In 2018, he won the Young Leader Award from the New York State chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and is a featured speaker with This is My Brave, RespectAbility, and the JED Foundation. Beyond musical theater, Zak is an avid mental health activist, speaking about his mental conditions on “This is Actually Happening” (podcast with 45K+ plays), and “Moments of Clarity” (radio show with 1M+ listeners).
He is very glad that he returned to school for the following semester, following his psychiatrist’s advice.
Zak graduated from Yale with a BA in music composition in 2008 - two years after his exhilarating and terrifying first psychotic episode. Zak has won several music awards including the Fenno Heath Award for writing the new Yale song, the Neva Greenwood award for writing a symphony in 8th grade, the Mount Vernon Piano Competition (playing “Rhapsody in Blue” with the Mount Vernon Orchestra in 8th grade), and was selected as a composer for the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project at Northwestern (a mixture of a thrilling week of writing, and a deep depression). Zak is also arranging and co-orchestrating Unlimited, a musical revue of the work of Stephen Schwartz’s (composer of Wicked, Pippin, Godspell, and Children of Eden, and soundtracks of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Prince of Egypt, Pocahontas, and Enchanted). He is co-writing three shows with the brilliant and lovely Adele Powers: Anthem, a musical that explores why we sing the national anthem (conceived by Rachel Payne) a musical about a unicorn called That Musical About a Unicorn and a musical about Judaism, called Happy Challah Days: A Jewish Revue-ish. Virtual performances are available, though in-person is preferred! In addition to Inside My Head, Zak is creating a docuseries about the connection between mental conditions and creativity, called Insanely Talented. He is touring the show - which includes a group discussion - to colleges, high schools, mental health and non-profit organizations, medical schools, companies, and anyone else who wants to host this inspiring, life changing event. Zak revised the show as a writer-in-residence at the Kennedy Center’s REACH page-to-stage festival in January 2022. His original musical about his mental health journey, Inside My Head, premiered at the NY Theatre Barn, was selected as a semi-finalist at the O’Neill Theater’s National Music Theater Conference, and presented at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. Zak Sandler has played piano on Broadway for Wicked, Mean Girls, Motown, and The Color Purple. She coaches kids/teens/adults online internationally through and was the on-call coach Rosalie Chiang for Pixar’s Turning Red. She can currently be seen as the lead in the Amazon series, “Dyke Central.” She can currently be seen as Nancy on the Tubi Original “Titanic 666,” alongside Jaime Bamber, Keesha Sharp, and Annalynne McCord. Her primetime credits include a recurring role on ER (NBC), Bones (FOX), Gilmore Girls (ABC), and Trauma (NBC).
Most of her work has taken aim at dismantling the patriarchy, healing generational trauma, and exposing systems of bias with humor. Her first short film, “Ultra-Feminist,” got an Honorable Mention at Outfest: Fusion, and her second film, “ALLY 3000,” won over 12 awards at film festivals mainly in scriptwriting and social justice. Giovannie’s identity is inherently political: A bisexual, once-undocumented immigrant Filipina mom who spent time in a Biblical doomsday cult as a teen. Jason Fong joins hosts Krystina Wray Jackson and Tony Gapastione for episode 162 with actor/filmmaker and cult survivor Giovannie Espiritu. You can tune into our Facebook page or subscribe to our YouTube Channel to watch! She is a champion for the local film community, and moved into casting to meet a need in the Sacramento Valley! In 2019 she received the 2018 CFAA President’s Award from The Capital Film Arts Alliance in Sacramento, CA.
As time went on she grew a love for all things filmmaking and behind the scenes. She got her start as an actor, and portrayed Alexa in the film ENAMORED. Casting Director and Producer Sally Forcier has been in the business for over 29 years.
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