Chances, and Summertime Christmas. At the same time, she began producing under Mirari Pictures, a film company that she co-founded. Under the Mirari Pictures brand, Kristen produced three award-winning short films, and the feature My House.

Kristen possesses a strong background in marketing, having worked in the internal marketing department at a large non-profit university, as well as dedicating five years to the service of an independent marketing firm.

In 2019, Kristen founded her second…

Aleksei Borovikov is a Russian-born film and video director. He began his career by working at regional and national television channels in Russia for over 15 years. In 2012, Aleksei started writing scripts and creating short films. In 2016, he graduated from Moscow Film School with a diploma in Film Directing. Aleksei’s portfolio to date includes short movies as well as music and promo/advert videos. His works have earned audience recognition and festival awards in Russia and abroad. Currently, Aleksei is pursuing an MFA degree in Cinema Directing at Columbia College Chicago.
Jacob Mueller is a screenwriter and director originally from the western suburbs of Chicago. He recently graduated…