George Floyd’s murder by Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020 ignited a wave of protests and demands for change in institutions nationwide, including the entertainment industry and Hollywood.

Many studios and production companies like AMC Studios and Sony took to the frontlines and made public statements in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and promised to do more to promote diversity and inclusion. Some created programs to mentor diverse talent, established diversity and inclusion committee boards, and even employed more people of color in key positions.

But the verdict is still out on whether the success of these programs will bring meaningful change in an industry destined to gatekeep entry for people without connections.

“BLM and the George Floyd tragedy had an impact on industries across the board. The sweep of DEI programs and departments was unprecedented,” said Dr. Leah Aldridge, professor of film studies at Chapman University. “But as usual, once any crisis dies down, people go back to their habitual practices and now we see the sidelining if not complete deletion of DEI efforts across all business sectors.”

While many pipeline programs are geared toward helping people of color enter the entertainment industry and their leaders' are determined with the goals for participants, success isn’t guaranteed.

Quwana Hamilton, director of Learning and Development at AMC Networks, said, “When we look at mentors and we’re looking at the Black Lives Matter movement, that was three years ago. We’re not going to see the fruits of our labor from three years ago until probably another five to seven years.”

UCLA’s 2023 Hollywood Diversity Report found that 21.6% of the lead actors in the movie releases of 2022 were people of color, decreasing from 27.6% in 2019 and 26.6% in 2018.

For now, a smattering of mentorship programs nurture talented young people of color who aspire to make it big one day in entertainment.

The Entertainment Industry College Outreach Program

Before starting the Entertainment Industry College Outreach Program, founder Stacy Milner wrote a book titled, “Leveraging Up: How To Succeed In The Entertainment Industry” and embarked on a college book tour.

Through this tour, she realized that Historically Black Colleges and Universities don’t have the same resources or connections that other colleges do and that the entertainment industry doesn’t pay attention to them.

Milner started to do college tours and invited recruiters from entertainment companies to do panel discussions about how HBCU students could get jobs in the industry.

One of the biggest issues was that students couldn’t afford to get an internship in Los Angeles because of housing. Providing housing became a top priority to fix the problem of kids not being able to take the internships.

This past year, they had 106 students between New York and Los Angeles. They partner with 25 hiring companies, ranging from Disney, Sony, NBC Universal and more.

Milner created these opportunities for students during the first year of the program due to her time spent as the former assistant to the president of Paramount and NBC Universal.In 2017, they joined forces with The White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (WHI-HBCU) under the Obama administration and launched HBCU in LA.

When creating EICOP, they had to break down a lot of barriers because an organization like this had never been done before.

“Some of the studios had something similar, but it’s not really the same. They also had companies steal their idea off bat,” said May, “They had a company come down and be like, “Hey! We want to partner” and Stacy’s like “If you want to partner, then it has to be this” and then they were like, “never mind” and then they went and duplicated the program.”

In the future, they plan to expand beyond Los Angeles and summer internships.

One thing they stress to participants is that the entertainment industry is more than just the roles that garner the most attention.

While they realize that some students might come into the program and decide that entertainment is not their thing, they hope skills learned will follow them into their future careers.

Generation Networks

Generation Networks was born out of the pandemic, which halted the career plans of many after graduating in 2020 including founder, Loren Maxine Gallmon. After attending webinars and workshops to learn about production and networking with peers, she created a list of everyone who supported her idea to form a group geared toward helping young people of color enter the entertainment workforce.

A partnership with Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively’s organization, Group Effort Initiative, soon followed. It is a pipeline program for members of underrepresented communities to get experience for lasting careers in the entertainment industry. “They reach out to us every time they have a project and they’re like, “Hey, do you have anyone in this region and would they be interested in this project?”

Through her foundation, Gallmon produced her first short film, “Morena,” with another member of Gen. Networks, which headed to film festivals like the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, the Micheux Film Festival, and the Houston Asian American and Pacific Islander Film Festival in 2022.

In her first year, Gallmon also started the mentorship program and a speaker series where television and film professionals like director Christine Swanson, whom she met during her time as an actor on the set of The CW’s All American: Homecoming, speak to members.

