Meet Our Legacy Day Panelists: Indie Filmmaking Creativity, Challenges, Triumphs

Melissa Simpson

Melissa Simpson is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Film Impact Georgia, a nonprofit organization dedicated to amplifying the voices of independent filmmakers in Georgia. Born and raised just north of Atlanta, she holds a Bachelor of Science in Film & Digital Media from the University of North Georgia.

Melissa's passion for film is reflected in her extensive experience within the industry. She was a founding director of the Georgia Film Festival and served as Creative Director for TERMINUS Conference + Festival. Her diverse roles at various film festivals include the prestigious Atlanta Film Festival, the Rome International Film Festival, the WIFTA Short Film Showcase, and the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. Additionally, she spent two years at Eventive, a virtual streaming platform for independent film, where she collaborated with filmmakers and film festivals worldwide.

Currently, as the Education Director at the Atlanta Film Society, Melissa is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of diverse storytellers. She currently serves on the board of Directors for the Sarah Jones Opportunity and the Film Festival Alliance and remains actively engaged in the Georgia film community, producing independent projects such as Come Correct, Wokman, and Christmas with Jerks. She was recently named one of the 200 Most Influential of Georgia’s Creative Industries by Georgia Entertainment and honored at the Women in Film and Television Atlanta’s 50th Anniversary Gala.

Beyond her professional life, Melissa is a devoted animal lover with a home full of rescue pets and won a hula hoop contest at the age of eight.

Cas Sigers Beedles

Cas Sigers Beedles is a professional writer, director, and producer with over 18 years of experience. In 2021, Cas wrote and directed the all-female heist film Scheme Queens, which premiered in the winter of 2022 on BET and aired on Apple and Amazon in the summer of 2023. Her most recent projects are A Mother's Intuition, a suspense drama she directed, starring Denise Boutte, airing on TVOne and Lifetime, and The Match, a suspense thriller she wrote and directed starring Brittany S. Hall and Lanre Idewu, airing on AMCs AllBlk Fall 2024.

Cas has written and sold over twenty screenplays for various television networks, studios, and production houses. She has written and produced many of the highest-debut television movies for multiple networks. Some of her television films include Where's the Love, Girlfriends Getaway 1 & 2, and Welcome to the Family. Other titles include the NAACP Image Award-nominated Sugar Mommas, Between Sisters, and A Cross to Bear. Her most famous film is the biopic drama When Love Kills, the Falicia Blakely Story. This film was nominated for two NAACP Image Awards, Outstanding Writing and Outstanding TV Feature.

Through Nina Holiday Entertainment, her production company formed in 2008, Cas has had three films released through Viacom. Angrily Ever After, Hip Hop Holiday, and T'was the Chaos before Christmas, one of the highest-rated Christmas films in BET history, and nominated for a 2020 NAACP Image Award for outstanding writing. In March 2020, Cas had her writer/director debut with the release of her feature film Open, a drama about a couple in an open marriage starring Keith Robinson, Matt Cedeno, and Essence Atkins. Also, in 2020, Cas directed Mediator, a psychological thriller about a missing children's counselor being haunted by one of her cases. In 2021, Cas penned Sugar Plum Twist, which aired on Hallmark during the holiday of 2021. In 2022, Cas had two projects for Hallmark's new Mahogany initiative. Gracie Award-winning Unthinkably Good Things and The Holiday Stocking was Mahogany's first Christmas film.

Cas is a member of the Writer's Guild of America and the Producer's Guild. Through Kensington Press Publication, she has authored six fiction novels. Most importantly, she is the mother of two exceptional children, Kingston and Brooklyn Beedles.

Ray Murray

Producer, artist and all around creative Ray Murray has been destined to be a disruptor since before he was born. A descendant of civil rights activists, Murray met his production partners Rico Wade and Sleepy Brown when he was a teenager.

Of the three, he arrived with the most exposure and awareness of Hip-Hop culture, a level of expertise which became a foundational cornerstone of their legendary production trio Organized Noize.

His love of the culture combined with an incomparable knowledge and curiosity about music has allowed him to impact countless artists over the years - from the Dungeon Family artists, which Organized Noize molded and developed, including Outkast and Goodie Mob; to fellow legends like Raphael Saadiq.

Over three decades into his career, Ray Murray continues to be a resource for rising creatives, pouring into the next generation of the Dungeon Family as he continues to cement a place for Atlanta creatives within the larger world of Entertainment.