At Gen-Z Media we’re committed to creating stories that are as relatable as they are surprising, filled with twists, turns, humor, and heart.
Ben Strouse
CEO / Co-Founder
Peabody Award-winning creator Ben Strouse oversees Gen-Z Media. Before co-founding GZM, Ben practiced Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law in New York City. He is the author of The New York Times Best-of-the-Year children’s book Hey Boy (Simon & Schuster), as well as the writer/composer of the Off-Broadway musical Whateverman.
David Kreizman
Chief Creative Officer / Co-Founder
David Kreizman is an Emmy, Writers Guild, and Peabody Award-winning showrunner, writer, director, and producer. A lifetime fan of middle-grade and YA entertainment, David oversees the writing and development of all original GZM shows. Before entering the world of podcasting, David was head writer for the daytime drama Guiding Light, co-head writer of All My Children and As the World Turns and head writer for World Wrestling Entertainment. His YA novel, The Year They Fell, was published by Macmillan in 2019.
Chris Tarry
Chief Production Officer / Co-Founder
Chris Tarry is a Peabody Award-winning writer and a five-time Juno Award-winning musician, composer, and sound designer. His book of short stories, How To Carry Bigfoot Home (Red Hen Press), won the IndieFab book of the year for short fiction, and has been widely praised as one of the best short story collections of 2015. His cinematic compositions and sound design aesthetic are the backbone of the immersive, high-concept adventures produced at Gen-Z Media.
Jeremy Bent
Creator / Host
Jeremy is a comedian and voice actor based in Los Angeles who plays Chief Washington Bureau Chief Jonathan Keene on Stephen Colbert Presents Tooning Out the News, currently airing on Comedy Central. He can also be seen in Netflix’s Cast Party and on Emmy Award-winning show Veep on HBO, and can be heard on the popular podcasts Mission to Zyxx and Nice to Meet You.
Ethan T. Berlin
L.I.S.A
When Ethan T. Berlin isn’t playing the voice of L.I.S.A., he’s writing children’s books, TV shows, and his funny kid’s magazine, The Journal of Nonsense.
Tom Casiello
Writer
Tom wrote for As the World Turns, One Life to Live, Days of Our Lives, and The Young and the Restless, winning three Emmys and a WGA Award for his work before spending six years on the creative team of WWE. Currently, he’s world-building Apex Legends, creating characters, crafting storylines and producing animated shorts for the game played by over seventy million people all over the world.
Amy Cervini
Supervising Producer
Amy is an award-winning producer and vocalist with two decades of experience in the entertainment industry. Amy founded Orange Grove Artists, a management/booking company and is a co-founder of TPR Records and Wooden Bird Productions. Based in NYC, Amy has performed in venues across the world, from Carnegie Hall to Jerusalem Jazz Festival.
Paco Correa
Producer
Paco has worn many hats throughout his career: writer, producer, editor, director, translator, and more. Paco served as Executive Producer for HBO Latino, running promotions for the network as well as Cinemax Latino.Among his accolades, Paco has won four Emmy® Awards, five Telly® Awards, three New York Festivals® World Medals, and four Addy® Awards.
Jessica M. Fisher
Digital Marketing Director / Host
Jessica is a digital marketing specialist from New Jersey. Although she recently graduated from NYU with a musical theater degree, she has been a social media expert for five years for multiple groups including NYU Skirball, Broadway Direct, and Phoenix Productions. Contact: jessica@gzmshows.com
Kristian Foster
Editor
Kristian Foster, aka evergrxnbeats, is a Hip-Hop producer, composer , engineer, and sound designer from Seattle, WA. He has worked with several emerging artists in the Seattle music scene from multiple genres. He studied Audio Production at the University of Washington.”
Lucky Gold
Writer
Lucky’s career has ranged from writing feature films for MGM, Universal, and Miramax, where he was script doctor for Shakespeare in Love, to writing and producing for Christiane Amanpour at CNN. Through it all, he has collected multiple Emmys for writing such stalwarts of daytime TV as Another World, One Life to Live, Guiding Light, As the World Turns, Young and the Restless, and General Hospital.
Deborah Goldstein
Producer / Host
Deborah is a writer and producer for the page, the stage, and the screen. She is the executive producer and host of The Big Fib podcast and supervising producer on the Disney+ streaming version, The Big Fib.
Holly Gregory
Writer / Director
Holly is an Emmy-winning content creator, producer, and director of innovative kids’ media. Holly has created original content and directed series for Pinna, Universal Kids, Nickelodeon, Sprout, The Fred Rogers Company, PBS, Silvergate Media, 9 Story Media, Random House and more.
Ania Grzesik
Sound Designer
Ania is a sound designer and engineer whose podcast credits include shows from WNYC Studios and Team Coco. Previously, she was the Audio Supervisor for Blue Man Group’s NYC production. Recent projects include composition and sound design for exhibits in the Kennedy Space Center’s new attraction Gateway: The Deep Space Launch Complex, which means she’s basically an astronaut now.
Robert Hann
Editor & Sound Designer
Robert is a composer, sound designer, songwriter, and audio engineer. When not making podcasts he can be found exploring hidden sites in the city, snowboarding in the mountains, or at home watching old classic movies.
Lisa Highfill
Education Lead / GZM Classroom
Lisa Highfill has worked in Pleasanton Unified School District in the San Francisco Bay Area for over twenty eight years, and is currently the district’s technology integration specialist working in the new virtual academy. Lisa is the co-creator and co-author of The HyperDoc Handbook and Teachers Give Teachers.