As for her production journey, Gallmon has learned to do things the unconventional way rather than working her way up as a production assistant. She made the leap straight to producer. Helping young creatives is number one on her list.

As for why we aren’t seeing the success of people of color in the entertainment industry after completing these programs, Gallmon said the types of projects are too limiting.

“Sometimes, it will be specifically for Black women, but you’re only going to see them being hired for projects just around Black women and then it will be hard to branch out after doing that.”

Black Girls Film Camp started as a project idea when Dr. Jimmeka Anderson was in curriculum and instruction with a concentration in urban education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Black Girls Film Camp Shooting Basics Workshop

During the first year, Sierra Davis, co-founder of Black Girls Film Camp was a creative coach. Anderson asked her to come on full-time and they turned the camp into a national organization. Since launching in 2021, the program has brought together Black girls from across the nation to connect over their love for film. They offer events for them to gain advice from major leaders in the industry and create their own films to be showcased worldwide.

Past speakers have included actresses like Quvenzhane Wallis who starred in the 2014 remake of Annie. The organization is also the newest recipient of Sony’s Create Action Grant and has received $50,000 to continue their work, $50,000 in Sony products, a short film detailing their story is in the works, and a collaboration and partnership with Sony.

Courtesy of Black Girls Film Camp

This year, the speakers include director and actress Salli Richardson-Whitfield with credits from NCIS to The Jamie Foxx Show and actress Yvette Nicole Brown who has starred in Drake and Josh.

“We hope that seeing these Black female filmmakers behind the camera, sitting at the table, sitting as directors and showrunners inspires them, and lets them know that this is a possibility,” said Sierra Davis.

When the program started, it was supposed to be in-person, but COVID forced the program onto Zoom.

“It was going to be local to Charlotte, North Carolina at first and with it being virtual, we are able to open up to girls across the nation.”

After the pilot year, the girls gave them feedback on how they would have preferred an in-person experience and Davis and Anderson formed a relationship to have an annual all-expense paid four-day retreat for participants with the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Journalism through professor Alison Trope.

Professor Alison Trope's Critical Media Project Workshop in collaboration with Black Girls Film Camp

During the retreat in April, participants tour USC, learn shooting basics, receive free technology (iPads, ring lights, wireless mics and tripods) and software (Adobe Premiere and Final Draft), work with their creative coaches and editors, meet with their production teams for the first time in person, go to the Academy Museum, attend speaker sessions, and tour Disney Studios and director Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY campus. They also had a chance to meet her.

When it comes to the lack of diversity in the entertainment industry, Black Girls Film Camp seeks to fill that gap.

“When you look at the numbers, Black women only make up about 2 to 3% of women directors.”

According to UCLA’s 2023 Hollywood Diversity Report only 1.5 out of 10 film directors are women.

She hopes to see the organization expanding and changing the film industry 10 girls and 10 films at a time.

Films created by participants also have the opportunity to be screened at film festivals and colleges across the country.

After the camp, alumni participate in international outreach events throughout the year to share their stories with other young Black women who aspire to be filmmakers.

Sydney White, who is studying film and television production at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, credits the program for giving her the confidence to pursue film and has had her opportunities change with being invited to screenings, interviews, and her short film she created while in the program,"Within,” has been submitted to film festivals.

Gyrl Wonder

Gyrl Wonder started in 2016 as a college success program at a charter high school in New York. Tola Lawal, founder of Gyrl Wonder, had no idea what she was doing or anything about non-profits, but once a couple of girls asked her to bring the program to the school, she realized the education system placed an emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics on students.

According to their Gyrl Wonder’s Impact Report, they’ve served over 300 girls, welcomed more than girls into the program, reached over 140 colleges and universities, had 30 programs, created eight employment pipeline partnerships, secured 30-plus internships and entry-level positions, and raised over $40,000 in scholarships. This year, they held an event with Shonda Rhimes, have a partnership with GUESS, and are planning a capsule collection with GUESS and their second ever conference.

At the height of the pandemic and after George Floyd, Lawal said, clothing brand, GUESS, reached out to her for a long-term partnership which included internships and career opportunities for all participants.

