Michealene Cristini Risley is a prolific writer, director, and human rights activist. Her published, non-fiction book, This is Not the Life I Ordered was a N.Y. Times Bestseller.  She is an award-winning documentarian for Tapestries of Hope (Best Film Louisville film Festival, Monaco Film Festival, The Directors Guild of America, Director Finder Series,  WIFTS Best Documentary) which premiered on SHOWTIME. Her first film, Flashcards (Cannes Film Festival, made nomination list for academy award consideration) aired on American Public Television.

Michealene also had a highly successful career as an executive.  While at SEGA she created two “Sonic the Hedgehog” animated series simultaneously, both #1 in their time slots on ABC and in syndication.   After starting her own company, Nike asked her to help build a video game division so she developed their gaming concept.  She went out to the open market for video game and application technologies with talent including Ronaldo and Tiger Woods. which created his billion-dollar gaming franchise.  She holds the record for the largest deal in the history of the video game space.  

She recently created a new TV series, completed her first fictional book, and has been approached to tell the story of her activism work. 

She is creative, collaborative and a courageous storyteller.