Industry Profiles and Q&As

Recently named one of BROADWAY'S WOMEN TO WATCH, Haley Bennett AB' 13 is an NYC-based Music Supervisor, Conductor, Arranger, & Coordinator. She is currently the Associate Music Supervisor for all North American productions of the hit musical & JULIET, as well as the recent Broadway premier of REDWOOD starring Idina Menzel. In addition to her supervision work, Haley serves as the Associate Music Director / Conductor for the Broadway production of & JULIET, playing keyboards and/or conducting nightly in the pit. Additional Broadway credits include: DIANA: THE MUSICAL, COME FROM AWAY, ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE, DEAR EVAN HANSEN, ANASTASIA, BANDSTAND, PARAMOUR, FINDING NEVERLAND, PIPPIN, & THE GERSHWINS’ PORGY AND BESS. International/National Tours include: ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, ALADDIN, COME FROM AWAY, HAMILTON, RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN’S CINDERELLA, and PRINCE OF BROADWAY. 

Haley also works as a Music Supervisor and Coordinator/Contractor for various NBCUniversal projects, including the annual Upfront presentation at Radio City Music Hall. There, she has supervised performances featuring artists including Kelly Clarkson, Jimmy Fallon, Seth MacFarlane, Michael Bublé, John Tesh, and Little Big Town, as well as full live orchestras of 30-60+ musicians, both at Radio City Music Hall and in the iconic SNL Studio 8H. She served as the Music Coordinator for SCHMIGADOON! on Apple TV+ and Associate Music Coordinator for NBC’s broadcast of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR LIVE IN CONCERT, worked on PETER PAN LIVE!, and has been a Music Coordinator for the annual RADIO CITY CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR’s 37-piece orchestra for 8+ years. Haley has also been the Music Contractor for the Ogunquit Playhouse since 2021.

As an Album & Recording Coordinator/Supervisor, Haley has overseen many original Broadway cast recordings, including the Grammy-nominated MJ: THE MUSICAL, DIANA: THE MUSICAL, ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, ANASTASIA, ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE, and the Grammy Award-winning DEAR EVAN HANSEN. In 2022, Haley collaborated with Jimmy Buffett and Frank Marshall to supervise, arrange, and orchestrate TALES FROM MARGARITAVILLE, the inaugural show for Jimmy Buffett's Margaritavillle at Sea cruise line.

Haley holds a BA in Psychology (Cum Laude with High Honors) from Harvard University, with minors in Dramatic Arts and French, as well as a Certificate in Music Production from Berklee College of Music.

Alison Haskovec is a film and television executive living in Los Angeles, CA. Currently an independent producer, Haskovec previously worked in the Original Independent Film Group at Netflix, specializing in family films, where she oversaw the development and production of numerous productions released on the streaming service, including NIGHTBOOKS starring Krysten Ritter, MIXTAPE starring Julie Bowen, and FEEL THE BEAT starring Sofia Carson. Prior to that, she was SVP Development and Production at Silvertongue Films where she set up CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG at Paramount Pictures. At Scott Free Pictures, she developed the 8-part mini-series WORLD WITHOUT END and identified the book that Discovery’s first scripted show, KLONDIKE, was based upon. Originally from Cambridge, MA, Haskovec is a volunteer head mentor for the Young Storytellers organization and a graduate of Harvard College.

Cynthia is a New York-based music director and pianist. She is currently serving as the Associate Music Director for the upcoming Broadway musical DEAD OUTLAW, nominated for 7 Tony Awards this season.

She is a member of the Broadway music team for the eight-time Tony- and Grammy-winning production of Anaïs Mitchell’s HADESTOWN. In addition, she has played keyboard for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular and has played around the world as a sidewoman and pianist (Hollywood Bowl, Lexington Symphony, Dallas Symphony at the Bravo! Vail Festival, Denver Symphony). 

In the film world, Cynthia served as the Associate Vocal Supervisor for SPIRITED, an Apple TV+ movie starring Will Ferrell, Ryan Reynolds, and Octavia Spencer, as well as the third season of Hulu’s ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING starring Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin Short.

Other select favorites from the theatre realm include Gloria Estefan’s BASURA (world premiere in 2026), LEMPICKA, THE OUTSIDERS, THE JONATHAN LARSON PROJECT, BACK TO THE FUTURE, the 2022 Broadway revival of COMPANY, the 2022 Broadway revival of FUNNY GIRL starring Lea Michele, SUFFS at the Public Theater, THE LAST FIVE YEARS from Out of the Box Theatrics, FROZEN 1st National Tour, MOULIN ROUGE at the Emerson Colonial Theatre, IN THE GREEN at Lincoln Center Theatre, and WITNESS UGANDA at the Wallis Annenberg Center. In a past life, she was a software engineer and a Harvard grad.

