Producing Nonfiction TV Remotely: Panel 2

Monique Taylor is an Emmy Award-winning Television Executive and Producer with over 15 years of experience delivering innovative, top-rated programming for networks including VH1, MTV, E! Entertainment, ABC, NBC, Bravo and TLC.
The Chicago, IL native earned her BA in Broadcast Journalism from Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD and an MA in Documentary Production from Emerson College in Boston, MA. She began her professional career as a television producer at WGBH in Boston. Her love of storytelling led her to Los Angeles to produce reality television, including hit shows for E! and MTV. She then moved to New York City to focus on developing and producing a series of talk shows including, “The Wendy Williams Show”, “Bethenny”, and “The Steve Harvey Show”. Monique went on to win an Daytime Emmy Award for Senior Producer on “The Chew” in 2016. Her production resume also includes, “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” “Love & Hip Hop Atlanta”, “Black Ink”, and “Love & Hip Hop New York”. Currently, she is Co-Executive Producer for an upcoming spin-off series in the “90 Day Fiancé” franchise.
Now residing in New Jersey, Monique is an active member of the WGA East, the PGA, Project Involve and Black Girls Rule LA. In her free time, she can be found enjoying extreme vacations—cliff jumping, exploring volcanoes, and swimming with sharks.

Born and raised in Brooklyn NY, Michael Newborn attended The School of Visual Arts and upon graduating, began an expansive career in entertainment. The NAACP-award-winning and Emmy-nominated producer has years of creative experience developing original show ideas, producing and casting for nationally syndicated pop culture and lifestyle talk shows including The Rachael Ray Show, The Wendy Williams Show, The Chew, and The Real. Additionally, his unique voice and experience, empathic drive and ability to build a show from the ground up were vital assets while producing Black Women OWN The Conversation and most recently Race & Resolution.

Phakiso “Kiki” Collins is a producer/multi-media artist/coach and is currently Executive Producer at ViacomCBS Entertainment & Youth Group. She has provided creative vision, leadership, and support to some of the country’s top production companies, networks and television shows in the span of her 17 year career in tv production.

Homegrown in Greensboro, NC and a proud Alumna of Howard University’s School of Communications, this now Brooklyn resident has shot, directed, field and post produced on multiple projects with MSNBC, OWN, FYI, TVOne, BET, Revolt, MTV, and Vh1. Recognized and highly regarded for her work with the record breaking docu-series Real Housewives of Atlanta on Bravo Network, she has proven to hold an important voice in the industry. With her producerial impact on shows such as TI & Tiny’s Friends & Family Hustle, Black Ink Crew Compton and most recently Love & Hip Hop Phakiso has centered much of her work in reality television on expanding the narrative from which we see and advocating for stories that both entertain and uplift. As an independent filmmaker, she has worked on several dance-video and documentary short films. A multi talented leader, Phakiso has earned a reputation for her stellar work as a storyteller and innovative manager who creates passion, rigor, cohesive flow, and joy within the sets and teams she oversees.

Her passion for continuing to create content that liberates and heals moved her to spearhead several initiatives and projects. Phakiso is founder of Breakin’ Out!, Co-produced with her sister, Shani Collins-Achille (of SNIC Eternalworks), which is an arts-education initiative that is workshop and performance based. What started as boisterous, crying, “Oh no they didn’t!” living room “parties” for women of color to come together and break silence around their sexuality has become a series of workshops aiming to liberate, heal, and empower women and young girls in their bodies. She is also the founder of Live Life Juicy, a radical wellness movement with a vision to liberate, heal, and create next level possibilities in the communities of both content creators and Black people. She is an active member of Producers Guild of America and Move The Crowd’s social entrepreneur training.

Her vision is to use media and movement to empower people to live OUTRAGEOUSLY in their fullest expression. She believes in working hard, and playing harder and when not on the tv grind can be found eating, dancing, loving, traveling, teaching yoga, or binging her favs on netflix. Trying her best to live out her motto of Live Life Juicy!

Chinisha is a producer, writer, director, and multi-media artist working in TV, film, and live production. She has worked with major media & arts institutions including McGee Media, Firelight Media, Left/Right TV, VICE, NPR, Carnegie Hall, and more. She spent over a decade at DCTV, where she was the Associate Director of Youth Programs and a teaching artist – instructing NYC high school and college students in social justice and self-advocacy through the art of filmmaking. Her work on the PBS special Our Cameras, Our Stories (a DCTV production) has been recognized with a NY Emmy nomination (2015) and a Robert F. Kennedy Award in Journalism (2016). Chinisha is a certified Prince super-fam and cheerful nihilist with a penchant for witty, sometimes self-deprecating humor. She attended The New School where she received her MA in Media Studies, and a BA in Cinema Studies with a minor in African-American Studies from the CUNY Macaulay Honors College, cum laude.