First Look: Scripted In Brooklyn BRIC TV x National Endowment for the Arts

LEX KIMBROUGH -- Co-Writer and Exec Producer 

Lex Kimbrough is a two-time New York Emmy-nominated filmmaker whose work spans documentary,narrative, and cultural commentary. His short films have won Best Film, Best Director, and BestCinematography at festivals including the American Black Film Festival, Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival, and the San Francisco Black Film Festival. 

He has written and developed projects for Fox Entertainment and produced the feature Our Deadly Vows.Hestarted in television on The Mysteries of Laura and The Jim Gaffigan Show before moving behind the camerato direct intimate, character-driven stories about identity, belief, and the absurd contradictions of modern life.With The House We Built,he turns that eye on a piece of American history that's been sitting in plain sight for over 150 years. 

MELAT AYALEW -- Co-Writer and Exec Producer 

Melat Ayalew is an actor and writer with a BFA from the University of North Carolina and training at the RoyalAcademy of Dramatic Art. She co-wrote Spring Break Forever for Fox Entertainment and has appeared inNetflix's Me Time,You,Miracle Workers,Running Point,Swiped: A Big Bold Beautiful Journey,and the Michael Jackson biopic Michael (2026). 

Her work moves between comedy and history, often asking who gets remembered and who gets left out of therecord. The House We Built continues that thread: a dark comedy set inside a real 1862 meeting betweenLincoln and a delegation of free Black leaders, seen through the eyes of a domestic worker history never named.

Sharik Geneve Atkinson (she/her) is an award-winning Brooklyn-based director, screenwriter, community organizer whose work centers BIPOC queer people. Born in Montego Bay, Jamaica, she carries a deep sense of community into everything she makes. 

Atkinson was selected as one of four recipients of the 2026 BRIC TV x National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant out of over 500 applicants for her film, Penelope & Gertrude's Last Day, which follows a Black woman on the day before her breast reduction surgery. Her directorial debut, BODEGA went viral on YouTube in 2024, was an official selection at Oscar-qualifying film festivals, and has since screened in Brazil, Mexico, Toronto, the US, Australia & more. We Kissed Once, a Black queer web series she directed, was recently announced as a 2026 official selection at NewFest, the largest LGBTQ+ film festival in the U.S. It's one of several of her projects currently on the festival circuit. She is currently developing her next short film, a psycho thriller called U-Haul, starring Regan Aliyah (Netflix's XO Kitty, Marvel's Ironheart). 

Sharik is a world-builder extending past narrative work into music videos. She most notably directed "We Still Dance" by Ariel J (feat. DJ Miss Milan) & Hey Pastor by Felix Ames (feat. Kota The Friend). Her work in the film industry spans production as well as directing, including her current role as Supervising Producer on a new travel TV show distributed by Discovery Networks. 

She founded The Content House, a Black queer woman-led production company, and co-founded Saphlicks, a collective connecting queer filmmakers through screenings, workshops, and mixers. Atkinson has spoken at UC Berkeley and been featured in New York Magazine, Blue Couch Conversations by the Boys & Girls Club of America, Spectrum News, Bronx Net, and more.

Bryant Buernet is a writer and director from The Bronx. He has independently directed and produced numerous short films Including I Like Them Separate and Urge. With a focus on community building, Bryant served as an adjunct professor at CUNY, teaching Film Production to students in the Bronx.

Charles Zhang is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker. He directed and produced a documentary film series about the water scarcity crisis in Bhutan. The films were screened by PBS, Sidewalk Film Festival, and the Center for Asian American Media, where it won the Loni Ding Award in Social Issue Documentary. His online writing is featured in Scientific American and Slackjaw.