Soprano Allison Charney’s operatic career began following the national finals of the Metropolitan Opera Competition with her debut at the New York City Opera as Musetta in LA BOHÈME. She has gone on to sing dozens of leading soprano roles in opera companies throughout the country, earning a reputation for her “vocal agility, lush sound and dramatic portrayals” of the lirico-spinto roles in her wide-ranging repertoire. Concert highlights include her debut with the Lviv National Philharmonic in the middle of the war in the spring of 2024, her Carnegie Hall debut in the spring of 2022 as a featured soloist in the new composite song cycle, FORGOTTEN VOICES and guest appearances at Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, with the esteemed Philadelphia Orchestra and with the Boston Pops under the baton of Alan Gilbert (AB '89). 2025 concerts for Ms. Charney included a guest performance with the North Bohemian Opera Orchestra in Czech and the Verdi REQUIEM with the Dallas Symphony, both under the baton of her long-time collaborator Benjamin Loeb (AB '89). Following the success of her iTunes and Amazon classical chart-topping chamber music recordings, Ms. Charney's first solo vocal album, ALIKE (MY MOTHER’S DREAM) will be released in the summer of 2025. She is a co-creator of the series HER/MUSIC; HER/STORY, launched at Steinway Hall in 2019 and currently showcased in a four-part radio series on WQXR.  Ms. Charney is an active recitalist and master teacher and is the artistic and executive director of the innovative concert series, PREFORMANCES™️. During the pandemic, Charney pivoted to the virtual stage where her concert and conversation series, SEASON OF HOPE, launched the centennial year of New York City's historic Town Hall, which then presented her OPERA AT HOME adaptation of Verdi's OTELLO - the first installment in her OPERAS IN SHORT series. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude with highest honors from Harvard University, she went on to earn two graduate degrees in music from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. Ms. Charney now lives in New York with her husband and their two sons.

Laura Kennedy is CEO of Avalon, the talent management and production group based in London, Los Angeles and New York. Avalon represents a prolific roster of artists and produces live shows and television series including CATASTROPHE, LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER, STARSTRUCK, TASKMASTER and WORKAHOLICS. Prior to joining Avalon, Laura was COO at Lionsgate Television Group where she headed operations, strategy and M&A. Laura started her career at Avalon in talent management. She has an A.B. from Harvard College in English and American Literature, an MBA from Harvard Business School and s

Morgan Lehmann (AB '12) is a comedy writer who grew up on a pig farm in Houston, MN (pop. 983). A graduate of UCB’s improv program, she started her career as an assistant on 2 BROKE GIRLS, before writing for THE COOL KIDS and BLESS THIS MESS and developing half-hour sitcoms with CBS, ABC, and Freeform. Most recently, Morgan has found success in the feature space, selling her first feature in a multi-way bidding war.

Jonathan Eirich AB '03 is President of Film for Rideback, the film and television company known for producing tentpole live-action and animated content for global audiences.

Eirich is a BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated producer who has overseen production for live-action films such as Disney’s billion-dollar box office hit ALADDIN, directed by Guy Ritchie; Netflix’s DEATH NOTE, directed by Adam Wingard; and the Netflix three-time Oscar-nominated film THE TWO POPES, directed by Oscar-nominated Fernando Meirelles. In 2019, ALADDIN became the second-highest-grossing live-action musical film of all time.

Ryan Halprin AB '12 is Senior Vice President of Production at Rideback where he works on both Film and TV projects. Next up is the live-action adaptation of Disney's LILO & STITCH coming out this month, and he is currently executive producing the live-action series adaptation of AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER for Netflix. Since joining the company in 2012, he has also overseen production on the LEGO MOVIE franchise of animated films at Warner Bros on behalf of Rideback, and co-produced the DEATH NOTE manga adaptation for Netflix.

Ryan studied Neurobiology and Economics at Harvard, but spent most of his time pursuing the arts. He performed in the cast of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, and outside of the Pudding, he choreographed and directed slightly less burlesque productions at the American Repertory Theater, among other places on campus. In the summer of 2011, Ryan tested the LA waters with an internship at Lin Pictures. After one more year in Cambridge scanning brains, he came right back and has been there since. Ryan was born in Chicago and grew up in Palo Alto, CA. Always missing live theater these days, he choreographs couples’ first dances at their weddings as a side hustle.

