Meet the Speakers – Fall 2023 HRTS DE&I Executive Salon Presented by Easterseals Disability Services
FEATURED SPEAKERS
Christine Ha
Chef, Restauranteur, MasterChef Season 3 Winner
Christine Ha is the first-ever blind contestant and season 3 winner of the competitive amateur cooking television show “MasterChef” with Gordon Ramsay. She defeated over 30,000 home cooks across America to secure the coveted MasterChef title, a $250,000 cash prize, and a cookbook deal. “The lady has an extraordinary palate, a palate of incredible finesse. She picks up hot ingredients, touches them, and she thinks about this image on the plate. She has the most disciplined execution on a plate that we’ve ever seen. But the palate is where it’s just extraordinary. And honestly, I know chefs with Michelin stars that don’t have palates like hers.” –Chef Gordon Ramsay, MasterChef judge.
Ha holds a Master of Fine Arts from the nationally acclaimed Creative Writing Program at University of Houston, where she served as Fiction Editor for Gulf Coast literary journal, and a Bachelor of Business Administration from The University of Texas at Austin.
Ha’s first cookbook, Recipes From My Home Kitchen: Asian and American Comfort Food, was a New York Times best-seller. She has done several TEDx Talks, spoken about disability advocacy at the United Nations, and served as a culinary envoy overseas for the American Embassy as part of cultural diplomacy programs in Jordan, Serbia, Bosnia/Herzegovina, and Croatia. Ha was a co-host on the Canadian cooking show “Four Senses” and a judge on “MasterChef” Vietnam.
Ha received the 2014 Helen Keller Personal Achievement Award from the American Foundation for the Blind, a recognition formerly bestowed upon Ray Charles, Patty Duke, and Stevie Wonder among others. Ha’s first restaurant in Houston, The Blind Goat, was named a semi-finalist for 2020 Best New Restaurant in America by the James Beard Foundation. She opened her second restaurant, Xin Chào, in September 2020 with Chef Tony Nguyen, and the James beard Foundation named them as finalists for the Best Chef, Texas region, in 2022, and again as semi-finalists for Outstanding Chef in 2023. Ha’s third concept, Stuffed Belly, opened in June 2023.
Jonathan Murray Founder, Bunim Murray Productions
Widely credited with helping to usher in the modern reality television genre with his late partner Mary-Ellis Bunim. Since the launch of The Real World on MTV in 1992, Murray has created and executive produced some of the industry’s most innovative, unscripted, entertainment television Programs winning Emmy awards for Born This Way and Autism: The Musical (HBO). He also is a principal in New Works Provincetown, a theater development lab.
Murray graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and lives in Los Angeles, CA, and Provincetown, Mass. He serves as Vice Chairman of the board of The Television Academy Foundation. In 2012, Murray was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
Matt Ogen
Director, Oscar Nominated Audible on Netflix
Matt Ogens is an Academy Award® nominated director known for capturing authentic human stories through an evocative visual and narrative aesthetic.
His breakthrough documentary “Confessions of a Superhero” premiered at SXSW to critical acclaim and attracted a devoted following, and he subsequently went on to earn a Primetime Emmy Award for his “From Harlem with Love” installment of ESPN 30 for 30. Recent projects include the two-time Emmy-nominated documentary series “Why We Fight,” which Ogens created and executive produces, as well as the Emmy- nominated “LA Louvre,” an augmented reality film he directed for RYOT and Huffington Post.
He has earned three more Emmy nominations for his series work. In addition, he just helmed two films for the UFC’s 25 Years in Short series, which was nominated for an Emmy Award and won a Clio. Matt’s recent feature doc “Home + Away”, which follows high school athletes living on the US/Mexico border, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Matt’s Netflix Original AUDIBLE was nominated for an Oscar® last year. The documentary is an immersive coming-of-age story told from the perspective of Deaf high school students and communicated through sign language. His new film MADU, a Disney Original Documentary, premiering next year, follows Anthony Madu, a Nigerian boy who became a viral sensation after a video showed him dancing ballet barefoot on a rainy street outside Lagos, won hearts around the world and led to Madu earning a scholarship to study at the 100-year-old prestigious Elmhurst Ballet School in the U.K.
MODERATOR
Josh Welsh
President, Film Independent
As President of Film Independent, Josh Welsh directly oversees all programs and operations of the nonprofit arts organization. Since Welsh became President in 2012, the organization has grown significantly, from staff to budget to program slate, including a more than 100% increase in Membership. Under Welsh’s leadership, Film Independent has deepened strategic partnerships with studios, NGOs and governments and increased international reach by partnering with the State Department on the Global Media Makers program. He has expanded the organization’s commitment to promoting diversity in the film industry and has amplified Film Independent’s role as an advocate for filmmakers.
Prior to becoming President, Welsh was responsible for the overall design, strategic planning and implementation of Film Independent’s Artist Development programs for over a decade. He has spoken frequently at film schools and served on numerous festival juries.
Welsh earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from Johns Hopkins University, and a B.A. in Philosophy from Kenyon College. He lives with his wife and daughter and in his spare time, is lead singer in the alt-country band Meatyard.
Christine Ha
Matt Ogen