Wayne Brady and Collaborators Mandie Taketa and San Heng to Keynote BRIC Summit (Exclusive)

Wayne Brady: The Family Remix’s Wayne Brady, Mandie Taketa and San Heng will jointly deliver the keynote address at the sixth annual BRIC Summit, which will be held March 15 in downtown Los Angeles and online the next day.

Earlier this morning, Freeform announced that it will air the unscripted series, previously announced as a Hulu original, on its network before it hits the streaming platform. The show follows the five-time Emmy winner and Taketa, who were married from 1999 to 2008, as they co-parent their daughter and continue to work together on their banner A Wayne and Mandie Creative and alongside Taketa’s longtime partner, with whom she shares a son. Heng serves as executive producer and showrunner. The trio were chosen as speakers, according to BRIC Foundation, for their shared commitment to providing opportunities to BIPOC and LGBTQ+ people in the entertainment industry (Brady came out as pansexual last year).

The theme of this year’s BRIC Summit, a solutions-oriented think tank conference focused on DEI in the creative economy, is Perseverance. “From the historic labor strikes and the unregulated proliferation of AI to the decentralization of DEI, our industry is constricting,” BRIC Foundation executive director and co-founder Nicole Hendrix said in a statement. “Despite these unprecedented setbacks, we have to persevere in order to adapt, pivot and rebuild. We look forward to coming together to find solutions that can rebuild our industry and fortify creators against these challenges.”

The summit’s in-person day is invite-only for members of the industry and will revolve around four pillars: Break the cycle (stopping the cyclical rollback of progress), Reinvent the greenlight (focusing on creators), Impact the workforce (examining the impact of generative AI) and Change the course (collaborating with educational and government initiatives). The morning will kick off with an executive breakfast conversation hosted by former NBA All-Star and investor Baron Davis and made possible by partner ASIFA-Hollywood, and the day will conclude with a screening of short films from diverse emerging filmmakers in partnership with Silver Lake Shorts.

“Los Angeles has long held the great honor and title of ‘entertainment capital of the world,’ fueled by our history of storytelling and our entrepreneurial spirit,” said Kelly LoBianco, director of the L.A. County Department of Economic Opportunity, which is hosting and sponsoring Industry Day. “Our department is excited to carry this tradition forward, and envision a future that is diverse and adaptive and expands our concept of entertainment and economic opportunity together.”

The virtual day of the summit is free to the public and dedicated to global talent and education about how to enter the entertainment industry. Studios and companies including GIPHY, LAIKA, Netflix, Skydance Animation, Nickelodeon and Sony Pictures Animation will be available to review portfolios.

“At BRIC, we’re on a journey to increase representation, create new access points and improve employment pathways into entertainment, gaming, media and tech careers,” BRIC Foundation co-founder and Fourth Wall Animation president Alison Mann said in a statement. “Unifying our efforts across industry, government, education and nonprofit is the key to enable that access for all. We’re very excited to bring these groups together during our sixth annual summit to provide valuable learning and networking opportunities for rising talent, students, parents and educators everywhere.”

More information on the lineup, which includes a panel moderated by this reporter, can be found on the summit website.