OUR TEAM

Ime is a versatile Director and Producer who has worked in various stages of film and television production. His love of story started as a journalist working his way up from the local news assignment desk to Field Producing for ABC NEWS shows World News Tonight and 20/20. His initiation to Hollywood came when he was one of the 14 finalists selected from a pool of over a thousand applicants for the prestigious  Directors Guild of America’s training program. He took advantage of that opportunity to learn his craft and join the Directors Guild of America;  while working alongside and learning from some of the most prolific directors in Hollywood (including Paul Haggis “Crash,” The Coen Brothers  “The Man Who Wasn’t There,” Antoine Fuqua “Training Day” and David  Lynch “Twin Peaks”). His debut culture clash feature “Hurricane in the  Rose Garden” played at Slamdance and the Pan African film festivals before being picked up for distribution. 

Working on film sets in Portland, Oregon, he was often the only black person on set and usually the only person of color in a management role.  He constantly mentored people in their careers but realized he could make a more significant impact by intentionally creating a program to help others succeed.  This was the beginning of Lion Speaks.

Ifanyi is a passionate storyteller and artist.
He began his professional career in Boston, MA as an intern at the storied WGBH Educational Foundation.  While there, he produced some of the earliest web-original video content produced for public media back in 2003, focusing on early education reform in Boston Public High Schools.
As a producer for various  NPR and PBS stations, he helped craft Emmy-nominated stories on education, arts, and science. He also served as the Director of  Editorial Video Content for Narrative.ly, a nonfiction storytelling platform based in New York City. 
In 2014, he left public media and became the founder and co-creative director of Brushfire Creative  Partners, a socially sustainable creative marketing agency dedicated to supporting and developing equity in the creative and social marketplaces that have become inextricably linked in the modern cultural and creative economy.
In 2016 Ifanyi Joined Open Signal, where he conceived his current initiative Open Signal Labs, a new content studio and social impact incubator that gathers professional creatives,  Open Signal Producers, and community members to tell stories of social and cultural relevance. 

​

Vin is a Published writer, acclaimed storyteller, International actor, and  Director. Before returning home to Portland, Vin performed on Broadway as Tom Collins in Rent and John in Miss Saigon and toured nationally with Rent, Miss Saigon. Occasional Magic: True Stories about Defying the  Impossible, performed at Portland’s historic Arlene  Schnitzer Concert Hall. Additionally, his performative, original writing was featured in the April Baer’s State of Wonder on Oregon Public  Broadcasting radio. Vin toured and performed with the US State  Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Arts Envoy trip to  Egypt (2019) and will be returning in 2020 to develop a new bi-lingual cross-cultural music and theatre performance with the support of the US  Embassy Cairo.

Sebastian Rogers was born in Norfolk, England, to an immigrant mother from India and an English father.  Raised in a cross-cultural home in the small rural market town of Diss, he left home to pursue a career in music at age 16 - ending up in Los Angeles by the time he was 23. After working as a producer and songwriter with platinum-selling artists and contracts as a performing artist with London Records, Dreamworks, and Interscope, Rogers was drawn to Portland, Oregon, by the homespun music scene and his disillusionment with the music industry. A spiritual transformation ultimately led him into full-time Christian ministry, where his experience with media proved invaluable. Rogers developed his filmmaking skills while Director of Communications at Imago Dei Community before shifting his focus entirely to running the non-profit media company Peripheral Vision PDX, which he founded to provide films and media training to under-served communities, organizations, and ministries.