Dawn Tripp AB '90 is the nationally bestselling author of the novels JACKIE and GEORGIA, finalist for the New England Book Award, and winner of the Mary Lynn Kotz Award for Art in Literature. Praised by THE WASHINGTON POST, THE BOSTON GLOBE, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, and others, JACKIE is described by author Chris Bohjalian as a “brilliant, beautiful book that touches the soul in ways conventional biographies can’t.” Tripp is the author of three previous novels: GAME OF SECRETS, MOON TIDE, and THE SEASON OF OPEN WATER, which won the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction. Her poems and essays have appeared in the VIRGINIA QUARTERLY REVIEW, HARVARD REVIEW, CONJUNCTIONS, AGNI, and NPR. She serves on the executive board of the Boston Book Festival and on the board of Gnome Surf: A non-profit surf therapy organization focused on creating a culture shift towards kindness, love, and acceptance for athletes of all abilities. She graduated from Harvard and lives in Massachusetts with her sons.

Nick Gordon AB '95 is an Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning film producer and the president of independent production & finance company Brookstreet Pictures. Previously, Nick was Brookstreet’s Chief Operating Officer for four years and before that Head of Development, a role in which he oversaw the acquisition of new material and building of the company slate. His producing credits include: MR. BURTON (Executive Producer); THE BRUTALIST; KNOX GOES AWAY; THE FORGIVEN; BROTHERS BY BLOOD; SKIN (Executive Producer); O.G.; FIRST KILL (writer & co-producer); and GIRLHOUSE (writer & producer). Before joining the company in 2010, Nick worked as a screenwriter and documentary story consultant. He was the sole writer on BEHIND THE MASKS: THE STORY OF THE SCREEN ACTORS GUILD, a four-part documentary miniseries chronicling the history of Hollywood’s most famous labor union. Nick was a founding employee of HotJobs, an industry leading employment website purchased by Yahoo! in 2000. Nick is an honors graduate of Harvard College. He was born in Boston and grew up in both Cambridge, MA and Santa Cruz, CA.

Hillary Nussbaum AB '09 is a writer, producer, marketer, and co-founder of the creative studio, Cereal Made. Hillary co-created the narrative sci-fi podcast, ANOMALY, which premiered as an Official Selection at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival and was selected for IFP Week's inaugural Audio Lab in 2020. She previously worked at the Emmy-winning production company, Lion Television, developing unscripted series for national cable networks like TLC, AMC, and A&E. She has also produced branded videos for clients including 1000heads, MME, Arm Technology, UN Environment, and Palmer’s, and served as Producer, Director, and Assistant Director on a variety of short films.

Heather Taylor is a writer/director from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and a Canadian/UK/US citizen who splits her time between the US and Canada. She creates TV, film, and audio projects about messy, complicated family relationships, often told through a genre lens, aiming to destigmatize mental illness, disabilities, and poverty. Heather recently staffed on Syfy/Peacock’s REVIVAL, wrote for season two of THE HARDY BOYS (Disney+/Hulu), and her feature LETHAL LOVE is streaming on Netflix. A 2022 RespectAbility Lab Fellow, Heather also co-hosts the podcast BRAAAINS, exploring mental health and disability representation in media.

Haden Guest is Director of the Harvard Film Archive where he curates the HFA cinematheque and its motion picture, manuscript and photographic collections. He has curated film programs for the Viennale, the Oberhausen Film Festival and the Gulbenkian Foundation and Museum in Lisbon where he organized the twelve part Cinema Dialogues: Harvard at the Gulbenkian (2013-15). Guest also oversees the Harvard Film Archive’s preservation program which focuses on independent and avant-garde cinema, but also recently preserved the previously lost Robert Flaherty film A NIGHT OF STORYTELLING, rediscovered in 2013 in Harvard’s Houghton Library. As Senior Lecturer in Harvard’s Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies, Guest teaches courses on film history and archival practice. He holds a PhD in Film History from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is currently writing a critical history of Portuguese cinema after the 1974 Carnation Revolution. In 2015 Guest was awarded a Medal of Cultural Merit by the Secretary of Culture of Portugal, in recognition for his work curating and researching Portuguese cinema. He was a producer of Soon-Mi Yoo’s SONGS FROM THE NORTH, winner of major prizes including a Golden Leopard at the 2014 Locarno Film Festival, the DocLisboa Prize for Best First Feature and the Jury Prize at the Buenos Aires International Film Festival.