Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr. is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. The co-founder of Chic, he has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 500 million albums and 75 million singles worldwide.
Anika Noni Rose is an American actress. She is best known for voicing Tiana, Disney's first African-American princess, in The Princess and the Frog (2009). She was named a Disney Legend in 2011.
Mavis Staples is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer and civil rights activist. She rose to fame as a member of her family's band The Staple Singers, of which she is the last surviving member. During her time in the group, she recorded the hit singles "I'll Take You There" and "Let's Do It Again". In 1969, Staples released her self-titled debut solo album.
Ryan Shore is a Canadian composer, songwriter, conductor, music producer, and music director for film, television, virtual reality, records, games, concerts, and theater. He is often known from his scores for Star Wars, Scooby-Doo!, Elmo, and Go! Go! Cory Carson. He is the nephew of Academy Award winning film composer Howard Shore.
Ramin Djawadi is an Iranian-German film score composer, conductor, and record producer. He is known for his scores for the HBO series Game of Thrones, for which he was nominated for Grammy Awards in 2018 and 2020. He is also the composer for the HBO Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon (2022–present). He has scored films such as Clash of the Titans, Pacific Rim, Warcraft, A Wrinkle in Time, Iron Man and Eternals, television series including 3 Body Problem, Prison Break, Person of Interest, Jack Ryan, and Westworld, and video games such as Medal of Honor, Gears of War 4, and Gears 5. He won two consecutive Emmy Awards for Game of Thrones, in 2018 for the episode "The Dragon and the Wolf" and in 2019 for "The Long Night".
Columbus Keith Short Jr. is an American actor and choreographer. He choreographed Britney Spears's Onyx Hotel Tour and worked with Brian Friedman. He is best known for his roles in the films Stomp the Yard, Cadillac Records, Armored, and The Losers. He previously starred as a series regular in the ABC drama Scandal, as Harrison Wright. On April 26, 2014, it was announced that Short would leave Scandal after three seasons with the show.
Jonathan Michael Batiste is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, composer, and television personality. He has recorded and performed with artists including Stevie Wonder, Prince, Willie Nelson, Lenny Kravitz, Ed Sheeran, Lana Del Rey, Roy Hargrove, Juvenile, and Mavis Staples. Batiste, with his band Stay Human, appeared nightly as bandleader and musical director on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert from 2015 to 2022.
Judith Glory Hill is an American singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, California. She has provided backing vocals for such artists as Michael Jackson, Prince, and Josh Groban. In 2009, Hill was chosen as Jackson's duet partner for the song "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" during his This Is It rehearsals. After Jackson's death in 2009, she, along with the rest of the This Is It cast members, performed at Jackson's memorial service and attracted global attention when she sang the lead on the song "Heal the World". Hill's rise to fame is recounted in 20 Feet from Stardom, a documentary film that tells the untold story of the backup singers behind some of the "greatest musical legends of the 21st century". She is also a featured artist on the film's soundtrack. She won the Grammy Award for Best Music Film for her performance in this film.
Toy Story 3 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to Disney/Pixar's 2010 film of the same name composed by Randy Newman. The score was composed by recurrent Pixar composer Randy Newman, who also scored for the previous instalments in the franchise. The score album, featuring an original song "We Belong Together" performed by Newman, and instrumental tracks were released on June 15, 2010 by Walt Disney Records. It was also the sixth Pixar film not to be scored by Michael Giacchino or Thomas Newman. The track "You've Got a Friend in Me" from the first instalment is also featured in the album, performed by The Gipsy Kings.
Ludwig Emil Tomas Göransson is a Swedish composer, conductor, songwriter, and record producer.
Ryan Kyle Coogler is an American filmmaker. He is a recipient of four NAACP Image Awards and four Black Reel Awards, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Grammy Award.
Danielle Brooks is an American actress. Her breakthrough role was as prison inmate Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson in the Netflix comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019).
Despicable Me 2: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album for the 2013 film Despicable Me 2; the sequel to Despicable Me (2010). The album was released on July 2, 2013, through Back Lot Music. The original music was composed by Heitor Pereira and Pharrell Williams, whom previously scored for Despicable Me. The soundtrack to the film featured 24 tracks – eight songs and the remainder of the album, consists of original score tracks. Out of the eight songs, three original tracks, written by Williams, were featured in the album as well as the tracks "Another Irish Drinking Song", "I Swear" and "Y.M.C.A." were incorporated into the album. Besides that, two tracks from Despicable Me: "Fun, Fun, Fun" and the titular track is also featured in the soundtrack.
Higher Ground Productions, also known simply as Higher Ground, is an American production company which was founded in 2018 by former United States President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Temilade Openiyi, known professionally as Tems, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter, and record producer. She rose to prominence after being featured on Wizkid's 2020 single "Essence", which peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart following the release of the remix version with Justin Bieber. The song earned her a Grammy Award nomination. That same year, she was featured on the song "Fountains" by Canadian rapper Drake.
Summer of Soul is a 2021 American independent documentary film about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, directed by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in his directorial debut. It had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on January 28, 2021, where it won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the documentary categories. It had a limited theatrical release in the U.S. by Searchlight Pictures on June 25, 2021, before expanding and being released for streaming on Hulu the next weekend.
James Quentin "Big Jim" Wright was an American musician, composer, songwriter, film score and record producer. A member of the vocal and instrumental ensemble Sounds of Blackness, Wright became a frequent collaborator of production duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and an in-house producer for their company, Flyte Tyme Productions, in the 1990s.
Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story is an American biographical musical drama film directed by Denise Dowse and written by Ericka Nicole Malone. The film stars Ledisi as gospel singer and activist Mahalia Jackson. Also starring Columbus Short, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Janet Hubert, Vanessa Williams, Corbin Bleu and Keith David. It premiered at the 2022 Pan African Film & Arts Festival in Los Angeles in April 2022. The film later premiered on Hulu on September 20, 2022.
