Join PMA for a series of four Professional Directions events, on October 8, October 15, November 5, and November 12, from 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm, in Room 220, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Guest speakers will join virtually on Zoom and will include film and television editor Luke Pebler, documentarian and television director Rachel Raimist, Ph.D., casting director Henry Russell Bergstein '98, and television critic Maureen "Mo" Ryan. Free and open to the public. No registration required.
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Professional Directions with Luke Pebler: Conversations with a Working Editor of ABC's High Potential and Where'd You Go, Bernadette
Thursday, October 8, 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm, Room 220
Join us for a conversation with film and television editor Luke Pebler as he tells us how he got his start and offers advice and stories for those interesting in breaking into the creative parts of Hollywood.
Luke Pebler grew up in Wisconsin and studied at USC's School of Cinematic Arts, where he discovered a passion for film editing. After almost a decade working in Hollywood series television, he relocated to Texas in 2015, where he has expanded into the independent feature and documentary worlds. His credits included ABC's High Potential and multiple Richard Linklater films. He lives in Austin with his wife and cat.
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Professional Directions with Rachel Raimist, Ph.D.: Journeywoman Tales Inside and Out of Hollywood from a TV Director with a Ph.D.
Thursday, October 15, 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm, Room 220
Rachel Raimist, Ph.D. is a tenured professor, a documentarian, a television director and so much more. Join us for a conversation with Dr. Raimist as she shares how she got her start, reconnected with Hollywood after working in academia for nearly a decade, and becoming a lauded advocate for women in her industry.
Dr. Rachel Raimist is the Morgan Woodward Endowed Distinguished Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. A trailblazing television director whose work centers on smart women, messy families and the magical reality of adolescence, Dr. Raimist's credits span drama, comedy, action, musicals, science fiction and fantasy. She has brought her distinctive voice to series including Elsbeth (CBS), Bel-Air (Peacock), The Spiderwick Chronicles (Roku), Sex Life (Netflix) and Wu-Tang: An American Saga (Hulu), among others. At the Directors Guild of America (DGA), Dr. Raimist made history as the first woman appointed Co-Chair of the Special Projects Committee. A passionate advocate for equity and representation, she co-founded the DGA’s annual Women’s Day and leads initiatives spotlighting groundbreaking, diverse directors. Raimist's origin story as a filmmaker is shared in the award-winning documentary TEENAGE WASTELAND which streams on Netflix. Dr. Raimist has taught for Sundance, Netflix, African Creative Television, Tyler Perry Studios and the Latino Film Institute. She serves on the Advisory Board of Kōawa Studios at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. She has taught filmmaking, feminism and storytelling at more than 30 colleges and universities and has filmed and taught in more than 20 countries.
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Professional Directions with Henry Russell Bergstein '98: Finding Types: The Work of Casting Directors
Thursday, November 5, 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm, Room 220
Join us for a conversation with casting director and Cornell alum Henry Russell Bergstein ‘98 as he shares his story of breaking into the business of casting as he continuously navigates the ebbs and flows of a volatile Hollywood. During our time together, Bergstein will also offer advice for aspiring media makers, actors, and casting directors-in-training.
Henry Russell Bergstein is an Emmy-nominated and Artios Award-winning bicoastal casting director who proudly shares an Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award with long-time casting partner, Allison Estrin. As an independent casting director, Bergstein worked on series including HBO Max’s The Other Two, HBO’s Succession, Netflix’s Inventing Anna, Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle, Netflx’s Black Mirror, and the pilot of Hulu’s Ramy. Bergstein's film credits include Mass (Sundance ’21), Black Bear (Sundance ’20), The Kindergarten Teacher (Sundance ’18), Saturday Church (Tribeca ‘17), Almost Love (Frameline ’19), It Felt Like Love (Sundance ’13), and Grandma (Sundance ’15). During his career he’s had the privilege of working with filmmakers including Greta Gerwig, Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, M. Night Shyamalan, James Gray, Eliza Hittman, and Kenneth Lonergan. Bergstein has worked on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway specializing in new American plays and musicals. Bergstein is the former VP, Casting for HBO Max, TNT, TBS, and TruTV, and a former Manager of East Coast Casting for WBTV Studios. He is an improviser and former house team member at UCB and the Magnet Theater in NY. He holds an M.F.A. in Film from Northwestern University and a B.A. in Theater with a minor in LGBT Studies from Cornell University. Bergstein is a member of the Casting Society of America and a proud Teamster.
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Professional Directions with Maureen "Mo" Ryan: True Stories from a TV Critic about her Bouts with Hollywood
Thursday, November 12, 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm, Room 220
Join us for a conversation with Vanity Fair contributing editor Maureen "Mo" Ryan and author of New York Times bestseller Burn it Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood as she describes breaking into the entertainment journalism beat and finding success telling the stories whispered about in Hollywood so that accountability can be found and change made.
Critic, author and award-winning journalist Maureen “Mo” Ryan is a Contributing Editor at Vanity Fair, and has written for Entertainment Weekly, New York Times, Salon, GQ, Vulture, The Hollywood Reporter, TV Guide and Slate. Ryan, who was named the best TV writer in America by Complex in 2013, previously worked as the chief television critic at Variety, Huffington Post, and the Chicago Tribune. Her book, Burn it Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood, which the New Yorker called “galvanizing,” hit the New York Times and Los Angeles Times best-seller lists upon its 2023 release. The chapter on the TV drama Lost excerpted in Vanity Fair made news around the world, as have an array of her investigative stories on Hollywood misconduct, abuse and exploitation. Ryan, who has a Master’s degree from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, received a MacDowell Fellowship in 2025, served for many years on the juries of the Peabody Awards and the AFI Awards, and has been an expert commentator in the documentaries We Need to Talk About Cosby, Jared Leto: Hollywood's Dark Secret, and This Changes Everything (which is in part based on her reporting on bias in the hiring of directors). Ryan, whose next book is about the award-winning drama Battlestar Galactica, lives with her family in Chicago.
