THE WILLOUGHBYS 
JOKER 
CANDYMAN 
As a young, Black woman growing up in Soweto, the sprawling township built by South Africa’s apartheid government on the outskirts of Johannesburg, Lala Tuku had dreams of making movies. But after making inroads into the local industry in the mid-2000s, she found her path to the director’s chair blocked. “There were no people that were Black, that were female, that were directors,” she says. “The opportunities were very limited.”Tuku found herself in front of the camera instead, acting for...
Bron Studios
Brenda
Gilbert
Cofounder / President
Gilbert and husband Aaron Gilbert have been enjoying major Hollywood success with their Vancouver-based Bron Media Corp. Founded in 2010, it’s teamed with a succession of partners to produce and finance a series of acclaimed films, including “Joker,” which grossed a billion dollars worldwide. She taps her years at the British Columbia Securities Commission to oversee the exec team managing Bron’s global ventures, which include Bron Animation, which produced “The Willoughbys” for Netflix, and her current focus, the non-scripted division Bron Life. On its 2021 slate are “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” “Judas and the Black Messiah,” Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect” and “Candyman,” while 2022 will bring “Legally Blonde 3.”
