Working Above the Line: Biographies

Tiffany Little Canfield, CSA, was nominated in 2017 for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting for the Drama Series This Is Us, and nominated for Grease Live in 2016.  She is a casting director for theatre, film, opera, television and commercials at one of New York’s busiest casting offices, Telsey + Company. She recently relocated to the west coast to open Telsey + Company Los Angeles Branch. Her team's recent film projects include Mary Poppins Returns, The Greatest Showman, Hearts Beat Loud and Disney's Into the Woods. Some of Tiffany’s recent television projects include One Day at a Time, Atypical and I’m Dying Up Here.  Tiffany was honored with the CSA Media Access Award for promoting awareness, accessibility and accurate depictions of people with disabilities. She and Bernie Telsey also won the Robert Altman Spirit Award for their work on the film Margin Call. Also an opera lover, she cast Baz Luhrmann’s production of Puccini’s La Boheme (Broadway and Los Angeles companies) and Anna Nicole the Opera at BAM.  

Cheo Hodari Coker is the creator, executive producer, and showrunner of Marvel's Luke Cage. Cheo, a Stanford graduate, (Class of 1994), started his career in journalism, writing entertainment profiles for the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, Premiere, Vibe, The Source, XXL, Essence and numerous national publications. He's the author of the book, Unbelievable: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G.  Cheo co-wrote (with Reggie Rock Bythewood) 2009's Notorious, and segued into television writing. He started out as an Executive Story Editor on Southland, where he eventually rose to supervising producer and won an NAACP award for the Season Four episode, God’s Work.  Cheo followed Southland with a stint as a supervising producer on CBS' NCIS: Los Angeles, Co-Executive Producer for Fox's Almost Human and Showtime's Ray Donovan. Cheo's other feature film credits include Lowriders (co-written with Elgin James) (2017), and the upcoming Creed 2.

RJ Cyler made his motion-picture debut playing “Earl” in the award winning feature, “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” opposite Thomas Mann, Olivia Cooke, Nick Offerman and Connie Britton. The film picked up 17 honors, notably the Heartland Film’s Truly Moving Picture Award, an Independent Spirit Award for screenwriter Jesse Andrews and two prizes (a rare double coup) at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival — Grand Jury and Audience Awards for director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. RJ is also known for his role as “Billy Cranston,” the Blue Ranger on the autistic spectrum, in Lionsgate’s feature release of “Power Rangers.” On television RJ is best known for his role of “Adam Proteau” in SHOWTIME’S “I’m Dying Up Here” executive produced by Jim Carrey. Currently, RJ can be seen in the Sony Pictures release, “White Boy Rick,” opposite Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Jason Leigh. He plays Ruddell “Boo" Curry, the youngest of the Curry Brothers, and Rick’s best friend. “White Boy Rick” tells the story of Richard Wershe Jr., who at the age of 15 was an FBI informant and a drug kingpin during the height of the drug epidemic in 1980’s Detroit. RJ can also be seen co-starring in the NETFLIX movie, “Sierra Burgess is a Loser,” where he played alongside Chrissy Metz, Lea Thompson and Shannon Purser, as the role of Dan, Shannon Purser’s best friend. To top it off, RJ will soon be seen as the season lead in MTV’s latest installment of “Scream,” set to come out this fall.

Producer Nina Jacobson has built an impressive career as a senior film executive and producer, including stints at DreamWorks, Universal and Disney, where she served as President of Walt Disney Motion Picture Group. As an executive, she shepherded The Sixth Sense, Remember the Titans, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Pirates of the Caribbean. In 2007, Jacobson formed her own production company, Color Force. Under the new Color Force banner, Jacobson produced Diary of a Wimpy Kid, released by Fox 2000. Color Force's other releases include One Day, The Hunger Games, and the sequel to Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Rodrick Rules. Nina is active with Teen Line, Feminist Majority Foundation, and Inner City Filmmakers. Nina is a graduate of Brown University.

Peyton Reed first gained national attention with his feature directorial debut Bring It On (Universal), starring Kirsten Dunst.   He followed it up with 2003’s critically acclaimed Down With Love (20th Century Fox), starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor.  Peyton helmed the smash hit The Break Up (Universal) starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston, Yes Man (Warner Brothers) starring Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel and Bradley Cooper and most recently directed Marvel’s Ant-Man (2015) and its follow-up, Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly and Michael Douglas. Originally from Raleigh, NC, and a graduate of the University of North Carolina, Peyton began his career as a documentary editor at ZM Productions. After writing and directing the award-winning short Almost Beat (1989), he directed a series of high profile behind-the-scenes documentaries, including The Secrets of the Back to the Future Trilogy, Through the Eyes of Forrest Gump and The Honeymooners Anniversary Special.  He currently resides with his wife and children in Los Angeles, California.

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.