Micro Drama Summit Speakers

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• Lead Instructor, LeyLine
• Staff Writer, The Mosquito Coast S2
• Creative Lead, Pocket FM
• USC MFA Screenwriting
• Film, TV, Games & Verticals

Austin Zartman is a writer and creator working across film, TV, audio, games, and verticals. His credits include The Mosquito Coast on Apple TV and two years as Creative Lead at Pocket FM, where he led development and production on scripted audio series. He is the creator of ASHES, a 15-episode AI-animated vertical series built entirely with generative AI tools, and now teaches AI microdrama production as Lead Instructor at LeyLine. He holds an MFA in Screenwriting from the University of Southern California.

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• USC MFA Film
• Clients: Apple, TikTok, Rolls-Royce, Samsung, Shiseido
• AI Vertical Drama: ReelShort, DramaWave
• Speaker: Soulscape 2026

Shu Dai is a Los Angeles-based director, cinematographer, and Co-Founder of Gleam Media Studios, an AI-powered production studio building at the intersection of Silicon Valley technology and Hollywood craft. A USC School of Cinematic Arts MFA graduate, she has directed campaigns for Apple, TikTok, Rolls-Royce, Samsung, and Shiseido, and produced fully AI-generated vertical dramas for ReelShort and DramaWave with 30-day turnarounds and million-view launches.

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• Co-Founder, Sudden
• Former AWS Professional
• Video Delivery & Streaming Infrastructure
• Pricing for streaming platforms at scale

Johny Duval is a former AWS professional and co-founder of Sudden, which prices video delivery for streaming platforms and is built for the moment thousands of people press play on your content. Everyone at this summit can make content or market it. Johny is the one who has seen the invoice from the inside.

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• Award-Winning Filmmaker
• ABFF-Selected: The Haunting
• Creator: Adventures With Aaron
• Higgsfield, Seedance, Cosmos
• Film, TV, Theater & Youth Advocacy

Aaron Avont Johnson is an award-winning filmmaker, author, producer, and storyteller who began his creative career at nine years old and has since built an acclaimed body of work spanning film, television, theater, and youth advocacy. He is helping shape a new era of storytelling by blending his traditional filmmaking experience with AI filmmaking and animation, including his ABFF-selected film The Haunting and original animated series Adventures With Aaron.

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• Founder, Top-Up
• Lead Writer, DramaWave
• 150M+ TikTok Views
• Pocket FM, DramaBox, DramaWave, Shorts, Vigloo
• Bussy and the Beast
• Chained to My Nemesis
• Alpha Academy

Adrion Trujillo is at the forefront of vertical storytelling, helping define the pace, structure, and global reach of mobile-first entertainment through work across Pocket FM, DramaBox, DramaWave, Shorts, and Vigloo. His standout titles include Bussy and the Beast, Chained to My Nemesis, National Lampoon's Alpha Academy, and Jacked Janitor VS Goldenboy, with projects reaching number one on platforms, earning awards recognition, and generating more than 150 million views on TikTok. As Founder of Top-Up and a Lead Writer at DramaWave, Adrion continues adapting the vertical drama model for the American market while pushing the format into new genres and audiences.

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• Founder & CEO, LeyLine
• Former Hollywood Film & TV Producer and Screenwriter
• Ex-Head of China, Atrium Innovations (Garden of Life)
• Ex-HSBC & Citi Investment Banker
• AI Vertical Drama Training, Distribution & Hiring Marketplace

Qiushi (Q) Zhang is the founder and CEO of LeyLine, an AI-native studio system that trains creators to make vertical drama, distributes their shows, and connects them to paid production work through its marketplace. Before LeyLine, she spent six years as a film and television producer and screenwriter in Hollywood, and earlier served as head of China at Atrium Innovations, where she opened the Chinese market for the Garden of Life brand. Q began her career as an investment banker in Hong Kong with HSBC and Citi.

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• Filmmaker, Educator & Co-Founder, Bulb Chamka Studios
• Original Story Worlds Rooted in Indian Culture
• Cinematic Storytelling & AI-Powered Production

Shantanu Tungare is a filmmaker, educator and co-founder of Bulb Chamka Studios, where cinematic storytelling meets AI-powered production. He builds original story worlds rooted in Indian culture and explores what microdrama and episodic entertainment can become when those stories lead.

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• Founder, Digital Creator Africa Academy
• Founder, WildPepper Studios & The WildFlower Company Group
• Creative Business Strategist & Filmmaker
• Billion Naira Bride
• African Vertical Storytelling Pipeline & Producer Pathway

Ifeoma ‘Oma’ Areh is an award-winning creative business strategist, filmmaker and entrepreneur with nearly 20 years of experience across film, media, marketing and communications. She is the founder of WildPepper Studios, The WildFlower Company Group and Digital Creator Africa Academy (DCAA), a training, development and commissioning pipeline for African vertical storytellers that has launched a Producer Pathway for African filmmakers entering microdrama. Her microdrama Billion Naira Bride has passed 100 million views, and she advises global brands entering Africa's microdrama and AI filmmaking industries.

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• Host, Micro Drama Summit & AI Animation Summit
• Business Insider Columnist
• F500 CEO Interviewer
• Vertical Drama Jobs
• Vertical Film School

Chi Odogwu built his career at the intersection of finance, strategy, and storytelling. A finance professional turned media entrepreneur, he has spent 14 years hosting The Bulletproof Entrepreneur podcast and interviewing Fortune 500 CEOs and billionaire founders for Business Insider. He now works in the vertical drama industry via Vertical Drama Jobs and leads its educational arm Vertical Film School, hosting the Micro Drama Summit and the AI Animation Summit, which brings together the practitioners, platforms, and creators building the fastest-growing content format in the world.