Special Award Presenters at the 22nd Annual Closing Night Awards Ceremony
MARIA COZETTE, Mistress of Ceremonies
Maria Cozette is an award-winning recording artist, songwriter, producer, university professor, and TV host. She has released three albums and multiple singles, all of which have been met with global recognition and accolades.
The starlet translates her deep creative impulse into finely wrought sonic pieces, in which catchy, pop-driven melodies resonate with fans.
Cozette pioneered the first English show to air on an Armenian television network. After obtaining an MBA degree with the highest honors, she created The Maria Cozette Show. The program aims to explore the left-brain/ right-brain phenomena by interviewing multifaceted professionals.
Cozette is currently a doctoral candidate at USC and continues to support a number of philanthropic ventures through volunteerism, youth advocacy, and community service. For more info, visit www.mariacozette.com
FERN CHAMPION
Fern Champion is a veteran casting director of numerous, wide-ranging and eclectic feature films and television series. Her professional journey began in New York casting “Saturday Night Fever”. Her love of comedy then led her to cast “The Naked Gun” and the “Police Academy” films.
While casting “The Mask,” starring Jim Carrey, Fern discovered super-star, Cameron Diaz. Other discoveries include such diverse talents as Mickey Rourke, Danny Glover, Kim Cattrall, Kelly Preston, and Sharon Stone, whom she cast in the epic miniseries, “War and Remembrance.” To date, it remains the longest running miniseries in television history, for which she received an Artios Nomination. Fern then ventured into the action/horror genre with several “Friday the 13th” movies, “Pet Sematary,” and “Mortal Kombat.”
During the 90s, her focus shifted to series television, working with prolific producer, Aaron Spelling, for six years on such series as “Beverly Hills, 90210”. Other hit series in her repertoire include the pilot episode of “Full House”, “The Highlander” and “Babylon 5.”
Recently she’s had the honor of being nominated for both an Emmy and Artios Award for best outstanding casting for the epic six-hour mini series the “Hatfields and McCoys” directed by Kevin Reynolds, for The History Channel.
She would like to thank The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for this Emmy Nomination. Today, Fern is enjoying great success casting for television and feature films. Her proudest achievements are her sons, Sean and Spencer.
SONYA EDDY
Sonya Eddy, a native of Concord, California, graduated from UC Davis. During her intense studies, she began her acting career in the UC Davis’ Main Theatre production and West Coast premiere of “Zora, Is My Name!” (written by the award-winning actress Ruby Dee). Sonya performed several roles in “Zora” including Big Sweet – a bawdy blues singer (Ruby Dee’s personal favorite).
Sonya continued forth to perform the role of the Courtesan in “Comedy of Errors” as well as performances in productions of “The Crucible”, “Pericles”, and the Witch in “Into The Woods”. Ms. Eddy won an Arty Award (the Bay Area’s version of the Ovation Award) for her powerful portrayal of Bloody Mary in “South Pacific”.
Sonya’s professional acting career in Los Angeles has spanned two decades. Her roles include Series Regular positions on truTV’s “Those Who Can’t” as Tammy Sherman, and Head Nurse, Epiphany Johnson on ABC’s “General Hospital” and “General Hospital: Night Shift”. She has Recurring roles on “Fresh Off the Boat” (Deb) and “Legit” (Ramona). She is the only actress to appear twice on “ER” as two different characters during that series’ run.
Sonya Eddy’s Guest Star credits include, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”, “Castle”, “Mom”, “Girl Meets World”, “Mike and Molly”, “The Middle”, “2 Broke Girls”, “Joan of Arcadia”, “Seinfeld”, “The Drew Carey Show” and many more.
Among Sonya’s many special skills and talents, she is also an accomplished Improv\Sketch artist, vocalist (2nd Soprano to 1st Tenor) and voice-over artist. In addition to her career successes, Ms. Eddy has recently branched out into Producing with her partner, Tyler Ford (River Ridge) with their company Eddy Ford Entertainment and also their affordable luxury line of fragrances, clothes and home accessories, Eddy Ford Beverly Hills.
