Lights, Camera, Action! Production: Biographies

Bobbi Banks began her career at Sound One Corporation in New York, a post-production facility that also included music mixing. She entered her field as a “fluke” starting as an administrative assistant to the owner of the company. Bobbi worked her way from administrative to cleaning effects in the sound effects library, choosing sound effects for clients and being the lead mix room technician within four years.  In 1985, Maurice Schell gave Bobbi her first film break as a Sound Apprentice on the film, Desperately Seeking Susan.  With 38 years in the industry,  Bobbi’s persistence and diligence have garnered her over 120 films to her credit list. She has worked with directors John Singleton, Malcolm Lee, Mark Steven Johnson, Louis Leterrier, Craig Brewer, Brad Anderson, Edward Zwick and F. Gary Gray.  Some of her films include Fate of the Furious, Selma, Straight Outta Compton, The Call, The Incredible Hulk, Poetic Justice, Best Man Holiday, Pawn Sacrifice, August Osage County and Ghost Rider. Her ADR supervision has allowed her to work with such esteemed actors such as; Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Taraji P Henson, Terence Howard, Janet Jackson, Tupac, Sir Ben Kingsley, Michael Caine, Jason Mitchell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., The Rock, Tyrese Gibson, Michelle Rodriguez and the list goes on.  Bobbi is also a past president of Motion Picture Sound Editors Union, having become the first African American and the fourth woman to hold this position in the 65 years old organization.  She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. 

Lisa Zeno Churgin is a film editor with more than 35 TV and film credits, including Dead Man Walking, Pete’s Dragon, Pitch Perfect and House of Sand and Fog.  She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for the 1999 film The Cider House Rules (directed by Lasse Hallström) and is a former president of the Motion Picture Editors Guild.  Her most recent film, The Old Man & the Gun, with Robert Redford and Casey Affleck is due out this month.

Kay Lee is a production designer for feature films, television, music videos and commercials. Growing up in a small suburb outside Chicago, Kay spent her afternoons after school experimenting with her sewing machine and constantly rearranging the furniture—much to the consternation of her parents. When she finally escaped East to attend Brown University, her passion for designing and reinventing the spaces around her followed. She devoted herself to sculpture and architecture while designing costumes for student theater productions in her spare time. She ultimately graduated with Honors in Visual Arts and Urban Studies and was awarded the Ann Belsky Moranis Prize for artistic excellence. Kay started her career as a fashion and technical designer for major apparel companies such as Ralph Lauren and The Gap, while also costume designing Off-Broadway theater shows.  Her desire to design and build spaces never left, however, so when she was offered the chance to production design her brother’s graduate thesis film, she leapt at the opportunity. This led to work on numerous NYU and Columbia short films and soon she found that she had discovered a new craft—one that incorporated all of her varied interests. She has not looked back since.  She has worked under renowned production designers David L. Snyder (Blade Runner, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure) and Rob Pearson (The Matador).  Her production design credits include Independent Spirit Award nominated Blue Caprice, Spike Lee's crowd-funded film The Blood of Jesus, and most recently, Girlboss, a 13 episode 1/2 hour series for Netflix.  She currently lives in Santa Monica, California.

Rachel Morrison is a cinematographer at the forefront of cinema, channeling each story’s core emotion into arresting imagery.  Her work has a haunting quality at times and a beautiful elegance at others. For her work on Mudbound, in 2018, she became the first woman to be nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar and for Best Feature Film by the American Society of Cinematographers. Additionally, she is the first woman to have lensed a Marvel superhero movie -- the box office hit Black Panther. She has been nominated for two Emmys and earned the New York Film Critic’s Circle award for Best Cinematography. Rachel shot eight Sundance premieres over seven years including Fruitvale Station which won both the Grand Jury and Audience Award, the indie breakout Dope, Oscar Nominated documentary What Happened, Miss Simone, and most recently, the critically acclaimed period drama Mudbound. She recently wrapped principal photography on Against All Enemies, starring Kristen Stewart, Zazie Beetz, Anthony Mackie and Jack O’Connell. Rachel has a background in photojournalism and completed a master’s degree at the American Film Institute. She is a mother of two and an avid (amateur) surfer.
Isis Mussenden has a diverse body of work, most recently designing the costumes for such features as the upcoming On The Basis of Sex and Velvet Buzzsaw.  Other films include The Wolverine and Fathers & Daughters as well as the two animated classics: Shrek and Shrek 2.  She also served as the costume designer on two seasons of Masters of Sex and several other TV shows.  Isis attended the University of California at Santa Barbara as a studio art major, and later graduated from New York’s prestigious Parson School of Design, earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in fashion design. She began her career at Joseph Papp’s renowned New York Shakespeare Festival, and cut her teeth in the theater world on dozens of plays, including
Been Taken, The Crate, At Home, and Roger Hedden’s Bodies, Rest and Motion at Lincoln Center.

Mary E. Vogt famously put the Men in Black in black when she designed the now-iconic costumes for all three Men in Black films, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.  Other films include A Thousand Words, Dinner with Schmucks, and the blockbuster summer hit, Crazy Rich Asians.  Vogt also works in TV with shows like Pushing Daisies, Wayward Pines and The Brink, as well as Hairspray Live!, for which she earned a 2017 Emmy nomination.  She also enjoys designing costumes for the theatre.  A native of Long Beach, Long Island, she graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.  Her first professional job was as a fashion illustrator at Lord & Taylor, one of Manhattan’s leading department stores.  She moved to California to study at the Pasadena Art Center College of Design and got her start in Hollywood as a sketch artist. 

Mike Muse is the co-founder of Muse Recordings, a music executive, a political expert and a change agent. By intersecting politics and pop culture, Mike uses his platform to create social change. Mike is a commentator on pop culture for Sirius XM Satellite Radio with his featured segment “Political News with Mike Muse.” He can be seen in front of the camera on national television for VH1, BET, NBC, and ARISE as a political/pop culture expert. Mike served as a member of President Barack Obama’s National Finance Committee and most recently was appointed to serve as the Unites States Small Business Administration, My Brother’s Keeper, Millennial Entrepreneurial Champion-designed to support President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative.