We are excited to welcome speakers from HBOSports, NFLFilms, Religion of Sports, and ESPN for NYUSFF’s panel on Career Development in Sports Storytelling. The panel will take place this Saturday (April 30) from 2:30pm-3:30pm at the NYU Production Lab, and doors open at 2:15pm!
We are excited to welcome guest speaker Spencer Paysinger [@pysngr], former NFL player and current producer whose life-story inspired the show All American [@cwallamerican]. He will be joining us for a live virtual career chat from 3:30-4:00pm at our festival this Saturday.
Biography: Spencer Paysinger grew up in South Central, Los Angeles yet attended Beverly Hills High School where he excelled at football. He went on to accept an athletic scholarship to the University of Oregon. Paysinger graduated with a Bachelors in Economics in 2010. His personal story is the inspiration for The CW hit drama “All American.”
After going unselected in the 2011 NFL Draft, he made the final cut with the New York Giants where he eventually went on to win Super Bowl XLVI in his rookie season. Spencer played seven seasons in the NFL before retiring to pursue his new dream of developing television and film concepts that spotlight unique experiences across America.
Aside from producing “All American,” Paysinger has written, directed, produced various projects under his Moore Street Productions banner with Imagine Entertainment, Disney, Wilson Sports, SMAC, HyperObject, and Uninterrupted.
Outside of entertainment, Paysinger is co-owner in Hilltop Coffee + Kitchen, a fast-casual eatery with allegiance to underserved communities. He serves on the board of KIPP Public Schools Black and LatinX Leadership committee with the goal of creating programs for KIPP’s South Central youth. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Blair Paysinger, and two children, Cairo and Madden.
We are excited to welcome Bentley Weiner as a member of our panel on Career Development in Sport Storytelling from 2:30-3:30pm!
Biography: Weiner is Vice President, HBO Sports Documentaries at the newly formed media company Warner Bros. Discovery. As a programming executive, Bentley is responsible for the development, production, and acquisition of sports documentaries for HBO. Recent projects she’s overseen include the acclaimed two-part film Tiger and the big wave surfing series 100 Foot Wave.
Bentley began her career at HBO in 2000, working on the programs On the Record with Bob Costas and Inside the NFL. In 2008, she started producing and directing the groundbreaking documentary series 24/7, profiling athletes such as Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquaio, Tiger Woods, Kelly Slater, and Sidney Crosby & the Pittsburgh Penguins in the lead-up to some of the biggest events in sports. Under her leadership for a decade, the series won fifteen Sports Emmy Awards across an array of categories. In addition, over that span, Bentley directed several documentaries including The Many Lives of Nick Buoniconti and Legendary Nights: The Tale of Gatti-Ward.
Other notable projects and films Bentley has overseen in recent years include Andre the Giant, Being Serena, Momentum Generation, The Weight of Gold, and Lebron James’ unscripted series The Shop.
An eight-time Emmy winner, Bentley is on the board of directors of Reel Works, a filmmaking program for at-risk youth in New York City. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Trinity College in Hartford, CT and resides in Manhattan.
We are excited to welcome Courtland Bragg as a member of our panel on Career Development in Sport Storytelling from 2:30-3:30pm!
Biography: Bragg is a 3x Emmy-Award-winning Producer, Director, and Internship Development Coordinator at NFL Films, the filmmaking arm of the National Football League (NFL). He has directed, produced, and edited content for shows airing on ESPN, HBO, CBS Sports, NFL Network, Fox Sports 1, and Amazon Video to name a few. Courtland was one of the youngest members selected to the inaugural Athletic’s NFL 40 under 40 list which recognizes rising stars shaping the direction of the NFL.
Aside from producing enterprise stories for NFL fans across the world, he serves as the co-chair for the Black Engagement Network where he works closely with NFL executives on diversity recruitment, retention, and promotion of minority employees.
Courtland is a graduate of Winslow Township High School – Class of 2010 and before his journey to the NFL, he played college football at West Chester University where he graduated with a B.A in Communications Studies.
We are excited to welcome Lauren Stowell as a member of our panel on Career Development in Sport Storytelling from 2:30-3:30pm!
Biography: Since joining ESPN in 2006, Lauren Stowell has produced and directed a variety of short and longform features and documentaries for programs and platforms across ESPN, including SportsCenter’s storytelling brand SC Featured, College GameDay, ESPN Films, and The Undefeated.
In 2013, Stowell received her first National Sports Emmy for the short feature, “Drive,” the story of a motorsports engineer who designed cars for the most successful team in NASCAR, despite being born without arms. In 2015, she received an Emmy for the short documentary, “No Excuses,” the story of a seven-year-old wrestler’s special bond with a coach and mentor. More recently, in 2020, Stowell received an Emmy for the long feature, “Unstoppable,” a young man’s road to college football after narrowly surviving a housefire.
In 2020, Stowell produced and directed “America’s Son,” a one-hour documentary exploring the many ways Tiger Woods’ historic Masters tournament win in 1997 – becoming the first African American to win a major – influenced perceptions about race in America. The film was touted by USA Today as “one of the best documentaries ESPN has ever done.” The same year, Stowell co-directed “144,” an Emmy nominated, 90-minute documentary chronicling the unprecedented 2020 WNBA season, amidst racial reckoning and at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2019, Stowell produced, “Together,” a short film detailing Lauren and Jrue Holiday’s journey to parenthood after receiving a devastating medical diagnosis. The film is shown daily, inside Walt Disney World’s NBA Experience attraction in Disney Springs. In 2018, Stowell received the AOPO (Association of Organ Procurement Organizations) Crystal Heart Award for her documentary, “Restart,” the story of a racecar driver’s donated heart saving the life of a retired Army war veteran, and the emotional journey as both families met for the first time. The award recognizes one member of the media that has made extraordinary strides for organ, tissue and eye donation and transplantation. “Restart” received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Short Sports Documentary.
Stowell is a five-time Emmy award-winner, a four-time National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) award recipient, a three-time National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Salute to Excellence award recipient, a three-time New York Festivals Gold Medal recipient, a two-time Russ Catlin Motorsports Journalism award recipient, and a two-time Telly award recipient.
Stowell is a 2006 graduate of the University of Connecticut where she received a B.A., in Journalism, with a concentration in Pathobiology.
We are excited to welcome Adam Schlossman as a member of our panel on Career Development in Sport Storytelling from 2:30-3:30pm!
Biography: Adam Schlossman is a Co-Executive Producer (Audio) at Religion of Sports.