KEV ORKIAN
Born to Armenian parents, Concert Pianist, Actor, Singer & Comedian Kev Orkian, is one of the UK’s finest entertainers and internationally acclaimed Award-Winning Comedy Pianist. He has starred in numerous West-End and International Musicals, Plays and TV Shows. He is also the world’s only Comedian to be invited to headline the South African Funny Festival 7 times, and star in his fourth pantomime in Australia. In 2017 Kev was awarded the International Comedian Award by the Pan Armenian Entertainment Awards for his contribution to the arts.
Kev spends most of his time touring around the globe with his One Man Piano Comedy Show. He has shared the stage with numerous artists like Lionel Ritchie, Katherine Jenkins, Dame Edna & Rick Wakeman to name a few. He has appeared in many prestigious venues including the Sydney Opera House, Windsor Castle, and The Microsoft Arena in LA.
Kev Orkian has entertained audiences from all over the world and has had the honour of entertaining many royals, including HRH Prince Phillip’s 89th birthday, Prince Charles 10th British Forces Anniversary, The Sheik Of Dubai’s Emirates Golf Dinner and the Prince of Saudi’s VIP Millionaires Banquet to name a few. He also makes many tours to Afghanistan and Cyprus to Entertain the British and American troops and all this while running his Management and production company Howlin’ Entertainment Ltd.
MICKY LEVY
RAILS & TIES, Warner Bros., directed by Alison Eastwood, was Micky’s first produced feature screenplay. It played in the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. Since then, Micky has completed several book adaptations, including Lifetime’s AMISH GRACE for which she received a Humanitas Prize nomination.
Micky’s directorial work in film includes: the documentary short, FIRST TIME. Next, Micky tackled a narrative short with the drama, PAGE’S GREAT AND GRAND ESCAPE, which played at over thirty film festivals, including Foyle Film Festival, Raindance, Newport Beach International Film Festival. PAGE won Best in Fest, Festival Director’s Award, and Audience Award. The film was distributed by Virgin Produced and shown on Virgin Atlantic and in Virgin Hotels.
Wishing to experiment with comedy, Micky accepted an assignment to direct two episodes of the raunchy webseries DIPSTICKS for Killer Boots Media.This year, Micky directed the thriller UNION, a short film she adapted from an award-winning story by author Steven Heighton. The movie stars Sean Patrick Thomas and Alexandra Grossi.
Currently, Micky is working on several book adaptations, including, THE COINCIDENCE MAKERS (novel by Yoav Blum) for Epic Pictures and STOLEN WATERS (from the novel by Ada Shaulov) for Big Boy Films.
Next, Micky is excited to direct SONGS OF MAASAI MARA, an original screenplay by Kenyan writer Correne Gichuru.
Born and raised in Israel, Micky started keeping diaries when she was 7-years-old. Her first book of poetry was published when she was 15. She immigrated to Los Angeles when she was 17 with $700 to her name and without knowing a soul in her new home. After acting in a number of films, she studied screenwriting and directing at UCLA.
PAUL FISHER
Paul Fisher has been a business owner and an agent in the modeling industry since 1982. In a career spanning three decades, he has represented models of international renown such as Naomi Campbell, Stephanie Seymour, Carla Bruni, Monica Bellucci, Brooke Burke, Kimora Lee Simmons and secured over $100,000,000 worth of trend-setting media contracts for his clients. Paul is currently.
A partner in THE BOARD, an exclusive model management firm that specializes in the management of Models careers on & off line.
With offices in Paris and Los Angeles, currently manages a list of top modeling stars such as Julie Hoomans, Marjan Jonkman, Luna Cornelissen and Suede Brooks.
The Host & Executive Producer of “I can make you a Supermodel” which has aired two seasons on the RTL network and premiered on the Lifetime / A&E TV network, September 21st, 2017, “I want to be a Hilton” TV series for NBC, “Remodeled” for the CW network and ” I can make you a Supermodel” with Sony TV for the RTL network.
