RAW invites a panel of industry professionals in each field to review the final national contenders (54 nominees per category / 460 nominees total), selecting -- based on a set of criteria -- who they believe to be the best of the best in their craft! This panel is made up of creative celebrities and well-known industry bigwigs.
Special thanks to our panel of judges for helping select our national winners and for lending their expertise to tomorrow's creative leaders!
Claudia's mother Angela Reitz-Westenbaum founded Galerie Reitz in Basel, Switzerland. Her brother Oliver Muenchow owns the successful Kunstwarenhaus gallery in Zurich & works in close partnership with Artspace Warehouse.
Her works that have been showcased in prestigious spaces, including her solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum & the Queens Museum International Biennale. Her works can be seen on view in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Art Library. Kymia Nawabi lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Forbes awarded Lisa Kline Men as one of the "Top 10 Best Clothing Stores". In 2007, Lisa Kline was nominated “Retailer of the Year” and US Magazine named her as a “Power Player”. In addition, Lisa starred on Bravo’s hit TV show “Launch My Line” as an expert panel judge. Lisa has just relaunched her E-Commerce store Lisakline.com. Lisa is also the Co-Founder, Chief Fashion Officer and the Face of VANITI.
She's currently the L.A. Editor at the global style hub and online magazine Refinery29, where she covers everything from emerging designers and artists to beauty news and local hot spots. On the weekends, you might find her meandering the flea markets, checking out a new exhibit at LACMA, or hiking the canyons with her rescue pup Mick Jagger in tow.
He envisions his clothing line growing into a lifestyle brand complete with apparel, accessories, shoes and bags. Keeping his chic and confident female consumers in mind, Escalante wants to keep the price point of his collection affordable.
He has also worked as music consultant/supervisor for several television shows and movies, including: Gone Baby Gone, Love Monkey, The Dukes of Hazzard, Life As We Know It, Igby Goes Down. Harcourt founded his own company, SamLuna Media Inc and a new show on KCSN called Connections with Nic Harcourt. Harcourt also became Music Supervisor in residence for MTV in March 2011. Harcourt has also served as Editor at Large: Music and Culture for LA: The Los Angeles Times Magazine (2009-10)
eenie meenie artists have regularly charted on CMJ and have received adds and been placed in rotation on AAA and commercial radio stations, such as KROQ, KCRW, KEXP in Seattle and Indie 103.1 in Los Angeles. Artists on Eenie Meenie have been featured in high profile publications such as Rolling Stone, Newsweek, Maxim, NME, Billboard, Nylon, Jane, Los Angeles Times, Alternative Press, and have been interviewed by BBC and NPR. They have also been featured on Spin.com, iTunes, Virb, Myspace, Stereogum, FuelTV, MTV and etc.
He is a co-founder of a film development and production company ROUGH & TUMBLE FILMS and co-founder and programmer of the weekly genre screening series REEL GRIT SUNDAYS.
An increasingly familiar face to television with numerous guest roles on popular TV shows such as NCIS, The Closer, Law & Order, and The Sopranos -- Dent was seen most recently recurring on The Mentalist and Touch with Kiefer Sutherland and will appear with Timothy Hutton this fall in Leverage. She is currently completing her film, SILK, which she directed, wrote and produced for the prestigious AFI's Directing Workshop for Women.
Schwartz is also an active writer-director, whether doing work-for-hire sports and industrial videos, or doing webisodes as one-half of the vaudevillian-with-a-twist-of-dirty comedy duo Schwartzy and Pagana.
She is the winner of Shear Genius, Season 3. Brig proudly owns p!ay hair lounge in Simi Valley, California.
He currently is International Creative Consultant for Scruples Haircare. Charlie also made a memorable appearance on Bravo's Shear Genius 2 which aired in over 22 countries.
As a member of Local 706, Jen continues to work on great films, shows and shoots. She is excited to see all the new talent for RAWards .
