MPI's Creative Council
June Arunga, a Kenyan filmmaker, has used documentaries to illustrate how African people endure untold suffering because they lack institutions to protect their liberties. With Swedish economic historian Johan Norberg, she made Globalization Is Good (Channel 4, 2002), a documentary comparing the effects of globalization on Kenya, Taiwan, Sweden, and Vietnam. The Devil’s Footpath (BBC, 2003) documented her six-thousand-mile journey from Cairo to Cape Town to investigate freedom of speech, property rights, mineral exploration, and human rights in Egypt, Sudan, Congo, Namibia, Angola, and South Africa. Africa: Who is to Blame? (BBC World TV, 2005) documents her fourteen-day road trip through Tanzania and Rwanda with former Ghanaian president Jerry J. Rawlings, during which they investigated issues including dictatorship, tribalism, corruption, and human rights. Her films have been broadcast all over the world. In April 2006, she became one of the principals of New Liberty Films, which produces dramatic feature films that aim to educate through entertainment.
Arunga has been featured on ABC’s 20/20, on BBC News, and in the Wall Street Journal. She holds a fellowship with the International Policy Network in London and is an H. B. Earhart graduate fellow. She holds a law degree from the University of Buckingham.
Cecilia DeMille Presley, granddaughter of the celebrated filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille, is a dedicated film preservationist, philanthropist, and producer. She is the president and the guiding spirit of the Cecil B. DeMille Foundation, the long-time benefactor of higher education, child welfare, and film in southern California. She serves on the Board of Councillors of the UCLA Foundation and the Board of Trustees for Chapman University, actively supports the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Hathaway Home for Children, and has served on the board of the National Film Preservation Foundation.
Rob Long began his career as a writer on the long-running sitcom Cheers, which he also co–executive produced in its final season. During his time on the series, Cheers received two Emmy awards and two Golden Globe awards. Long’s most recent television series are George and Leo, starring Bob Newhart and Judd Hirsch; Love & Money on CBS; and Men, Women & Dogs on the WB Network—all three of which he created with his writing partner, Dan Staley. Their production company, Staley/Long Productions, has been based at Paramount Studios since 1993.
A contributing editor for National Review and Newsweek International, Long also writes occasionally for the Wall Street Journal. His book Conversations with My Agent chronicled his early career in television, a story that he continued in his 2005 book Set Up, Joke, Set Up, Joke.
Long graduated from Yale University in 1987, and spent two years at the UCLA School of Film, Theater and Television, where he has also been adjunct professor of screenwriting. He serves on the board of directors of My Friend’s Place, an agency for homeless teens in Hollywood, and of the American Cinema Foundation.
Edmond Keenan Wynn is the son of actor Keenan Wynn and Eve Lynn Abbott and the grandson of Ed Wynn. In 1990, he wrote the memoir We Will Always Live in Beverly Hills: Growing Up Crazy in Hollywood, a gritty coming-of-age story about life with famous, divorced parents. It offers a fascinating and revealing look into Eve Lynn Abbot’s eventual marriage to actor Van Johnson.
David Zucker was born and educated in Wisconsin. With his brother, Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrahams, he worked with the improvisational Kentucky Fried Theater in Madison, Wisconsin, before making his film debut in 1977 with Kentucky Fried Movie, a dazzlingly funny satire of movies, television, and popular culture. The trio followed up this hit comedy three years later with Airplane!, a brutally funny spoof of disaster movies that made them one of the hottest teams in screen comedy.
During the early ’80s, the Zuckers were responsible for a short-lived cop show parody called Police Squad, starring Leslie Nielsen. From this parody emerged the hit comedy The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988); this was followed by Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991) and Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994). Zucker has also produced Phone Booth (2002) and directed Scary Movie 3 (2003) and Scary Movie 4 (2006). His latest film is An American Carol (2008).
Frayda Levy owned and managed a book distribution business for eighteen years. After selling her business, she co-founded the New Jersey chapter of Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which teaches grassroots activists how to lobby legislators. Having begun her career as a legislative aide on Capitol Hill, she worked in the Reagan–Bush administration. She currently serves on the boards of the Club for Growth, Americans for Limited Government, and the Foundation for Economic Education. She holds an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia and a BA from the University of Connecticut.