MICHELLE ALEXANDRIA
A Los Angeles native, Michelle Alexandria, began a career working in finance at a young age. During her several years as a finance director for Jaguar cars, she pursued acting and began studying at the prestigious Beverly Hills Playhouse. Within a few years of acting jobs, she gained a strong interest for the business side of the industry. She began producing theater successfully then quickly transitioned to film. She continued her education at UCLA focusing on film production, line producing, and film distribution.
One of Michelle’s first feature films, FIRST DOG, a story of a young orphan boy returning a lost dog to the president of the USA was #1 on Red Box for a month. Her most recent feature, SCREAMERS, was #1 on Itunes Horror and remained top five for several weeks
Michelle has been a regular attendee of the major film festivals and markets since 2002, including the Cannes Film Festival, Mip Com, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Uni France, Sundance, and AFM. She currently works at Glass House Distribution since 2015 as Head of International Sales and Acquisitions as well as the company’s film producer having produced the their first feature film TRAUMA THERAPY starring Chase Coleman of THE ORIGINALS and Brian Krause of CHARMED. Her knowledge and experience along with her well-established relationships in the industry has made her an invaluable asset to the entertainment industry.
JACK FILLMORE BETTS
Veteran actor of film, stage, and television Jack Betts has entertained movie audiences with his debonair, suave, dashing and refined personality. He is known for “Spider Man”, “8MM”, and “Falling Down”.
With 105 credits to his name he started his career as a leading man in spaghetti westerns followed by supporting roles in films and numerous television appearances including the popular soap opera One Life To Live. The longevity of his career is due to his passion and ambition.
ARMEN RA
Theremin virtuoso Armen Ra is considered one of the finest thereminists in the world today.
Intrigued by this strange and one-of-a-kind instrument, Armen Ra began to study the theremin in 2001, now performing worldwide alongside some of the biggest names in the industry with his music featured on albums by Selena Gomez and Gwen Stefani.
LEONARDO FOTI - WRITER/DIRECTOR
Leo’s latest film, a dark comedy entitled IN VINO, starring the legendary Ed Asner (Up, Elf,The Mary Tyler Moore Show) and Sean Young (Blade Runner, Ace Ventura Pet Detective) won BEST COMEDY at the Hollywood Film Fest, BEST SCREENPLAY at the ARPA International Film Fest; Following IN VINO, Leo was hired to direct the TV version of “A Man and His Prostate” written by Ed Weinberger (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi).
As a screenwriter and director, Leo has gained international recognition with the creation of the innovative Shorts & Stuff Film Festival. His work on “Ciao Hollywood”, “Love Triangle”, and “Tipping Point” has been recognized by The Cannes Film Festival, The Sarasota Film Festival, Palm Beach Film Festival, and the USA Film Fest. The script for TV pilot “Extravaganza” was selected as a runner-up and featured during the ProShow at the Produced By Conference held in the 20th Century Fox Studios.
Leo is the co-creator of 7-Waves Entertainment, a new frontier of entertainment that helps launch films, musicals, and theatre events to promote the arts and support a wide spectrum of charities. Most recently Leo inaugurated VITANOVA PICTURES a Film Fund based in Hollywood with the mission to raise funds and develop independent features and TV Shows.
ALEX KALOGNOMOS
Alex Kalognomos is an actor, writer, event host and producer. Most recently he wrote the Revolve Awards and produced the Wearable Art Gala. He has produced over 15 film festivals including Arpa International Film Festival and Greek Film Festival.
He has appeared in film, commercials and theatrical productions including “ER”, “Lost and Found in Armenia, and William Saroyan’s “Hello Out There.”
Alex says, “Independent film festivals such as Arpa are important to me because of the space they provide to diverse filmmakers, writers and actors to share complex stories otherwise not seen in the news, or stories that get lost in the noise of other distribution channels. Thank you to Arpa for delivering an enriching program of films to watch each year!“