While Lawal believes there has been a small change in diversity in the entertainment industry, she said real change won’t come for the next generation of the industry until the gatekeepers are gone.

“We’re looking for instant gratification. We want to see results tomorrow and that’s not how it’s gonna happen,” she said. “The gatekeepers are still here. They haven't died yet. So until they die, and the next generation moves in, that's when we're going to see change.”

Breaking Into The Industry

Michaela Obro-Ababio, past acting mentee of Showtime’s “The Chi” producer and writer, Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad Mentorship Lab which is dedicated to advancing the television careers of underrepresented storytellers, stumbled upon the program through a friend.

After submitting her application, she forgot about it and then received an email that took her by surprise.

After interviewing with two of the acting instructors and other people that helped pick people in the final round, Obro-Ababio found out that she got into the program a week later and was flown out to Los Angeles the following week.

When she got into the program, she was excited to form a community because one half of her college career became virtual due to COVID.

After completing the program, she hasn’t seen any shifts in her career.

Since entering the industry, Obro-Ababio said while her goals are constantly shifting, it’s become more clear that her job is to inspire dark-skinned Black women and girls to let them know they can be and do anything because there’s nothing more powerful than believing in yourself.

Before the pandemic, Michelle Ampofo, a current intern at Macro, a production company that caters to the perspective of people of color, had an internship opportunity lined up in a totally different industry and she realized that she wouldn’t be proud of what she did and made the switch to entertainment through the T. Howard Foundation, which is dedicated to increasing diversity in the media industry.

Through Gen. Networks and the All Access group, which is a community for students and early entertainment career professionals, she realized your peers are vital to your success.

Through Gyrl Wonder, she received empowerment and community during a retreat in the summer of 2021 in Palm Springs.

Being Ghanaian, she found Gyrl Wonder to play an important role due to the founder, Tola Lawal, also being an African woman pursuing entertainment.

Other mentorship programs taught her the importance of valuing time and making sure that she was getting the most out of the opportunity, but without proper guidance as a first-generation pursuing the industry, she often finds herself struggling to navigate mentorships and explaining her career to her parents who don’t understand.

In the near future, she hopes to be somewhere in development and screenwriting leading her to create her own television pilot sample and becoming a writer’s assistant.

Where To Next?

Since George Floyd, companies have created diversity and inclusion programs and while it’s gotten better, it seems like they want to check a box, said Holly May, the program coordinator of the Entertainment Industry College Outreach Program, which is dedicated to helping Historically Black Colleges and University students get internships with major studios, networks, production companies, and talent agencies.

“There’s no heart behind it and until they see the passion, they see the reasoning, and until they see that this is a good thing, this isn't just something to do because everybody else is doing it, there won't be a big change,” said May.

Quwana Hamilton, Director of Learning and Development at AMC Networks, said she joined AMC after George Floyd.

“George Floyd and the BLM movement really did help for AMC to make a more focused approach on supporting diversity. But I will say that there were some indications that we had it prior.”

After George Floyd, AMC employed a Chief DEI Officer, Aisha Thomas-Petit who is now the head of People and Culture and diversity, equity, and inclusion at the studio.

“I think that helped take the small things we were doing and magnify it. We had the T. Howard partnership, which is really strong with us. We took one partnership and this is an example, now we have 10.”

On their website, it says AMC Studios has an inclusion rider which is “a process for hiring and casting that will expand our candidate pools and increase representation for historically underrepresented talent.”

In the first year of their mentorship program, they lost a lot of employees.

“Once they saw the possibilities and worked with those mentors, they saw what we were lacking as a company, so we had to do some work internally.”

As for why we’re not seeing a total change of diversity in the entertainment industry, Hamilton said it’s going to take time to see the work that is being done behind the scenes.

“I think that’s now taking people, giving them the experience, them putting in the work, and then getting them placed into things like the TV and Film Academy where they're part of the selection process, having more representation there. But that takes knowledge, skills and abilities to get there, and that's going to take time. It's not going to happen overnight.”

Dr. Leah Aldridge, Professor of Film Studies at Chapman University, said while the work done to increase diverse talent has been reduced, the people who entered the industry during that period of time will remain and have the opportunity to create pathways for up and coming racially and gendered talent.