Avril Speaks

Avril Speaks has been carving out her path as a bold, innovative storyteller for years, not only as a Producer and Director but also during her days as a professor at Howard University and as a film educator through Film Independent, the Sundance Institute, and Distribution Advocates. Avril has produced several award-winning films including Jinn, which premiered at SXSW and won Special Jury Recognition for Writing, and African America, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award, four African Movie Academy Awards and streamed on Netflix. She also produced the Black America Is… project, which premiered at the Afrikana Film Festival and won Best Feature Documentary at the Baltimore International Black Film Festival.

As a director and showrunner, Avril has worked with companies such as Now This and Vox Media Studios on docu-series such as Uprooted: The Untold Keith Warren Story and Keep This Between Us, available on Discovery+ and Freeform. She is currently a Creative and Production Executive for Vox Media Studios, where she is co-showrunner for the upcoming Files of the Unexplained to air on Netflix, and also helps to develop new projects. Avril is a recipient of the inaugural Dear Producer Award and is one of the founding members of Distribution Advocates and the newly formed Producers Union.