Beyond the Spotlight brought leaders from sports, beauty, gaming, podcasting, and journalism together for an evening rooted in practical wisdom, meaningful relationships, and the brilliance of Black and queer women.
There are industry gatherings where everyone enters the room prepared to deliver a polished introduction, exchange contact information, and move quickly toward the next potentially valuable conversation.
Then there are evenings that encourage people to slow down, listen carefully, and remember that a successful career is rarely built by one person working in isolation.
Louis Tyrone Photography
GLAAD’s Beyond the Spotlight: Women Shaping the Future of Media Mixer, presented by the organization’s Community and Media Department at Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles on July 30, offered the latter experience. The program united women from several corners of entertainment and communications for a thoughtful discussion followed by a reception filled with warmth, ambition, and genuine fellowship.
New Hollywood Magazine had the opportunity to attend the gathering, where the conversation was moderated by award winning journalist and cultural commentator Shar Jossell alongside panelists Angel McCoughtry, Brandi Andrews, Jay-Ann Lopez, and Fallon Jethroe.
Each woman arrived with a career that reflected a different route into media, yet their experiences met at a shared understanding that visibility requires more than simply being invited into the room. It also requires ownership, preparation, community, and the confidence to tell people what you have accomplished.
A Conversation That Reflected Media’s Full Possibility
The panel’s strength came from the range of perspectives represented onstage.
Media is often discussed as though it only includes film, television, or journalism, but the evening expanded that definition through women whose careers encompass professional sports, filmmaking, beauty, gaming, podcasting, entrepreneurship, and talent development.
Their collective presence demonstrated that modern media careers do not need to follow one traditional path. A person can begin in one industry, develop expertise in another, and eventually create an entirely new lane that makes space for both.
The conversation also felt particularly valuable because the panelists did not speak from identical experiences. Each woman understood visibility from a different angle, whether she was moving from the basketball court into the director’s chair, building beauty spaces for melanated skin, challenging exclusion within gaming, producing major unscripted television and podcasts, or reporting on culture through a Black queer lens.
Their careers offered proof that the future of media will not be shaped by one kind of storyteller.
Angel McCoughtry Moves From the Court to the Camera
Angel McCoughtry has already established a formidable legacy as a five time WNBA All Star and two time Olympic gold medalist, but her current chapter is expanding beyond professional basketball through filmmaking, directing, producing, and the growth of McCoughtry Entertainment. Her company is focused on creating stories that amplify diverse perspectives, while her move behind the camera allows her to transform years of experience as an elite athlete into a new language of visual storytelling.
McCoughtry’s participation brought a valuable perspective on reinvention.
Public success can create the impression that a person must remain attached to the role that first made audiences recognize them, even when their interests have continued to evolve. Her journey illustrates that achievement in one arena does not limit what someone can pursue in another.
Her transition into entertainment also carries importance for women athletes, whose stories have too often been interpreted by media organizations without their full participation or control. By producing and directing, McCoughtry is not only entering another industry. She is gaining greater authority over the narratives that reach audiences.
That kind of ownership represents an essential part of the future the evening was created to explore.
Brandi Andrews Connects Beauty, Identity, and Leadership
Brandi J. Andrews contributed insight shaped by more than twenty five years in the beauty industry, where she has developed expertise as a licensed esthetician and specialist in the care of melanated skin. She is also the chief executive officer of YouthDealer and has held leadership responsibilities connected to membership and inclusion at Soho House.
Her work reminds the industry that beauty is never separate from media.
The products people encounter, the experts audiences trust, and the standards promoted through entertainment all influence how communities understand themselves. For people with melanated skin, that relationship has historically included inadequate products, limited professional education, and imagery that treated their needs as secondary.
Andrews has built a career by responding directly to those gaps.
Her presence on the panel brought attention to the knowledge required to remain in an evolving business for more than two decades while continuing to advocate for people who have not always been prioritized by the industry. It also reinforced the importance of recognizing beauty professionals as educators, entrepreneurs, cultural voices, and media personalities in their own right.
Her career represents the power of turning specialized knowledge into a platform that can serve people while shifting the broader conversation.
Jay-Ann Lopez Makes Gaming More Representative
Jay-Ann Lopez is the founder of Black Girl Gamers, a community and media company created in 2015 to increase visibility, access, safety, and equity for Black women and gender expansive people within the gaming industry.
What began as a Facebook community has grown into a global network with more than twelve thousand members. Black Girl Gamers now operates across media coverage, cultural consultation, talent, education, events, and professional development, creating pathways into an industry where Black people remain significantly underrepresented.
Lopez’s work expands the meaning of media leadership because gaming is one of the world’s most influential storytelling spaces, even though it is still treated as separate from traditional entertainment in some professional conversations.
Games shape character, narrative, technology, fashion, music, and online culture. They also create enormous communities in which representation can determine who feels welcomed, who receives professional opportunities, and whose experiences are considered worth building into a story.
Through Black Girl Gamers, Lopez has done more than critique exclusion. She has created an infrastructure that helps people connect, develop skills, find work, collaborate with brands, and experience gaming without having to minimize their identities.
Her inclusion on the panel made the conversation feel appropriately expansive because anyone discussing the future of media must also acknowledge the people reshaping digital culture.
Fallon Jethroe Builds Stories and Supports Talent
Fallon Jethroe brought decades of production experience to the conversation as an award winning executive producer, talent manager, and founder of Hello Fallon Entertainment.
