Eden Brolin

Actress

After graduating high school, Eden Brolin traveled all the way to New York City to study at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater from 2011-2013. Later that year, she directed an experimental rock-opera called Smile Swamp Princess at The Wild Project in New York city, produced by Muddy Boots Production. Soon after that production, she wrapped her debut feature film, I Dream Too Much, as the lead role of Dora.

This last year, Eden continues to work her magic throughout the entertainment industry and has gone on to co-produce and perform in an original play by Edward Allen Baker in Toronto, as well as star in her second feature film, Bloodline, produced by Garden House Entertainment. 

Diane Ladd

Actress

Internationally acclaimed actress, director, writer and author, winner of thirty seven awards including the British Academy award and Independent Spirit Award, 3 x Emmy Nominee and a 3 x Oscar Nominee: Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Rambling Rose (Princess Diana chose as one of her favorites, holding a London Royal Premiere in their honor); and David Lynch’s Wild at Heart. In 1980, she joined the Alice T.V. show, based on the original film - not wanting to play Flo again, Diane created the role of a Singing-Songwriter Waitress, Belle, winning the 1981 Golden Globe. She was recently seen playing the mother, Helen, with her daughter, Laura Dern, Amy, in the  HBO hit series, Enlightened. Ms. Ladd’s newest book , a collection of ten short stories, A Bad Afternoon for a Piece of Cake, was praised by Critic Rex Reed comparing her to Truman Capote, Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers and her cousin, Tennessee Williams, stating: "she has the same gift they do, and you can’t learn this stuff in writing class."

Danielle Brooks

Actress

Danielle Brooks stars as Tasha 'Taystee' Jefferson in Jenji Kohan's Orange is the New Black, a Netflix original series.  Danielle was born and raised in South Carolina before heading to NYC to attend Juilliard's prestigious drama program.  Danielle can be seen in the HBO series, GIRLS and recently wrapped on the indie features, I Dream Too Much with Diane Ladd, executive produced by Richard Linklater and Time Out of Mind written and directed by Oren Moverman starring Richard Gere. 

Brooks, also a singer and songwriter, released her holiday medley Jolly Christmas Medley  with indie rock band Oh Honey and OITNB co-star, Uzo Aduba which quickly became an internet sensation.

Christina Rouner

Actress

Born in Banglaore, India, Christina moved home to America when she was five. She grew up outside of Boston, riding horses and doing plays. She is the youngest of four and the only girl.  When she was 14, one of her brothers died in a climbing accident in Alaska, and became a very formative event in her childhood.  After high school, she attended Yale as an undergraduate and majored in Medieval History.  She lived in Paris for a year and a half during that time, working on a thesis and studying at the Sorbonne. Upon her return to Yale, she met Athol Fugard, who completely changed her idea of what she wanted to do with her life.  She then attended Juilliard for drama school and has been living in New York ever since. She met her husband, Matthew Greer, while doing a production of Cymbelline. They were married in 2001, and she now has two children, Miranda (12) and Spencer (8).

Katie Cokinos

Writer, Director

Katie Cokinos has made over ten short films and in 2000 wrote, directed, and acted in the feature film, Portrait of a Girl as a Young Cat which premiered at SXSW.  Katie produced Eagle Pennell’s film, Heart Full of Soul (1990); was a publicist for Richard Linklater’s Slacker (1990). 

She was the Managing Director of the Austin Film Society, 1990-95.  She was the location manager for Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, (1994) Love and a .45 (1994) and assistant location manager for What's Eating Gilbert Grape, (1993).

Recently Katie has written the screenplay, The Girl Vanishes, and co-written One Summer Day, both feature length romantic comedies.  She lives with her family in New York’s Hudson Valley.

Jay Thames

Producer, Actor, Director

A Texas native, Jay wrote/produced the critically acclaimed indie Automatic which won awards at film festivals around the world. The film was released in 2010. He produced and directed the documentary, Carpet Racers about competitive radio control race car driving.  The film premiered on The Documentary Channel in March of 2012. In Winter 2010/2011, Jay produced The Power of Few  in New Orleans with Chris Walken and Christian Slater.  The film was released theatrically worldwide in 2013. In 2012, Jay was the Executive Producer of 2nd Serve, a tennis comedy starring Josh Hopkins, and an adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Telltale Heart starring John Patrick Fluger and Rose McGowan.

In 2012, Jay started 77 Films, a production company involved in the development, production and distribution of content across multiple platforms.

Jay has also appeared in TV shows, Greg The Bunny, Sons Of Anarchy and 24.