Additionally, she has produced Breakfast with the Beatles, a live radio show broadcast from the famous Laugh Factory stage. She produces Lowie at the Laugh Factory, a radio show that features Laugh Factory comedians, interviews, and humor segments. She also produces the once-a-month Fresh Faces show, assisted in the production of Supreme Court of Comedy for DirecTV, and multiple showcases for MTV. Daron continues to produce and do marketing for the club, always searching for the next big thing and consistently finding new ways to expand their success.
Prior to the company’s inception, Mr. Byrd studied at Tufts and Yale Universities, The Cambridge School of Ballet, the London School of Contemporary Dance, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, and with Mia Slavenska. He danced with Twyla Tharp, Karole Armitage, and Gus Solomons Jr. among others. Since 1976, Donald Byrd has created over eighty works for his former company and for Spectrum Dance Theater, as well as for many major modern dance repertory companies including The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Philadelphia Dance Company (Philadanco), Cleo Parker Robinson, and Dallas Black Dance Theater; and for classical companies including Pacific Northwest Ballet, Concordanse (Paris), MaggioDanza diFirenze, and Oregon Ballet Theater, to name a few. He is probably best know for his reworking of the Christmas classic, The Nutcracker, into The Harlem Nutcracker, which received critical acclaim and toured nationally for 5 years.
Before joining SDC, Laura was the Managing Director of Seattle’s Intiman Theatre for fourteen years. Under her leadership Intiman received the 2006 Regional Theatre Tony Award. She has served as an advocate and catalyst for civic dialogue and community building in the Puget Sound, and she received the “Seattle Distinguished Citizen” Medal from Mayor Paul Schell in 2001. Prior to Intiman, Laura worked at Seattle Rep and Arena Stage.
French-Hungarian Markus Klinko was born in Switzerland, studied harp at the Paris National Conservatory, and had an illustrious career as one of the world’s top classical harp soloists. In 1994, after receiving the “Grand Prix du Disque” for his last recording with the Paris Opera Bastille Orchestra, Markus decided to follow his passion and began a career in photography. He met Indrani and they began their extraordinary relationship and collaboration. Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri was born in Calcutta, India. At 14, she began a successful career as a fashion model, traveling the world to work with great photographers and artists, while studying philosophy, meditation, photography and film, and pursuing her own photography. In 1995 Indrani founded a charitable school with her father in their ancestral home in Bengal, India, www.SEEschool.org. She graduated from Princeton University with a High Honors BA in Anthropology, after mastering post-production in Paris and New York, and developing with Markus their unique photographic style.
Kiyan, co-founder, is the third generation in his family to work in the jewelry and luxury industry, starting with his grandfather - an avid gemologist - who was an agent for luxury brands Cartier and Piaget. Prior to launching Boticca, he worked as an investment professional at TA Associates, a major global private equity firm based in London, where he sourced and executed many of the firm’s investments in the Internet sector in Europe, including a leading online retailer of fashion and lifestyle apparel. Kiyan has a BA in Economics from Tufts University in Boston. He grew up in Paris and Dubai and has lived in Boston, New York and London.
Before co-founding Boticca, Avid worked in Paris alongside the CEO and founder of Altavia, an independent global marketing communications group specialized in retail businesses. Prior to that she was at Accel Partners in London where she focused primarily on software and Internet investments. Avid has strong product management experience from four years working at eBay in Silicon Valley, and she also has worked at a number of start-ups, including Skype (acquired by eBay) and Tellme Networks (acquired by Microsoft).
Forbes awarded Lisa Kline Men as one of the "Top 10 Best Clothing Stores". In 2007, Lisa Kline was nominated “Retailer of the Year” and US Magazine named her as a “Power Player” - Stylemaker. In addition, Lisa starred on Bravo’s hit TV show “Launch My Line” as an expert panel judge. Lisa has just relaunched her E-Commerce store Lisakline.com. Lisa is also the Co-Founder, Chief Fashion Officer and the Face of VANITI.
She's currently the L.A. Editor at the global style hub and online magazine Refinery29, where she covers everything from emerging designers and artists to beauty news and local hot spots. On the weekends, you might find her meandering the flea markets, checking out a new exhibit at LACMA, or hiking the canyons with her rescue pup Mick Jagger in tow.
