Actor, Director, Producer and Founder, Blackbench

Adrienne-Joi Akua Okyerebea Johnson (born January 2, 1963), also known as AJ Johnson, is an American actress, life/wellness coach, fitness trainer, dancer, choreographer, and model. She graduated with honors in 1985 from Spelman College in Atlanta and is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

Acting since 1987, she has made many guest appearances on sitcoms, television dramas and music videos; she also has numerous roles in feature films and TV movies, including House Party and Baby Boy.

She has appeared in A Different World, In the Heat of the Night, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Amen, Chicago Hope, The Jamie Foxx Show, and Touched by an Angel. She has also appeared in television movies such as A Mother's Courage: the Mary Thomas Story (1989), Clippers (1991), Murder Without Motive: The Edmund Perry Story (1992), Love, Lies & Lullabies (1993), and The Beast (1996). She had a major role on the TV show Sirens.

Johnson has also appeared in theatrical releases and independent films such as School Daze (1988), House Party (1990), Double Trouble (1992), Sister Act (1992), The Inkwell (1994), High Freakquency (1998), Two Shades of Blue (2000), Tara (2001), Baby Boy (2001), and Skin Deep (2003).

She hosts as the life coach on TV One's show Life Therapy and on VH1's Couples Retreat, where she helps America’s most dysfunctional reality show couples. She has also been on the reality show Love & Hip Hop: Miami.

Actor, Director, Producer and Founder, Blackbench

Tony Kgoroge is the former president of CCIFSA (Cultural Creative Federation of South Africa). He is one of the leading actor/director/producers in South African and internationally acclaimed. He’s currently furthering his studies in innovation and creativity and entrepreneurship at Henley Business School.

He started his film career with Hi-Jack Stories in 1999, his television career in 1996 and theatre has always been his love from his amateur days till now. He believes in storytelling and nation building as an actor/director/producer and his concepts have a strong sense of narrative.

Tony’s growth and talent is constantly seen every year on international and domestic film festivals. He has proven himself to be a world-class artist. He shared platforms with Hollywood stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Nicolas Cage, Nick Nolte, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hogg, Sophie Okenedo, Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman, Naomi Harris, Idris Alba and Clint Eastwood just to name a few.

Actor, Writer-Director, Producer

Hailing from Jamaica, Adjani is a writer-director and actor who only writes "what he likes". As well as an avid reader, he spends his time people-watching, eavesdropping and randomly chatting up strangers, not putting his Architecture degree to good use.

In 2022, the pilot for BBC3’s TV adaptation (of his web series Dreaming Whilst Black in 2018) garnered national acclaim winning an RTS & BAFTA Award for Breakthrough and Emerging Talent respectively. With the help of A24, Adjani created Season 1 and is now broadcasting globally including on Showtime in the US. Despite his recent accolades, Adjani is most proud of the fact that he can finally pay rent from his once passion turned profession.

SVP and Senior Partner, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at FleishmanHillard

Adrianne C. Smith is the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at FleishmanHillard, one of the world’s leading communications and marketing agencies. She helps drive the organization’s mission to become the most inclusive agency in the world. Prior to joining FleishmanHillard, Adrianne was named the first Global Director of Inclusion and Diversity at WPP. Adrianne is also the Founder and Visionary of the Can: Diversity Collective, a nonprofit organization created to provide access and exposure to young adults of color and underrepresented communities to global thought leadership conferences in communications, advertising, marketing, creativity, economics, innovation and technology. In 2018, she launched the Cannes Can: Diversity Collective (CC:DC), an iteration of the Diversity Collective, which provides rising stars in the advertising and creative industry the opportunity to attend and participate in the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. That same year, she also brought five young people to Cannes through the nonprofit. In 2019, the program grew to include 25 young people and Adrianne launched the first-ever DE&I activation at Cannes called “Inkwell Beach,” named as a tribute to the historic beach in Martha’s Vineyard, which was a place of solace for Black people during segregation. In 2022, CC:DC returned to Cannes with 20-plus ambassadors to spotlight their talents and celebrate the intersections of DE&I, innovation and creativity. In 2023, she brought 25 talented ambassadors from around the globe - including four HBCU scholars for the first time. What started five years ago – before many of the DE&I efforts initiated in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder – as a small group of young professionals has grown into a cohort of more than two dozen young people from four continents.

Global DE&I Programs | ADCOLOR® Advisory Board | CC:DC Ambassador

Cheyenne Cameron-Pruitt began her career with FleishmanHillard (FH) as an intern in 2017 and is now the agency's first Senior Manager of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) Programs.

Over her years in client service, she helped build campaigns and social strategies and led influencer marketing programs. In 2018, she became the Diversity Champion for FH Sacramento. She guided local DE&I efforts and ensured those efforts matched the overall agency goals. She also created Remix Your Algorithm, now an FH global initiative.

In 2020, she experienced a massive shift in perspective, and her career goals shifted from growing in client services to work that placed creating spaces of inclusion, equity and safety at the center.

Since 2021 she has worked within the Office of the CDIO (Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer) as the global Sr. Program Manager. Here, she applies her skills and passion for moving DE&I programs for FH forward and tackling FH's goal to be the most inclusive communications agency in the world. She uses her position to lead the DE&I Champions globally, elevate diverse voices and perspectives at every career level, create a safe and welcoming space, center learning and unlearning, and continually advocate for all companies to recognize DE&I as a moral AND business imperative.

She takes her passion for inclusion beyond her 9-5 by volunteering her time and expertise with organizations like Cannes Can: Diversity Collective and ADCOLOR. In addition to her role at FleishmanHillard, she is a co-host for "In the Black," presented by Omnicom's Black Together.

CEO - National Film Authority|Board Chair of the National film and Television Institute | F - President - Black Star International Film Festival (BSIFF)

Juliet Yaa Asantewa Asante is a Ghanaian film actress, producer and director, and philanthropist. She was born in Ghana and is the second of five children. She is a graduate of the National Film and Television Institute where she got her first-class honors in Film Directing. She holds two Bachelor's degrees and alumnus of the University of Cape Coast Ghana, a Master's degree in Public Administration (MPA) and a Master's in Public Policy (MPP) from Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Juliet Asante began acting at the age of 17. She appeared in the 1996 film Deadly Voyage as Albert Mensah's wife.

She founded Eagle House Productions in 1999 to train some actors and actresses in Ghana through its training arm, the Eagle Drama Workshop. as well as an NGO called Save Our Women International. She also launched an innovation that makes short movies for the mobile phone in Africa in 2014 called Mobile Flicks. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of the Black Star International Film Festival.

She has written, directed, and produced shows on Ghana television, such as Obaby, a dating show, and Secrets, a drama series for which she is also executive producer.

Juliet Asante is a blogger for The Huffington Post, an editor of Entertainment Today magazine, served as president of the Ghana chapter of Women in Film and Television International, and worked as the organizer of the Voice Of Africa Forum.

Her latest film, Silver Rain, was nominated for "Best Film in West Africa" and "Best costume" for 2015 in the Africa magic viewer's choice awards (AMVCA) and also 2015 "Best Overall Film In Africa". Some of the films in which she has acted are Twin Lovers, Fresh Blood, Tears of Blood, Ripples, and Thread of Ananse.