POWER UP Announces Amazing Gay Women and Men in Showbiz Award Recipients

POWER UP has announced The 11th Annual “Amazing Gay Women in Showbiz” and the third annual “Amazing Gay Men in Showbiz” Award recipients. 

Each year, the award recognizes 10 Amazing Gay Women and 10 Amazing Gay Men working, creating and changing lives as they continue their way up the ladder of success. The awards will be presented at the Power Premiere Celebrity Gala on November 6, 2011.

“We are extremely proud of Power Up’s many accomplishments and feel that including the Amazing Gay list allows us to recognize many more women and men in our community,” stated Lisa Thrasher, president of Film Production and Distribution.

The Women:

Katherine Brooks

Katherine's extensive list of film and television credits include Emmy-winning show The Osbournes, Newlyweds and The Real World. She helmed MTV’s There and Back, the latest season of Meet the Barkers and directed and produced The Simple Life. Several years ago Katherine moved into directing feature films, and her first feature, Loving Annabelle, premiered at Cinequest Film Festival in 2006, winning the “Audience Award” and “Best Actress Award” at Outfest the same year. She just wrapped her most recent project, Face 2 Face, in which she traveled the country to meet 50 different Facebook friends.

Jessica Clark

Jessica first entered the public eye as a model in Europe and NYC, but is now focusing on her acting career. So far this year she has appeared in State of Georgia, Chemistry, and Nicole Conn’s newest film A Perfect Ending. Proud to be out as a lesbian, Jessica is happily married to Lacey Stone.

Lesley Goldberg

Lesley is a writer/reporter covering TV for The Hollywood Reporter. The self-professed pop culture junkie can be found with a remote control in one hand and softball bat in the other. She can tell you anything you need to know about baseball cards – and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Sunny Hodge

A former singer/songwriter, Sunny moved to LA to pursue a career in film editing. While working on USA’s Good vs. Evil she met director Tim Hunter, and they became a successful director/editing team with projects such as Showtime’s Out of Order and MTV’s Anatomy of a Hate Crime – the Story of Matthew Shepard. Her editing credits include Melrose Place (original series and remake), Firefly, Men In Trees, Without A Trace, Dollhouse, The Vampire Diaries, Private Practice and The Big C.

Laura Karpman

Laura is a composer who, in the words of New York City Opera music director George Manahan, is “a rare combination of heart and groin.” She has four Emmys, a GANG award and several nominations, and her credits include scores for Taken, video games like Microsoft’s new Disneyland Adventure, Kung Fu Panda 2, Field Commander, Halo 3 and Jericho, among others. She was also chosen by Variety Magazine as one of the most important women in Hollywood.

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Michelle Knudsen

Michelle is a manager and producer at MXN Entertainment. Upon moving to LA and finding work with manager/producer Mason Novick, jumping immediately into production on 500 Days of Summer. Since then she has established herself as a manager of feature and TV writers. One of her current projects set to begin production soon is Diablo Cody’s directorial debut Lamb of God.

Denise Pleune

Denise has worked as a producer in postproduction for over 16 years. Some highlights of her career include The Black Donnelly’s, The Sarah Silverman Program, The X Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Riches, and Eight Crazy Nights. She recently co-produced the TV series The Good Guys, produced the short film Commerce, and is currently co-producing The Protector for Lifetime.

Tracy Ryerson

Tracy moved to LA and began working for a top literary agency in Beverly Hills before beginning work at Jerry Weintraub Productions on the Warner Bros lot, where she oversaw development and production of movies including Ocean’s 13, Nancy Drew and Tarzan. She was also a cast member of The Real L Word during the first season of the show. Tracy also created a website, Our Fifteen Minutes, that caters to building a safe and welcoming community for people to upload coming-out stories and be themselves.

Patty Schemel

As a drummer, songwriter and teacher, Patty has worked with artists such as Pink, Linda Perry, Imperial Teen, Courtney Love and Juliette Lewis. She also earned two platinum records anchoring the rhythm for Hole. In 2007, director David Ebersole started a documentary chronicling Patty’s time in Hole titled Hit So Hard, which is slated for a 2012 theatrical release.

Haviland Stillwell

Haviland is an out actress, singer and producer. After graduating from New York University, she made her Broadway debut in the original cast revival of Fiddler on the Roof, followed by Les Miserables. Since moving to LA she has been in films and TV shows including Single Ladies, The Client List, CSI:NY, Eastwick and Below the Beltway. She also created, wrote, produced and acted in the web-series Unicorn Plan-Iton Autostraddle. Haviland also contributes as a writer to the National Organization for Women.

The Men:

Brickson Diamond – activist, philanthropist and investment industry veteran

Dan Bucatinsky – writer, producer, actor

Oliver Goldstick – executive producer of Pretty Little Liars

Alex Goldstone – producer, 2010 Hollywood Reporter’s Top 35 Executives Under 35

Kevin Iwashina – former talent agent, Managing Partner of Preferred Content

David Levine – VP of Original Programming at HBO

Donald Martin – producer, writer, humanitarian

Blair Taylor – manager of on-camera talent, product endorsement and direct-response opportunities

Kirkland Tibbels – producer, consultant

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