OUR TEAM

Lena Waithe

CEO

Rishi Rajani

President of Film/Tv


Rocio Melara
- Director Of Development

Alex Phillips
- Creative Executive

Marquis Phifér
- Marketing Executive


Alex Phiillips - Creative Executive
Rocio Melara - Creative Executive
Marquis Phifer - Marketing Executive
Margie Gilmore - Executive Dir. of Mentorship Labs


Lena Waithe

CEO

Alex Phillips

Creative Executive

Marquis Phifér

Marketing Executive

Rocio Melara

Creative Executive


Margie Gilmore

Executive Director of Mentorship Labs

About Hillman grad

Hillman Grad Productions is a development and production company committed to creating art that goes against the status quo and gives a platform to marginalized storytellers by providing a platform for diverse voices across all mediums.  Founded by Emmy-Award winning writer Lena Waithe and Rishi Rajani, the company currently has projects at Netflix, Disney, BET, Showtime, HBO and Amazon.

Their comprehensive slate includes the box-office hit Queen & Slim (Universal), released Thanksgiving weekend 2019, written by Waithe and directed by Melina Matsoukas. Other projects include the returning sophomore season of Boomerang on BET, Along with the new highly-anticipated show, Twenties, also on BET. Twenties is a coming-of-age series loosely based on Waithe's life when she moved to Los Angeles. We follow the adventures of a queer black girl and her two straight best friends, spending most of their days chasing their dreams and talking shit.

Other projects currently in various stages of production:  How to Make Love to a Black Woman which is for Showtime; Them: Covenant for Amazon; Untitled Kid Fury Project for HBO; and the Sundance Film Festival 2020 selection The 40-Year-Old Version, Radha Blank’s groundbreaking film, which blends real life and fiction to follow its protagonist, a down-on-her luck New York playwright, who decides to reinvent herself and salvage her artistic voice by becoming a rapper at age 40.