Her career spans more than twenty five years across unscripted television and podcasting. She previously led podcast strategy and production at Westbrook Media, with credits that include Positively Gam, Let’s Red Table That, the Webby nominated Red Table Talk podcast, and the Ambie nominated Navigating Narcissism. She also serves on the Board of Governors for The Podcast Academy and belongs to the Producers Guild of America.
Jethroe’s résumé reflects the enormous amount of creative and strategic work required to build media that feels effortless to an audience.
Producers often carry the responsibility of developing ideas, identifying the strongest story, supporting talent, guiding teams, solving unexpected problems, and protecting a project’s overall vision. Their work influences nearly every part of the finished product, even when viewers never see them onscreen.
Her commitment to helping talent discover and own their voices felt especially aligned with the purpose of the gathering.
The next generation of media will need more than recognizable personalities. It will also need experienced leaders who understand how to turn those voices into sustainable projects without removing the qualities that made them valuable in the first place.
Shar Jossell Guided Every Voice With Intention
At the center of the discussion was Shar Jossell, an award winning journalist, media personality, writer, and culture critic whose reporting explores entertainment through the intersections of race, gender, politics, and pop culture. She also serves as president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Shar is also a good friend of mine, which made watching her lead the conversation especially meaningful.
She never misses a beat.
Strong moderation requires far more than reading prepared questions. It demands active listening, confidence, timing, research, and the ability to recognize when an answer has opened the door to something deeper.
Shar connected with every voice on the panel while remaining attentive to the people listening throughout the room. She allowed each speaker to bring her full experience into the discussion without letting the program lose its direction.
Watching her work reminded me that the best moderators do not position themselves as the most important person in the conversation. They create the conditions for everyone involved to become more compelling.
I felt genuinely grateful to witness my friend do that so beautifully.
LinkedIn Became the Joke Everyone Needed
Among the many lessons shared throughout the discussion, LinkedIn somehow became the evening’s recurring punchline.
Every mention of the platform created another laugh because nearly everyone in the room understood the contradiction. Professionals know LinkedIn can be useful, yet many people neglect their profiles, forget to post their accomplishments, or avoid engaging with the platform until they suddenly need a job.
It may not carry the cultural excitement of Instagram or TikTok, but it remains an important resource for career visibility, relationship building, research, recruitment, and professional follow through.
The humor made the advice memorable, although the message underneath it was serious.
People cannot support work they do not know exists. A person may be talented, qualified, and ready for a larger opportunity, but those qualities become harder to recognize when their professional presence does not clearly communicate what they have already accomplished.
For women whose contributions are frequently underestimated, maintaining that record can become an act of professional self preservation.
The evening offered a loving reminder that everyone might need to update a profile, accept a few connection requests, and stop pretending LinkedIn has nothing to offer.
Black and Queer Excellence Filled the Reception
After the panel concluded, guests moved upstairs for a reception where the room seemed to glow with Black and queer excellence.
Conversations continued between journalists, producers, executives, entrepreneurs, publicists, creators, and emerging professionals who were eager to learn from one another. Familiar faces embraced, new relationships began, and people exchanged ideas without making every interaction feel like a transaction.
The reception carried elegance, excitement, and ease.
There was joy in seeing so many accomplished people occupy the same space without having to treat their identities as explanations or disclaimers. Blackness and queerness were not peripheral subjects added to someone else’s gathering. They were embedded in the energy, expertise, style, and leadership that defined the evening.
That feeling remains difficult to reproduce through statistics or corporate statements because it comes from physically recognizing yourself within a room that understands your value.
Why Black Hollywood Remains Sacred
The gathering offered another reminder that Black Hollywood is a sacred place, not because the industry has always treated Black artists fairly, but because Black professionals have repeatedly created community in environments that were never designed to sustain them.
Black Hollywood lives in the relationships that survive between jobs.
It appears when someone shares a contact, recommends a colleague, explains an unfamiliar process, or brings another person into a room that once felt inaccessible.
Its history has been carried through generations of people who understood that individual success becomes more meaningful when it creates possibilities for others.
That legacy could be felt at CAA as women from several industries exchanged information, encouragement, and honest guidance. The event celebrated achievement while also acknowledging that careers require continued nurturing long after an introduction is made.
An Evening Worth Carrying Forward
I left the mixer feeling grateful for the panelists who spoke openly, for the women who filled the room with curiosity, and for the reception that allowed professional relationships to become personal connections.
Angel McCoughtry represented the courage required to enter a new creative arena after achieving greatness in another.
Brandi Andrews demonstrated how expertise, advocacy, and entrepreneurship can challenge an industry’s narrow standards.
Jay-Ann Lopez showed what becomes possible when someone responds to exclusion by constructing a global community.
Fallon Jethroe reflected the power of thoughtful production and the responsibility involved in helping talent own its voice.
Shar Jossell brought those perspectives together with intelligence, generosity, and unmistakable command.
GLAAD and CAA created more than an opportunity to network. They offered a room where women could exchange knowledge, celebrate their progress, and imagine an industry shaped by people who understand that representation must extend from the stories audiences consume to the leaders making decisions behind them.
The future of media was not presented as an abstract concept that evening.
It was already sitting on the panel, gathering upstairs, exchanging contact information, laughing about LinkedIn, and making room for the next woman to enter.
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