Meet The JumpStart Judges

Join Roadmap Writers for this FREE and exclusive Q&A event! Emily Lock, Director of Competitions, and Aadip Desai, Director of Brand Management & Marketing, will chat with two of our esteemed 2022 JumpStart Competition judges, Mitchell Bendersky, Manager at Gramercy Park Entertainment, and Tom Ishizuka, Creative Executive at Stage 13. 

The judges will share insights on what they look for when reading a script, the types of stories they gravitate to the most, and more!

Attendees will have the opportunity to have their own questions answered throughout the webinar.

Mitchell Bendersky is currently a Manager at Gramercy Park Entertainment and worked at Marvel and WME prior to that. He was born and raised in Los Angeles to Belarusian immigrants and graduated from UCLA in 2016. Mitchell is counting down the days until he can safely dine at restaurants so he never has to worry about eating soggy take-out nachos again.

Tom Ishizuka is a New York-based Creative Executive at Stage 13, an artist-driven studio/pod under Warner Bros. TV dedicated to amplifying underrepresented stories and storytellers. Tom got his start in the industry at Scott Rudin Productions – first as Rudin’s assistant, and later serving as the Associate Producer for the film Eighth Grade and Tony Award-winning/nominated 2018 Broadway shows, Three Tall Women, Carousel, and The Iceman Cometh. He later worked across independent film and theatre development at Big Beach alongside producer Peter Saraf. At Big Beach, Tom served as the lead executive for The Purists at the Huntington Theater Company, directed by Billy Porter and written by Dan McCabe (winner of 2 Elliot Norton Awards including Outstanding Production). He was also the Co-Producer for These Days, a TV pilot written/directed by Adam Brooks and starring Marianne Rendón and William Jackson Harper, which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Most recently prior to Stage 13, Tom has worked with Jake Gyllenhaal and Riva Marker at Nine Stories Productions, contributing in a development role across film, television, and theatre. Tom also has diverse experience in the freelance space, independently producing several short films and working as a publicist for several feature films in their festival and theatrical runs.

Co-Moderator, Emily Lock is Roadmap's Director of Competitions. She studied media, literature, and film at UC Berkeley. She's worked on a lot of different film sets, for small independent production companies, and at Disney's 20th Television. Emily's favorite part of working for Roadmap is finding a script that's undeniably special and helping it to gain momentum. She's most excited about telling stories that spark conversation and create space for unexpected narratives.

Co-Moderator, Aadip Desai is Roadmap's Director of Brand Management & Marketing, and Success Story #98, signing with an agent and manager through Joey.  Aadip was a Staff Writer on The Goldbergs and has written freelance episodes for Mira Royal Detective, Sharkdog, Dew Drop Diaries, and more, He dropped out of AFI’s MFA Screenwriting program to join the ABC/Disney TV Writing Program. He was named a 2020 BAFTA Breakthrough US. When not writing, Aadip runs the LA TV Writers Facebook Group, is an Advisor/Instructor at the Sundance Institute, a speaker at top film schools, a mentor/judge /committee member for BAFTA's fellowships and competitions, and interviews industry pros and moderates panels at various orgs. He got good practice during his time as a Co-Host/Producer of the On the Page screenwriting podcast, and as former President of the Northwest Screenwriters Guild in Seattle. He has a functionless BA in Economics and a Minor in Music from the University of Puget Sound. He is repped by Kaplan Stahler Agency and Rain Management Group.