Crew Bios

Rafael Monserrate, Director/Producer, is an award winning director who started his career as a performer in film, stage, and television. After winning a merit scholarship to study theatre at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC he went on to direct a series of plays in NYC and appeared in over 30 national and regional commercials. In 2000 he moved to LA to work as an acting and dialogue coach. Productions include Miss Miami (NBC), Chasing Papi (20th Century Fox), and The Rundown (Universal Pictures). In 2004 he was hired to voice direct the first all Latin cast animated feature Sian Kaan, in which he also played a leading role along side Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina and Placido Domingo. Rafael was then hired to voice direct A Cat’s Tale starring Michelle Rodriguez, Jeremy Sisto, and Jeremy Piven.

This past November, Rafael’s film Poundcake, starring academy award nominee Kathleen Quinlan, had it’s world premiere at the AFI International Film Festival and was the only US narrative film in competition. Poundcake has since won the audience award and Jury Prize for Best Original Screenplay at the Florida Film Festival, and Honorable Mention for Best Narrative Feature at the Nashville Film Festival. Poundcake is currently in negotiations for theatrical Distribution.

Gene Raphael Miller, Producer, studied acting with Mr. Bailey and Mr. Monserrate at the American Academy Of Dramatic Arts back in the mid 90's He furthered the collaboration with Rafael Monserrate in numerous theatrical productions in the late 90's.

Gene co-produced The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me in 2000, and in 2004 was lead producer on the recently-released Crazy For Love starring David Krumholtz, Natasha Lyonne, Lorraine Bracco and Tim Blake Nelson.

Gene's latest project is as producer on the award-winning comedy Poundcake, which is being screened at numerous film festivals across the country and is looking for release later this year.

Matt Ruskin, Editor has worked extensively as a nonfiction Director and Producer. His work has been featured at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami and the Institute of Contemporary Art in London. His feature directorial debut, The Hip Hop Project, received a national theatrical release (ThinkFilm) and aired on the Sundance Channel in 2009.

Previously, Matt worked for mentor Darren Aronofsky on Requiem for a Dreamand produced and directed The Glen of the Downs, an award-winning film about Ireland's first international environmental movement. Matt is currently developing both narrative and documentary feature films.

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Marggie Castellano - for the last 15 years has been promoting Peru as a film location destination throughout all media film outlets in the USA. She has managed numerous television shows and films on locations in South-America. Her area of expertise is operating in unconventional environments from tropical rain-forests and deserts to Volcanoes, and on-board diverse platforms including ships, aircraft and NOAA vessels. Amongst her credits include Volcano (National Geographic), Amazon (IMAX), The Secret of the Incas (Channel 4, London), Passport to Latin-America (Discovery Channel), Christmas Alpacas (Oxfam/MasterCard), Imagine This!, and 8xmille (CEI/Saatchi-Saatchi).

As the Vice-President of the Peruvian Astronomical Society, Marggie successfully developed Peru as a destination for Halley’s Comet and was directly responsible for 6,000 new visitors to the Planetarium in Lima. Marggie is very knowledgeable of the geography of Peru and is well connected in Peru.

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Niels Dachler, Director of Photography, had the great honor of (and 120lbs of dirty laundry from) running the camera and lighting departments during the Imagine This! pilot episode in Peru.

Niels currently produces and photographs news and documentary assignments around the world. Most recently, he directed and shot the ABC Good Morning America coverage for the FAI World Paragliding Championships in Mexico. He comes to cinematography from a non-fiction editing background. Niels was a junior online editor for Oscar-winner Born Into Brothels and the lead online editor for Emmy winner Pete Seeger: The Power of Song. He also completed the documentary shorts for Songs of Conscience, Sounds of Freedom, an exhibit at The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.

His narrative cinematography credits include independent feature films with Prison Break's Sarah Wayne Callies and Philadelphia's Obba Babatunde as well as 21 episode shoots as 2nd Unit Director of Photography for ABC's primetime drama Ugly Betty.

Niels has been flying paragliders for 16 years with ratings in alpine cross-country, acrobatics, and tandem. Together with Othmar and Sander, he rounds out the paragliding sub-tribe within Imagine This!.

Othmar Dickbauer, Aerial Photograper, was inspired to hug the world from the air while growing up in Austria. Living in New York City for the last 14 years as a dad, cinematographer, engineer and paragliding pilot, he fused filming and flying into a whole new vision of floading thru space, creating his own team, CineWings LLC.

As Director of Aerial Photography for Imagine This!, Othmar broke new barriers of high altidude flying and new inovations to film HD, from the Andean peaks to the valley of Urubamba. Working in film for 14 years, he has numerous credits for features, documentaries, television pilots and commercials under his belt. His passion for nature has drawn him to social and environmental projects all over the globe since age 16.

Wes Brown, Co-Producer, has been working on films for over a decade and at the age of 28 has already worked on 14 projects. Filmmaking has been around him his whole life — Wes is the third generation of the legendary film making Brown family. His grandfather, Bruce Brown, created the classic The Endless Summer and On Any Sunday film franchises, and his father Dana Brown is the director of the hits Step into Liquid, Dust to Glory and soon to be released HighWater.

It was only natural that after assisting on so many creative and successful endeavors that Wes would make films himself. In 2003, he co-founded Little House Productions. The Brown’s films have grossed more than any other sports documentaries of all time.

T.J. Barrack, Co-Producer, graduated from the University of Southern California in 2001 with a BA in English and Creative Writing. Previous to forming Little House in 2003, he worked for Los Angeles based investment firm, Colony Capital, where he produced videos used for marketing and fundraising world wide. Now a multi credited Producer and Director he continues to make films under the Little House banner.

Credits: Islands in the Stream, Peel: The Peru Project, Chasing Dora, Imagine This!

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Brett Laurance, Web Developer, once attempted to earn a living as an underground cartoonist back in his native city of Perth, Australia. Failing beyond his wildest dreams, he instead opted for a career in molecular biology, selling his worldly goods and flying across the planet to pursue a doctorate in New York City. Here, he stumbled upon a fad known as "Internet". Becoming sucked into the seedy world of web development, Brett gave up his PhD and exposure to natural light in order to build web sites and create graphics that look pretty.

In addition to helping develop the Imagine This! web site, he is currently working as Assistant Director of Educational Computing at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and teaching a course in Medical Informatics.

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Amy Wolff, Project Coordinator, comes to us from the beautiful state of Connecticut. She's studying for her Master's in Public Affairs in nonprofit management from Indiana University and will graduate in 2010. Amy has a rich background in nonprofit work, communications, event coordination and project development. She loves Latin American culture and is passionate about serving with excellence in effectiveness and sustainability.

In her free time, she's a songwriter, adventurer and comedy-lover. "Being involved with this project thus far has been nothing short of thrilling," she said, "I love seeing how people from around the globe come together in this and in effect, change the lives of people in need." She welcomes you to contact her at amy.wolff@imaginethistv.com.

Patrick Julian is a freelance writer living in Los Angeles by way of Concord, Michigan. Read his latest screenplay, you'll love it.

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