Meet the Team

  • Lauren Melinda is an award-winning Persian-American filmmaker, artist and founder of SIMBELLE PRODUCTIONS. Her work explores issues of feminine identity and perception, while critiquing the forces of culture and circumstance that mold the roles assigned to women.

     

    As a mixed-media artist, Lauren’s video installations have been commissioned by galleries, museums, and private collectors in North America and the Middle East, while her photographs have been sold to major collections around the world.

     

    As a filmmaker, Lauren has written and directed three short films that have screened in 52 festivals on nearly every continent – garnering the top prize at six of them. Her most recent narrative film, Before You, is playing the festival circuit and is in collaboration with Planned Parenthood. She is now developing her first narrative feature, ECHOES, in which a Persian-American artist faces a Faustian bargain when a Berlin gallery demands she exploit her heritage for success, as well as a TV series based on her Ukrainian great-grandmother, who served as the midwife to the Shah of Iran.

     

    As a mother of two young girls, Lauren’s passion for women’s issues only continues to grow in depth and perspective. Inspired by her daughters, Lauren launched SIMBELLE PRODUCTIONS in 2024, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering women through film. The organization fosters female-centric stories that promote mutual validation, awareness, and hope. Most recently, SIMBELLE PRODUCTIONS Executive Produced the feature film, Satisfaction, by Alex Burunova and featuring Emma Laird, which premiered at SXSW 2025. 

     

    Lauren received a dual Bachelor’s degrees in Fine Arts and Art History from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of California, Irvine. She is based in Los Angeles.

  • Rafael Thomaseto is a Brazilian film producer and co-founder of Driven Equation, a boutique production company with operations in Los Angeles and São Paulo. He has produced several award-winning short films, including The Ballad of Tita and the Machines, which premiered at the Tribeca Festival, and I Am the Nature, which debuted at DOC NYC and received the UNESCO Awareness and Sustainable Vision Award in Venice, Italy. His short film Huella premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is currently being developed into a feature-length project with support from both the Producers and Screenwriting Tracks at the Sundance Institute. Rafael recently completed post-production on his first two feature films: Satisfaction, which had its world premiere at the 2025 SXSW, and The Eternity Man, an international co-production between Ukraine, Finland, and Canada.

  • Charlotte (Sharlotta) Hacke (Hacka) is honored and proud to be a part of the core team at Simbelle Productions, leading communications and collaborating on creative development. Hailing from Telluride, CO, with family roots in Germany, Hacke is a trained actress with an extensive background in the film and festival industries. She has worked closely with directors such as Sebastián Lelio and has contributed to TV and Film production with Fabula Productions and Jax Media. Additionally, she has accumulated years of experience in guest management at the Telluride Film Festival, the Berlinale International Filmfestspiele, and the Cannes Film Festival. Hacke is a graduate of Brown University and The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater.

  • Alette Segerstrom is an actress and creative from Orange County, CA, now based in Los Angeles. She earned her BFA in Theater and Performance with a minor in Marketing Communications from Emerson College, where she graduated Cum Laude. Alette launched her career interning at Ramo Law PC, an entertainment firm based in Beverly Hills, following marketing internships at South Coast Plaza and the Boch Center. Since moving to Los Angeles two years ago, she has pursued acting professionally and taken classes at The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute. Alongside her work with Simbelle Productions, she sits on the board of directors for the Segerstrom Foundation, helping to facilitate support for various arts-related non-profits across Orange County. Alette is immensely passionate about the film and television industry, and is deeply grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the Simbelle team. 

  • From the South Coast of Brazil and currently based in Los Angeles, Helena Sardinha is a creative producer with her work recognized at prestigious festivals such as Sundance, Tribeca, DOC NYC, Aspen Shortfest, and Fantastic Fest. In 2018, she co-founded Driven Equation, a boutique production company bridging Los Angeles and São Paulo, alongside Rafael Thomaseto.

    Helena's work spans a wide range of projects, from films like The Ballad of Tita and the Machines and I Am the Nature—which garnered awards at the Humanitas Prize, Outfest, the Imagen Awards, and the Unesco Award for Awareness and Sustainability — to her  Beautiful, FL as part of the Disney Launchpad program, now streaming on Disney+.

    A 2022 Sundance Producing Lab and Dear Producer fellow, Helena continues to push boundaries with projects like Huella, which is being developed into a feature film with 271 Films, and Piratas, supported by the SFFILM Rainin Grant. Her other notable works include Angel in Retrograde, a finalist in the 2023 AT&T Untold Stories at Tribeca, and in post-production, Satisfaction which features a stellar cast including Cannes winner Zar Amir Ebrahimi, BAFTA nominee Fionn Whitehead, British model Adwoa Aboah, and Scottish actress Emma Laird; and the Ukrainian novel adaptation The Eternity Man, a Ukrainian-Canadian-Finish co-production. She is currently in production for Villa Encanto as part of the Latinx Filmmakers Project a collaboration between the Tribeca Festival, The Miranda Family Fund, Hispanic Federation, and Google.

  • Kimberly Bontrager is a Business Development Strategist with over 15 years of experience in sales, event management, and consulting across industries such as Real Estate, Title Insurance, and Financial Services. She specializes in helping purpose-driven businesses grow by leveraging their unique “why” through strategic, event-driven solutions.

    Kimberly designs and executes educational classes, panels, and events that showcase her clients’ expertise, positioning them as leaders in their fields. Her approach focuses on creating impactful events that drive brand recognition, foster meaningful connections, and support business growth.

    With a background in business development, Kimberly has worked with hundreds of professionals across financial, real estate, and other industries. As a consultant, she takes a top-down approach, allowing her to see the bigger picture and identify opportunities that business owners may overlook. This perspective enables her to create tailored strategies that maximize growth and amplify a business’s impact.