Morgan Dameron

Is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker who has a passion for female-empowerment stories, and an affinity for working with actors. Her feature film, Different Flowers, starring Emmy-Award-Winner Shelley Long, won Best Feature Film at KC Film Fest. After its World Premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and theatrical release in 2017, Different Flowers is now airing on Showtime. 

Dameron got her start working for J.J. Abrams at Bad Robot, on films Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, where Poe Dameron was named in her honor. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Dameron was honored with Kansas City Women in Film and Television’s “Spirit of Kansas City” award, Duke’s Talent Identification Program’s “Early Achievement Award,” and USC’s “Renaissance Prize,” awarded to only ten students per graduating class. Dameron is currently prepping her second feature, produced by Paul Feig’s company Powderkeg, set to film in Los Angeles in 2020.

Meagan Flynn (Actor/Producer/Creator) 

A sarcastic and proud Montana native, Meagan works in front of and behind the camera. She can be seen in films such as Jason Reitman’s Oscar-nominated Up in the Air. On the small screen you can catch her in the comedies Play by Play and Embeds. Her voiceover talents have worked for clients including Wendy’s, Blue Cross Blue Shield, March of Dimes, Anheuser Busch and Hill’s Pet Food. 

As a producer, she is a two-time Mid-America Regional Emmy award-winner and the proud owner of Smart Mouth Productions. Her first Emmy was awarded for The UnReal HouseWives of Kansas City an inventive parody web series she envisioned, created and produced. Meagan and Smart Mouth recently assisted RappStarr Entertainment producing the family feature Belong to Usstarring Ryan O’Nan currently available on DVD and streaming on UP Faith and Family. Meagan was the writer and a producer of the Slamdance premiering short film, Sketches. Smart Mouth is currently collaborating on two new features and has expanded into corporate and commercial video production.

Loren Halifax

Loren anchors the 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts at FOX4. She joined FOX 4 in March of 2002.  Loren has worked in television news on behalf of viewers for more than two decades. She began her career as the evening anchor and reporter at KTAB-TV in Abilene, Texas. She went on to anchor and report at WHO-TV in Des Moines, Iowa. She reported on the 2000 presidential election—from the Iowa straw poll to the Florida ballot fiasco. She investigated dangers to the public in state security after the September 11th attacks. She even drove her car into the Des Moines River and sank it with only the cameras and herself inside, to show viewers how to get out alive. Loren won the Midwest Broadcaster’s Association honor for Investigative Reporting and NPPA honors for reporting. 

She taught news writing as an adjunct professor at her alma mater, Abilene Christian University (ACU). In 2004, she won an Outstanding Alumnus Award from ACU.  Loren has volunteered for many causes close to her, such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Children’s Mercy Miracle Network, the Salvation Army, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, AIDS research funding and aid for victims of domestic violence.  Loren enjoys just about everything in the metro, from sports to the symphony.

John Mertz 

John Mertz is a celebrated radio and television personality perhaps best known for twenty-nine years of hosting on-camera fundraising broadcasts on KCPT, Kansas City’s public television station, and for his local radio commercials. He also produces Internet videos for business web sites. And he has a series of Hawaii video features on YouTube.  John has been a long time supporter of the Reel Spirit Showcases and the next generation of filmmakers. 

Jeremy Osbern

Jeremy is an Emmy Award-winning cinematographer. He’s worked as director of photography on multiple feature films, including two movies directed by Academy Award-winner Kevin Willmott: the Sundance feature, The Only Good Indian, and the Wilt Chamberlain narrative feature, Jayhawkers. His most recent short film, Crude Oil, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and was a featured in American Cinematographer. His most recent feature film, The Big Ugly, stars Ron Perlman, Malcolm McDowell, and Vinnie Jones, and debuts in theaters July 31.

Raphael Sbarge

has been a working actor for more than five decades. Growing up in New York City’s lower East Side, he began working at age 4 on Sesame Street. He has appeared in dozens of movies, including Risky Business, My Science Project, Independence Day, Pearl Harbor and Vision Quest.

Raphael’s resume includes more than 100 guest appearances and series regular roles on network television shows including the long-running ABC hit Once Upon a Time, the TNT series Murder in the First, and The Guardian for CBS. He has recurred on series including Star Trek Voyager, Dexter and Prison Break. Raphael has also performed on stage in theaters around the country and appeared in five Broadway productions. 

His first narrative short, The Bird Who Could Fly, an immigrant Korean story, set in K-town, Los Angeles with an all-Asian cast, has won numerous awards and garnered many laurels at film festivals around the country and internationally, including best narrative short at the Greenpoint Film Festival and DisOrient Film Festival, and winner of the best short, best drama, best ensemble and best director awards at the Asians on Film festival.LA Foodways, a six-part digital series and one-hour feature that Raphael directed and produced, debuted in January 2019, and airs on KCET and online. The series, which was co-produced with KCET, highlights Los Angeles’ farming history, contrasted against the fact that there are 1.5 million people dealing with food scarcity or living in food deserts in Los Angeles county, the largest in the country.  This series has just been nominated for an Emmy.