PANELISTS
JOHN CARPENTER
John Carpenter was born in Carthage, New York. His family later moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where his father was the head of the music department at Western Kentucky University. He attended Western Kentucky University followed by the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema. He began work on a science fiction comedy short, Dark Star; a partial homage to his idol Howard Hawks’, Assault on Precinct; but his breakthrough film was the seminal horror film Halloween. He further established his reputation in genre hits like: The Fog; They Live; Prince of Darkness; the psychological horror film, In the Mouth of Madness; Christine; and The Ward, as well as many action films. His motion picture credits also include the comedy-thriller, Memoirs of An Invisible Man; the sci-fi love story, Starman which earned Jeff Bridges a Best Actor Oscar nomination, and Village of the Damned. In the world of comics, Carpenter is the co-creator of the award-winning series and anthology collections. In 2014, Carpenter introduced the world to the next phase of his career with Vortex. In 2018, Carpenter returned to the beginning, executive producing the new version of Halloween. In May 2019, he was given Le Carrosse D’Or by the French Directors Guild in Cannes. He lives in Hollywood, California with his wife and frequent collaborator, Sandy King.
MODERATOR
MIKE MUSE
Mike Muse is a former Record Label Co-Founder, Pop Culture Expert, Political Expert, and Change Agent. By intersecting politics and pop culture, Mike uses his platform to create social change. As an industrial engineer turned media entrepreneur, Mike is host of SiriusXM’s award winning show, The Mike Muse Show, Co-host of Sway in the Morning, and recently named ABC News Contributor for ABC News Live and the Good Morning America Family. He leverages his platform to show policy as lifestyle, the topic of his first of two TED Talks. And he is a guest lecturer on various topics dealing with the business of music and politics at our nation’s top universities. Mike served as a member of President Barack Obama’s National Finance Committee, to which he was recognized as one of the youngest people in America to raise over $1 million dollars for any American President in one year. He was appointed to serve as the Unites States Small Business Administration, My Brother’s Keeper, Millennial Entrepreneurial Champion, which was designed to support President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative. And he was also appointed as the United States Small Business Administration Federal Commission for the Council of Underserved Communities, as the Millennials in Business Representative. His passion will always be tech which is evident with his newly minted fellowship with Google, as a NextGen Tech Policy Fellow.