Art Hays
Composer
Art is an Austin-based musician/composer/producer and has been performing and writing music professionally since 1989. His songs have appeared on Criminal Minds (CBS), Kourtney & Khloé Take Miami (E!), Royal Pains (USA), Live To Dance (CBS), The O’Neals (OWN), Love Bites (NBC), NCIS LA (CBS), Jane By Design (ABC Family), and many more.
Marla Kanelos
Writer
Marla is an Emmy Award-winning television writer with extensive credits in daytime and primetime including All My Children, The Young and The Restless, Wild Card, and Port Charles. The winner of two Writers Guild of America awards, she has developed dramas, comedies, and feature films for eOne Entertainment, Gulfstream Pictures, and Vitameatavegamin Productions.
Sarah Landis
Education Lead / GZM Classroom
Sarah Landis is a teacher/coach in the San Francisco Bay Area, who holds a masters in curriculum design from Teachers College, Columbia University. Sarah is passionate about shifting classroom instruction and promoting effective technology integration, and she gets to work with educators worldwide as a co-creator of HyperDocs.
Oded Lev-Ari
Sound Designer / Composer
Oded is a GRAMMY-nominated composer/arranger/producer. Co-owner of Anzic Records, Oded has arranged for New York Pops, WDR Big Band, San Angelo Symphony, Anat Cohen, and Theodore Bikel and has been commissioned by Carnegie Hall, Symphony Center Presents, and others.
Jenn Levine
Producer
Jenn Levine is a story and content expert. As the head of the Story Department for WME / Endeavor and with years of experience as a freelance story consultant, her notes and critiques have been used to select and improve material by top studios, networks, agencies and writers in Hollywood and beyond.
Claire McClanahan
Supervising Producer
Claire is an award-winning writer and producer whose work has been recognized at the Cannes Film Festival/Breaking Through the Lens, Tribeca Film Institute/Sloan Foundation, Sundance Episodic Lab, and New England Emmy Awards, to name a few. She is an accomplished stage and screen actor and has extensive experience in digital media, public relations, and marketing including graduate studies in strategic communications at Columbia University.
Nidhi Mehta
Writer
Nidhi has written for television in America and Europe, performed at Caroline’s on Broadway, and helped start-ups start up their branded content. Currently taking on podcasting and mobile tech, Nidhi enjoys finding new adventures to indulge in. Among her greatest loves are pizza, The Princess Bride, writing, and her family (not necessarily in that order).
Jonathan Messinger
Producer / Host
Jonathan is one of the leading voices propelling kids’ scripted podcasts into the mainstream—and beyond. He is the creator of the hit show The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian, now in its third season.
Sharon Michaels
Production Manager
Sharon is a production manager with a background in musical theater. An AEA member, she is resident production stage manager for the North Jersey production of Listen to Your Mother and the North Jersey Pride Festival. Past jobs have included TEDX Maplewood (PSM) and producer on Verizon’s “Can you hear me now?” campaign.
Darian Newsome
Associate Producer
Darian is an audio engineer who enjoys making music, playing video games, and hanging out with his friends and family. He is also really great at sound design, editing voices, and laying down tracks.
Jay Nungesser
Graphic Designer
Jay’s a Boston-based designer who’s done work for Nintendo, Keebler, Procter & Gamble, PBS, Yes, Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, Aretha Franklin, PRX, and now GZM. He’s also the creative director of a healthcare communications company called Chameleon, does a lot of traveling (when he can), and has way too many books and flavors of tea.
Mike Olekshy
Composer
Mike is a guitarist, composer, and producer based in Nashville, Tennessee. A Gemini award-winning sound designer, he has composed and written songs for several television shows, films and, more recently, podcasts.
Shawn Pierce
Composer
Shawn is one of the busiest film composers in L.A. He has worked on more than 200 albums, composed music for many television shows (CTV, ABC, FX), and earned a Grammy nomination, 5 Juno awards, 22 Juno nominations, plus 2 WCMAs and 12 WCMA nominations.
Donnie Piercey
Education Lead / Host
Donnie Piercey is the 2021 Kentucky Teacher of the Year and teaches fifth grade in Lexington, Kentucky. He was the recipient of a National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship to Antarctica is the North American lead for the Google Earth Education Experts Network.
Ed RosenBerg III
Composer & Sound Designer
Ed is a composer/performer residing in Brooklyn, N.Y. He studied saxophone at the Eastman School of Music and holds a PhD in Composition from Stony Brook University.
Jennifer Rowekamp
Composer
Jennifer is a San Francisco-based composer and music editor. She works as an associate music editor at Pixar Animation Studios and freelance composes for podcasts, short films, and documentaries.
Gavin Skal
Editor
Gavin Skal is an audio engineer and editor based in Queens, NY. In addition to working with GZM, he has worked on hundreds of audio books, music recordings of all genres, and live recordings and streaming from places ranging from living rooms to the United Nations General Assembly.
Jason Sheesley
Senior Editor
Jason is a musician and audio engineer with an extensive background in music production. He enjoys presenting and writing about audio, working with documentary podcasters, and using sound to help stories come alive.
Michelle Tattenbaum
Producing Director
Michelle is a two-time Drama League Directing Fellow, with deep theater roots, having directed plays and musicals at the Old Globe (San Diego Theatre Critics Circle nomination: Best Director) and Second Stage Theater in NY. Tattenbaum worked for Manhattan Theatre Club for three years, producing and developing new plays and musicals.
Kat Vokes
Composer
Kat is a Brooklyn-based composer, vocalist, and pianist, specializing in writing for film, television, and other media. She studied classical piano for 12 years before she formally trained as an opera singer at the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Interested in joining our team? Apply at jobs@gzmshows.com