Ed McWilliams

Writer, Producer

Originally from Texas, Ed moved to Hollywood after graduating from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. His first industry job was at Madonna's company, Maverick Films. Their deal with Fox taught him the inner-workings of studios. He read hundreds of scripts, focusing on YA and comic book properties. After this he took the position of Creative Executive with management/production company, Content House, where he developed projects with Oscar nominated screenwriters. He founded the independent production company Attic Light Films in 2008 along with Milan Chakraborty, and his brother, Jack, joined soon after. They produced the detective noir comedy, Rock Slyde, starring Patrick Warburton and Andy Dick. After writing multiple award-winning short films and filming documentaries, they returned to the feature world with Alter Egos, an anti-superhero comedy, which became one of Phase 4's highest-grossing films of the year. The Lifeguard, starring Kristen Bell, premiered in competition at Sundance 2013. In 2014 Attic Light produced Where Hope Grows, coming to theaters in May, and I Dream Too Much. He continues to write and develop screenplays, and cohosts the annual Texans in Hollywood BBQ, introducing California to the irresistible flavor of Texas BBQ.

Pantheon of Women

Pantheon of Women is pleased to present I Dream Too Much as its first feature production.  We are proud to be part of the outstanding team supporting Katie Cokinos as writer and director in her dream project.  It is a privilege to join the ranks of Rick Linklater, 77 Films, and Attic Light Films in making it possible for engaging and empowering stories of strong women to come to the big screen. Pantheon of Women believes women’s voices can and should be heard on screen, behind the camera – as writers, directors, actresses, and creative geniuses of all sorts.  We look forward to producing commercially successful independent films that change the way stories of women are told – and through those stories, we will change lives.

For more exciting news from Pantheon of Women, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. 

Richard Linklater

Director, Screenwriter, Producer, Actor

Richard Linklater was born in Houston, Texas, and is well known throughout the entertainment industry. Arguably his most famous film is the renowned coming of age comedy Dazed and Confused (1993), in addition to the dramatic film trilogy Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013). On top of all of these heavy hitting films, he has also written & directed for School of Rock (2003), the lucid & deeply philosophical, rotoscope-animated film Waking Life (2001), and A Scanner Darkly (2006). Between the years of 2002 to 2014, Richard was filming his passion project Boyhood (2014). His films are most known for their loose narrative and memorable characters. 

Richard has received wide acclaim, boasting a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director, and nominations for Original Screenplay and Picture. He has also won the Golden Globe, Critic’s Choice Movie awards, and BAFTAs for Best Director and Best Picture.

Alex Rappaport

Cinematographer, Editor

In the annals of creative endeavor, few instances could rate higher as labors of love than my work on I Dream Too Much.  Katie and I were in great measure brought together as husband and wife by our shared love of cinema, and I am fond of pointing out that her first film, Portrait of a Young Girl, was shot by her boyfriend and edited by her husband – both me.  Over the course of that experience, I came to admire Katie as a unique and sensitive storyteller and I was certain that we would make more films together.  Fifteen years and two children later, we have had the great and overdue fortune to work as a team again.  And contrary to what one might expect, the experience has been even more enjoyable this time around.  While this may in part be attributable to factors such as a production crew of more than one, or having a script, I think it has more to do with the fact that after 16 years of marriage we have not once, upon leaving a movie theater together, ever disagreed about our perceptions of any film.  I Dream Too Much: where indie cinema meets Mom and Pop.

Jack McWilliams

Director, Producer

Jack gravitated towards the camera precociously when he became the youngest photographer to be featured in the internationally acclaimed FotoFest. He continued on the path to being a director by shooting short films, interviews, and avant-garde fair.

After graduating from St. John’s School in Houston, Texas, a school immortalized as Rushmore by previous alumni Wes Anderson, Jack moved to the bohemian paradise of Austin to attend the University of Texas and, in particular, the RTF program (Radio, Television, Film). He continued to foster the filmmaking community as a founding member of Paradigm at SJS and as a member of the leadership team at UT film club, UFA (University Filmmakers Alliance). In college his documentary on Nokoa the Observer, an independent Austin weekly struggling to survive, appeared on PBS. His short, Dos Blokes, won a 48 hour competition (selected by Robert Rodriguez) and premiered at SXSW.

He's since gone on to Producing for Attic Light Films with his brother, Ed McWilliams and his business partner Milan Chakraborty.  They have made 5 feature films together.  

Heidi Rodewald

Composer

Heidi Rodewald is the Tony Award nominated, Obie Award winning composer of the musical Passing Strange, which transferred from The Public Theater to Broadway in 2008. She is a Sundance Institute Alum and the cowriter with Stew of the screenplay We Can See Today. Rodewald composed music for Karen Kandel's Portraits: Night and Day (2004); Brides of the Moon by The Five Lesbian Brothers (2010); and co-composed music with Stew for Shakespeares Othello and Much Ado About Nothing and Romeo and Juliet (2010-12). Rodewald joined the band The Negro Problem in 1997 and has collaborated with Stew in a range of capacities -- as a co-composer, producer/ arranger and performer. She is the co-composer with Stew of the new musical Family Album which just finished it's run at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She is also the co-composer of their new musical, The Total Bent, which will open in 2015 at the Public Theater. She has two new projects which have been in development at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA -- The Good Swimmer, a pop-opera (co-written with librettist, Donna DiNovelli) centered around a family of life guards during the Vietnam War, and The Stacks, a two-person musical (co-written by singer songwriter Mary McBride) based on an infamous map thief.