Kathleen Tarr

Writer

Kathleen Antonia Tarr is founder of the annual Getting Played Symposium on Equity in the Entertainment Industry and Awards, born of her feature documentary Getting Played: Who’s Playing You?! which received Honorable Mention at the 2010 IBWFF. Going on its seventh year, the Getting Played Symposium puts into conversation experts from entertainment, law, psychology, community organizing, and academia and elevates recognition of individuals whose lesser celebrated contributions are crucial for evolution of the Industry. An award-winning vocalist and filmmaker with stage, film, television, and commercial acting credits, Kathleen’s artistic expertise intersects with her years as a civil and human rights attorney in her decades-long effort to usher Hollywood’s employment practices further toward inclusion, equity, and diversity. Her 2015 General Session at the State Bar of California Annual Meeting – joined by guests Edward James Olmos and Amy Pietz – was delivered to over 1000 attorneys and served as foundation for her law review article Bias and the Business of Show: Employment Discrimination in the “Entertainment” Industry. Kathleen has served as Black Laurel Film Festival juror and UN Women (San Francisco) Global Voices Film Festival judge. Her own short I Have All The Feelings was an Official Selection at the IBWFF in 2014, and in 2015 her short sci-fi film Early Aliens was an Official Selection at ASTRONOMMO: Speculative Fiction on Film + Black Women. Kathleen writes and produces for Novel Approach, LLC and What The … Productions and currently teaches at Stanford University in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric.