"The beautiful thing about being a creative is that even in a year like this when the world stopped turning there was so much inspiration to be had and so much to do. That's the thing about creating... your world doesn't disappear or get halted, the profit might get delayed... but you know it will pay off eventually. It was amazing to build for our future while the world was closed. " - Adhrucia Apana (IHHS '01)
Adhrucia Apana is the founder of Curiosity Entertainment a development and production company and a general partner in Curiosity Media Finance. Curiosity Entertainment focuses on stories that impact and inspire through commercial content that challenges cultural norms with a focus on shifting the Hollywood marketplace towards being more reflective of the global economy we live in and is currently in pre-production on 5 movies and 2 tv shows.
Prior to founding Curiosity Entertainment, Adhrucia was an executive in film and television for the past 8 years. She entered entertainment after a 10 year career in strategy focused on global consumer goods and emerging markets. Her most recent credits include movies she supported during her time with BRON studios such as: "Capone" starring Tom Hardy directed by Josh Trank; and the upcoming releases "Needle" starring Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odam Jr. and Orlando Bloom directed/written by John Ridley; and "Harry Haft" starring Ben Foster directed by Barry Levinson. Adhrucia worked for almost 3 years as an Executive financing both independent film and multiple major studio slates with BRON Studios, financiers of "The Joker" and last year's Oscar Nominee "Bombshell".
Prior to that, she served as: a consultant and partner to American Idol Icon Randy Jackson focusing on TV development and brand integration; as a partner with Atlantic Screen Media Group; and as a production associate for The Film House NY. Before transitioning into Entertainment, Adhrucia spent 10 years in brand as a strategy executive for Batteri Creative (Gatorade, Crest Toothpaste) and PartnersHub (Marketing for “THE GRUDGE” and ”THE BIBLE SERIES”. She started her career as a co-op in strategy at Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising in NYC. She is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of the acclaimed Carl H. Lindner HONORS-plus program funded by Proctor and Gamble, AC Nielsen, and the Lindner Association.
She is an active member of the diversity initiative lovingly called "Stone Soup" started by Rotten Tomatoes founder Patrick Lee and the Goldhouse Initiative focused on elevating Asian and South Asian voices in the Entertainment Industry and beyond, a board member of the Producer’s Guild Social Impact Entertainment (SIE) coalition and has served or been an advocate and volunteer for Los Angeles based non-profits Young Storytellers and Project Paper Bag.
Pictured at the 2019 Alumni Awards presentation (l to r):
Dr. Dean Kereiakes, Adhrucia Apana, Buffie Rixey
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Five years ago, Doug Feigelson (IHHS ’10) was the inaugural recipient of the IH Foundation’s Young Brave Award. This award, one of three annual alumni awards, is given to an IHHS alumnus for outstanding achievements in career or community within 20 years of graduation. As the founder of Zinc.com, an ecommerce services company, Doug has been able to build a high impact tech firm at a very young age. He also continues to support several charitable organizations.
So,while we are taking a pause in naming new honorees until we can celebrate in person, we thought we would check back in to see how this last year has impacted Feigelson and to see what he is up to next. Here’s his update:
“Things are going well in San Francisco! I moved out here after finishing at MIT to start an ecommerce services company, Zinc.com. At Zinc, the pandemic took us by surprise, but we were fortunate in a number of ways. First, we had already begun to allow remote work, and about a third of our employees were already remote at this time last year. So we already had some of the tools and culture in place to transition everybody to fully remote–online messaging, digital team syncs, etc.
We're also fortunate that the ecommerce industry actually experienced growth through the pandemic. Shoppers switched from buying things in stores to ordering online. This buoyed ecommerce at a time when many other industries were struggling. In fact ,for a brief period many ecommerce systems were overwhelmed, but most companies were able to adapt to the demand (and prioritize health and wellness supplies in the meantime).
Having a geographically distributed team lets us hire great people from across the nation. This includes Joey Thomas, IH alum of 2007, brilliant sales engineer. And our CTO Eric Swanson, IH alum of 2009, just moved back to Cincinnati, where he and his wife bought a house. I'm writing this update now from our San Francisco office, which has transitioned into a much more casual, covid-compliant meet up and co-working space, and will remain as such even after all restrictions are lifted.
During the pandemic I was lucky to have the company of my parents' goldendoodle Rosie, who made a nonstop roadtrip out here to take a 6 month west coast sabbatical. Rosie, my girlfriend Deena Rahman (IH alum of 2010), and I are loving the beaches, hikes, and occasional trip down to LA. Rosie will be making a bittersweet return to Cincy in April, where she'll enjoy exploring the yard of my parents' new home. Despite covid restrictions, I've been able to semi-regularly see friends from college, many of whom moved to the San Francisco area, and an occasional high school friend who makes their way over here. With the continued re-openings I think we have an exciting year ahead! “ – Doug Feigelson