JaNeika and JaSheika James both graduated with Bachelor Degrees in Telecommunication from the University of Florida.  Upon graduating, JaSheika was accepted into the ABC Talent Development Production Associate program in Burbank, California, working with production executives and assisting on a number of television series and pilots. JaSheika went on to work for hit series, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES and DEXTER, and later in post-production at ABC Studios.  She was also a Staff Writer on the show REVENGE.  JaNeika earned a Masters of Fine Arts in Television, Radio, and Film from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communication. It was during her time in graduate school she undertook a thesis project titled: The African-American Female Influence In Television.  An interview with Yvette Lee Bowser – Creator and Executive Producer of the hit FOX television series LIVING SINGLE. – led to a mentoring relationship and working in the writers’ room at UPN’s HALF & HALF.  JaNeika went on to work under the producing team of Jennifer Crittenden and Gabrielle Allan (SEINFELD, SCRUBS, WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER?) at ABC Studios, and later in Scripted Development at VH1. Finalists of the 2015 Class of Fox's Writing Intensive, JaNeika and JaSheika are currently Staff Writers on Fox's EMPIRE.  

Attica Locke’s first novel, Black Water Rising, was nominated for a 2010 Edgar Award, an NAACP Image Award, as well as a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was short-listed for the prestigious Orange Prize in the UK (now the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction).  Her second book, The Cutting Season, published by Dennis Lehane books, is the winner of the Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. Her latest novel is Pleasantville. A graduate of Northwestern University, she’s published in eight countries. Locke is also a screenwriter and was a fellow at the Sundance Institute’s Feature Filmmakers Lab.  She is currently a writer and producer on the Fox drama, Empire. A native of Houston, Texas, Attica lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and daughter.

Award-winning writer/producer Carlito Rodriguez has contributed to various media outlets, including HBO, MTV, VH1, BET, Vibe magazine, EA Games and the Associated Press, among others.  During his tenure as The Source magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, he ushered in a new era of authenticity to rap music’s preeminent publication, interviewing personalities like Will Smith, Jay-Z, Diddy, Dr. Dre, Black Eyed Peas and Eminem, among others, as well as providing his expertise for the brand’s television program, “The Source: All Access,” as a writer and segment host.  He served as creative consultant for VH1’s “Driven: Notorious B.I.G.”, about the life of the fallen rapper. He also co-created, produced and wrote 20 half-hour episodes of “Station Zero,” an animated sitcom that launched MTV’s first-ever Hip Hop Week.  As a Consulting Producer with BET (Black Entertainment Television), he produced segments for “The Chop Up,” a weekly newsmagazine and wrote and produced “Bullets and Ballots: Official Street Cat Goes to Washington,” about the effects of gun legislation on violence in the inner city and the award-winning* “50 Shots: Official Street Cat Tackles Police Brutality,” following the NYPD’s deadly shooting of unarmed man. In 2013, he won the Humanitas Prize/New Voices grant for his pilot “ICON.” He was a staff writer on the critically-acclaimed HBO series, “The Leftovers,” and is  is now on the writing team for FOX’s breakout hit “Empire.”