Avril Z. Speaks is a producer, director and film educator based in Los Angeles. She produced the critically-acclaimed feature film Jinn, which won the Special Jury Prize for Writing at SXSW and was acquired by MGM/Orion Classics for theatrical and VOD release. Since then she has produced several films including Hosea, which will release later this year, and the upcoming Dotty & Soul, starring Leslie Uggams, Gary Owens and Margot Bingham. She has worked in Scripted Programming at BET Networks, and was also an associate producer on the TNT docu-series American Race. A former professor at Howard University and a contributing writer for DearProducer.com, Avril has also been a Producing Fellow in Rotterdam, Cannes, IFP and Film Independent labs and networks, and was recently named as a 2020 Sundance Momentum Fellow.