STEPHANIE ALLAIN, FOUNDER

Award winning producer Stephanie Allain spent four decades building space for diverse voices in Hollywood. Since founding Homegrown Pictures in 2003, she has produced films by women and writer-directors of color that have launched careers, sparked conversation, and shifted the culture — among them Hustle & Flow, Something New, Black Snake Moan, Beyond the Lights, French Dirty, Dear White People, Burning Sands, Juanita, Exhibiting Forgiveness, The Woman in the Yard and Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It. In television, she executive produced four seasons of Dear White People for Netflix and in 2020 became the first Black woman to produce the Oscars for which she was Emmy nominated.

As a Senior Vice President of Production at Columbia Pictures in the early 1990s, Allain used her rise through the ranks to champion and develop a new generation of filmmakers in Hollywood, starting with John Singleton’s Boyz N the Hood, Poetic Justice, Higher Learning and Robert Rodriguez’ El Mariachi and Desperado. She helped build the pipeline for a community of Black directors and writers whose influence is still felt today.

As Director of the Los Angeles Film Festival from 2011 to 2016, she reshaped the event into one of the most diverse film festivals in the country, deliberately widening its lens to spotlight underrepresented filmmakers and establishing stats around women and filmmakers of color. In 2022 she was elected the first woman of color to serve as President of the Producers Guild of America — where she continues to push the industry toward greater equity and inclusion. 

Allain channels that same activism into her board and leadership work. She currently sits on the boards of the American Cinematheque and Producers Guild of America and previously served on the board of Film Independent, Cast & Crew, and Women In Film. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Writers Guild of America, and her long-time advocacy has earned her many recognitions including, UCLA's Vision Award and the Austin Film Festival’s Polly Platt Award.

As an educator, she’s been an Adjunct Professor of Film at USC's Peter Stark Producing Program mentoring the next generation of producers and filmmakers. She is also a practicing artist, bringing a visual sensibility to a career built on storytelling.

In 2024, Allain wrote her first children's book, Who's in Charge?, published by Candlewick Press.