Evan Ever After

Ariel Mahler (she/they) is an award-winning transfemme filmmaker. She’s a recent graduate of the American Film Institute (AFI)'s Directing Fellowship. Mahler's AFI thesis film, "Re-Entry," received a production grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Her short documentary, "Evan Ever After," premiered at the Oscar Qualifying Florida Film Festival in April, 2023 and received the audience award for Best Florida Short. The short has gone on to screen at Outfest LA, Hollyshorts, and InsideOut, among others. Mahler was a finalist for Newfest’s New Voices Filmmaker Grant in both 2022 and 2023. She placed as a top-five finalist in the Fall 2022 ShoreScripts Film Fund. Her feature script, SEA LEGS, was a Quarterfinalist in the 2023 Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition, and a second-rounder in the Launch Pad Feature Competition. Her feature screenplay, FLOCK, was a Second Rounder in the 2023 Sundance Creative Producing Program, and a finalist in the Diverse Voices’ 2021 Screenwriting Lab. Mahler produced DEATH AND BOWLING, a feature film that world premiered at OUTFEST in 2021, and has been nominated for a GLAAD Media Award.

Radha Mehta (she/her) is an award-winning film director, a multi-disciplinary artist, and first-gen Indian American living bicoastal between LA & Florida. She uses her background as a musician, painter, and hard-of-hearing mother of two to tell stories of hope from within her marginalized intersecting communities on the themes of motherhood, disability, and womxn empowerment. She is an MFA graduate for Film Directing at AFI; an Entertainment Lab Fellow of RespectAbility; currently a voting member and was as an elected Board Member of The Recording Academy; co-founder of South Asian Entertainment Organization; and co-host of casting diversity workshops for ABC/Disney.