Katherine Brooks(I)

Katherine Brooks ran away from her small town home in Louisiana to pursue a career in television and film when she was just 16 years old; with only 150 dollars to her name, Katherine slept in her car in the parking lot of a Hollywood motel.

Now, a decade later and with 15 years of experience in film and television, Katherine has directed some of television's hottest shows and critically acclaimed feature films.

Her extensive list of television credits include three seasons of the Emmy-Award winning "The Osbournes" and the highly-acclaimed show "The Real World". She produced and directed MTV's "Meet the Barkers" with Blink182 drummer Travis Barker, two seasons of "The Newylweds" starring Jessica Simpson and directed "The Simple Life" with Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie.

Katherine's first feature film, "Loving Annabelle", starred Erin Kelly, Diane Gaidry and Academy Award nominee Kevin McCarthy. The critically acclaimed feature made its premier at the prestigious Cinequest Film Festival where Katherine won the Emerging Filmmaker Award as well as HBO's award for best first feature. Loving Annabelle was released in 2006, and soon became the number one selling film of its genre. It was re-released in 2010 and was the top selling DVD on Amazon for six straight weeks and has over 135 million YouTube views.

Katherine's second feature film, "Waking Madison", stars Sarah Roemer (Disturbia), Academy Award-nominee Elisabeth Shue, Taryn Manning (Hustle & Flow) and Golden Globe-winner Frances Conroy. The film was released in July of 2011.

In addition to her impressive history in film and television, Katherine is also a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) in which only 4% of its members are female. She has served as a Jury Member for Samsung Fresh-Films, the largest teen filmmaking program in the USA, and was the recipient of the LACE Award for Arts and Entertainment, which honors women who have made a difference in the entertainment community.

On November 6, 2011, Katherine was honored with the Power Up Award for being a strong voice and activist for the LGBT community. Previous honorees have been Ellen Degeneres, Gus Van Sant, Lily Tomlin and Rosie O' Donnell. In 2012, Katherine won the Shorty Award for director out of 214 other nominees.

Katherine's documentary Face 2 Face where she traveled the country to meet 50 of her 5,000 Facebook friends, makes its premier on June 3rd at the famous Mann's Chinese Theater.

In 2010, Katherine started her own production company Big Easy Pictures LLC. where she produces and directs quality content for both television and film.