Catalyst is proud to announce our 2022-2023 Mentorship Pairs! Our mentorship program, through a partnership with the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, is a gateway for storytellers in the Catalyst Story Institute to further their careers. Each mentorship is carefully aligned by our Institute Directors and is uniquely structured based on the creator’s career path, skill set and goals. We are proud to be curating this highly rewarding program that will continue to foster the career paths of the future’s brightest storytellers.
Meet mentor Kris Lefcoe (New York) and mentee Mikala Stacer (Kansas City)!
Mikala is the Catalyst 2021 winner of Outstanding Comedy Pitch for her series, Mixed Signals. She is an actor, model, and emerging comedy writer based in Kansas City. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre and is currently getting her master’s degree in Counseling Psychology. Mikala loves bringing an element of absurd comedy to authentic stories. Last year when she became part of the Mentorship program, she expressed interest in more in depth script work for her project and mentioned that she would benefit from a mentor that could work with her in that capacity. We connected her with writer/director Kris Lefcoe. Lefcoe is a multi-award-winning director-writer whose work has screened at SXSW, TIFF, NBC, IFC, and the Sundance Channel. Her half-hour pilot Giving Up, Executive Produced by David Wain and developed with Imagine Television, won top prizes at Seriesfest and New York Television Festival. Kris made her network directing debut on the NBC comedy Superstore. Her audience award-winning feature film Public Domain premiered at SXSW and was installed at Art Basel Miami. Kris teaches on the faculty of the MFA Film and TV program at Stonybrook University, SUNY, and is currently developing her second feature film as well as a new series with Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Based on her experience in the industry and Mikala’s career goals and desired script work, we knew this would be a great fit. Lefcoe and Stacer met last year to discuss Mikala’s goals, her future and delve further into her script for Mixed Signals.
Catalyst is proud to have curated this connection between Mikala and Kris and wishes both of them much continued success in their careers!
To learn more about the Catalyst Mentorship Program, visit https://www.catalystories.org/mentorship