INDUSTRY 101:
DEMYSTIFYING THE GENERAL

So, you’ve landed your first general meeting. That’s something to celebrate! Call your friends. Go to dinner. You come home, go to bed, then your old friend Imposter Syndrome wakes you up at four in the morning. You realize you don’t even really know what a general is or what you should have prepared, if anything. This panel conversation will fill you in on what to expect, how to avoid some major pitfalls, and how to put your best foot forward. 

Humanitas's Industry 101 event series has been made possible with support from our series sponsor Sony Pictures Entertainment.

American Sign Language interpretation services provided by Pro Bono ASL.

Ryan Cunningham (Anonymous Content)

Ryan Cunningham is a literary manager and producer at Anonymous Content. Ryan began his career in physical production as a PA on several films and TV shows shooting in New Orleans while he attended Tulane University. After graduating, Ryan moved to Los Angeles where he worked in the story department at New Regency and at Stratus Films.

He joined the Metropolitan Talent Agency in 2005 as an assistant and was promoted to coordinator in the literary department. He moved to Madhouse Entertainment in late 2006, soon after the company’s inception, as a junior manager and was promoted to full manager in 2009.

In 2019, Ryan joined Anonymous Content as a manager and producer, and represents a stable of writers and writer/directors in the TV, film and publishing worlds.

His clients include Scott Beck & Bryan Woods (A Quiet Place, Sony’s upcoming 65), Spenser Cohen & Anna Halberg (Extinction, Moonfall, Amblin’s upcoming Distant), Phil Gelatt (LOVE, DEATH, + ROBOTS), Daniel Goldhaber & Isa Mazzei (Cam, How to Blow Up a Pipeline), Darnell Metayer & Josh Peters (Transformers 7), Joel Wyman (showrunner of Fringe and Debris), Steven DeKnight (showrunner of Spartacus, Daredevil, Jupiter’s Legacy), Sonya Winton & Jonathan Kidd (Lovecraft Country, overall deal with HBO), Ben Queen (A to Z, Addams Family 2), Chris Hazzard & Mike Fontana (Lionsgate’s upcoming Under Cover), James Morosini (writer/director/star of I Love My Dad) and Seamus Fahey (showrunner of Walker: Independence) among others.

Ryan Executive Produced Sony / Screen Gems’ feature Slender Man. He’s also developing John Scalzi’s award winning sci-fi book series Old Man’s War as a feature for Netflix, Stephen King’s The Boogeyman for Fox, the upcoming political thriller The Independent, and has several other TV and film projects in various stages of development.

He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children and doesn’t sleep much.

Jelani Johnson (Macro)

Jelani Johnson joined MACRO in early 2020 to launch the company’s representation vertical. In 2021 Jelani transitioned to the production side of the company where he serves as EVP of Content Strategy. In this role he works across MACRO to support the identification of commercially viable and mission-aligned projects. Jelani is tasked with managing these projects from development to pre-production, to production, through delivery and finally through marketing.

Prior to joining MACRO, Johnson spent 4+ years as a Motion Picture Agent at the Creative Artists Agency (CAA). While at CAA his clients included: Melina Matsoukas, A$AP Rocky, Cheo Coker, Jesse Williams, Lenny Kravitz, Storm Reid, Angel Soto, Solvan “Slick” Naim, Gina Rodriguez, Virgil Williams, Rob Morgan, Mara Brock Akil and André Holland amongst others. Johnson began his career in entertainment as an intern at CAA and transitioned into talent management at the Santa Monica-based management company Generate. He subsequently co-founded The Mission Entertainment, a management and production company focused on multicultural content creators, before returning back to CAA. Johnson received a bachelor’s degree in History and Anthropology from Columbia University.

Rachel Miller (Haven Entertainment)

Rachel Miller is a founding partner of Haven Entertainment (haven.la), a management and production company based in Los Angeles. Haven produces award-winning documentaries, feature films and television shows; represents top writers, directors, actors, and comedians; and collaborates with brands to develop cutting-edge digital content. She is Executive Producer of Netflix’s limited series Devil in Ohio starring Emily Deschanel which debuted to #1 in the US and #3 in the world and within 48 hours of its premiere rose to the #1 TV series in the world on Netflix. Miller also produced the 3D documentary Under the Electric Sky, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and sold to Focus Features.

Miller is the founder of non-profit Film2Future (www.film2future.org) which builds a direct pipeline for underserved diverse youth to gain access to Hollywood – all at zero cost to participate. Since its inception in 2016, F2F has educated over 125 students, placed students in over 90 paid internship/PA opportunities and its students have earned over $1 million in college scholarships. She encourages all entertainment industry professionals to get involved in the organization and to support the next generation of diverse filmmakers.

Miller is an active public speaker with an emphasis on emerging talent, pipeline strategies and inclusion. Recent appearances include UCLA, New York University, the CBS Diversity Program, Alliance of Women Directors, AFI (American Film Institute), Monterrey Film Festival (Monterrey, Mexico), the Rio International Film Festival (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and on many podcasts including John August’s ScriptNotes.  

In Miller’s free time, she can usually be found curled up on the couch reading esoteric Russian novels or YA adventures. 

William Yu

William Yu is a Korean American screenwriter and Asian American advocate. 

William's feature romantic comedy It Was You was recently selected to the Black List - the buzzy compendium of the year’s most-liked unproduced Hollywood screenplays - and also attached Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu as a producer. 

Yu's original TV half hour dramedy pilot Good Boy was selected for the 2020 Sundance Episodic Makers Lab and was named to the 2020 CAPE List as a top screenplay by an AAPI writer.

He is also the creator of #StarringJohnCho, a viral project that used photoshopped movie posters to spark a global conversation about Asian American representation in media and that had a wide-ranging impact on Hollywood.

Yu brings a global perspective, with family roots stretching as far as Seoul and Jamaica. He was born in Philadelphia, raised in Hong Kong, seasoned in New York, and now resides in Los Angeles.

William Yu is repped by Manager Zack Zucker at Bellevue; Agents Halle Mariner (Features) and Danny Alexander (TV) at APA.

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