Pranay K Verma
CHAIRPERSON, FOUNDER, & PRODUCER
Pranay K Verma is founder of American Content Media. He has a background in entertainment finance, feature development, production, and strategic planning.
Mr Verma was Senior Vice President of Finance for Jaffe/Braunstein Entertainment, majority owned by ITV (UK) as the studio’s US scripted division, where he started and implemented the company’s finance and accounting departments from the ground up, and integrated it into the publicly traded majority owner. The company has produced numerous films for the networks and cable. Films during his tenure such as The Memory Keeper’s Daughter starring Dermot Mulroney, Gretchen Mol, and Emily Watson was nominated for a Best Picture Emmy and broke a thirteen-year record to become Lifetime’s highest rated movie, and An Accidental Friendship (Hallmark) saw an Emmy nomination for Chandra Wilson.
Mr Verma was Vice President of Finance and Producer, and subsequently ran the studio level film financing and production company Catch 23 Entertainment, where he was instrumental in the exit strategy of the company as it retired from the industry. He continued to simultaneously handle finance functions during this time. The company also had a talent management division, an urban division, and a London office (Catch 23 UK) with a deal with ICM London. The company’s films include One Hour Photo (Fox Searchlight) starring Robin Williams, becoming one of the top three grossing films for Fox Searchlight; Edge of Darkness (Warner Bros.) starring Mel Gibson and directed by Martin Campbell; King’s Ransom (New Line Cinema) starring Anthony Anderson and Jay Mohr; Suburban Girl, an adaptation of two short stories from Melissa Bank’s bestselling novel The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing starring Alec Baldwin and Sarah Michelle Gellar in partnership with Gigi Pritzker’s Odd Lot Entertainment; Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas (Fox & CBS), a TV adaptation of the James Patterson novel starring Christina Applegate. The management division’s clients included Academy Award winner Renee Zellweger, subsequent Academy Award winner Brie Larson, and Academy Award winner director Steven Soderbergh.
Mr Verma has spoken on film production, financing, and distribution on independent panels during the Cannes Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. He has also consulted in the entertainment industry. He has an MBA in Finance/Entrepreneurial Finance from the George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics at Chapman University in Orange County, California, an MFA in Film & Television Producing from Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University in Orange County, California, and a B.A. in Business Administration (Finance) with a double minor in Economics and Theater and was in the Honors Program. He did his graduate internship at Davis Entertainment (20th Century Fox) and his undergraduate internship in affiliation with the Small Business Administration – Small Business Institute (SBI) Consulting Program.
Mike Doban
WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTION AND MARKETING
Mike Doban was Head of United Artists national film department, responsible for coordinating content programming for the United States and negotiating financial terms with studios and independent distributors from 1988 to 1990.
Mr Doban became Head of the international film department for United Artists in 1990, tasked with acquiring, marketing, and distributing regional movies for each market. These markets included Mexico, South America, Asia, and Europe. He began his illustrious tenure with United Artists Theaters in 1982 as a domestic film programmer.
Mr Doban established Arcangelo Entertainment in 1996, a private company specializing in independent film marketing and distribution. Clients included: Televisa (Mexico), Roskinoprokat (Russia), Geneon (Japan), and various U.S. independent producers.
Mr Doban co-founded Freestyle Releasing in 2004 and was CEO for three years. He specialized in marketing and distribution of films in the U.S. for various companies including: Vivendi Entertainment, Yari Film Group, After Dark Films, Odd Lot, and Videocine.
Mr Doban has worked as a consultant since 2007 to international and domestic producers, production companies and sales agents, specializing in marketing and distribution in all markets. He has broad experience in marketing and distributing movies in domestic and international markets, and has excellent personal and business relationships with the highest level executives at all national and regional levels.
Herb Linsey
PRODUCTION / LINE PRODUCER
Herb Linsey has a track record working on forty independent films in his vast career as a producer, line producer, production manager, and director. He specializes in production from prep to delivery.
Mr Linsey has taught film courses at UCLA Extension and Columbia College. He has an MFA in film from NYU Tisch School of the Arts – Institute of Film and Television.
Monica Rodriguez
CORPORATE OUTREACH, OFFICE OF THE CHAIRPERSON
Monica Rodriguez has held key roles including across Fortune Top 100 companies. She was at Monster Energy as a producer, iHeart Radio as a brand marketing specialist, Mitú East LA Studio as a social media marketing manager, Chicano Hollywood as a marketing manager, and Facebook/Meta as an intern.
Ms Rodriguez is an active member of several nonprofits including the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, Latinas in Tech, Chingona Community, and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP). She has guest lectured at USC Annenberg for graduate students in the Master of Science in Digital Social Media program, and has been a keynote speaker at the Chicano Hollywood Elevate conference, bridging knowledge gaps to continue to educate and uplift under-served communities.
Ms Rodriguez’s global influence spans across the U.S., Asia, Europe, and Latin America, with her work showcased in high-impact ad campaigns and her personal appearance featured in New York’s Times Square. She holds an M.A.Ed in Education with an emphasis in Educational Counseling from Azusa Pacific University (Summa Cum Laude), an M.S. in Leadership from California Baptist University (Summa Cum Laude), and a B.A. in Liberal Studies with an emphasis on human development also from California Baptist University.