Cultureverse

Kelly Marie Tran
Co-Host

Kelly Marie Tran has quickly become a highly sought after actress in live action, animation and audio drama projects. Most recently, Kelly Marie Tran has made history by voicing Disney’s first South-East Asian Princess with her role as Raya in Raya and the Last Dragon. The film was released to critical acclaim in March 2021. She also stars in Radiotopia’s chart-topping fiction podcast, Passenger List.

Additionally, Tran has stepped into the role as executive producer on two exciting projects: SXSW’s Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary feature Lily Topples The World, about the life of an American-Chinese adoptee who becomes a global artistic force with over 1 billion YouTube views; and Summertime, director Carlos López Estrada’s spoken-word poetry feature film that premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Yara Shahidi
Co-Host

Yara Shahidi is an award-winning actress, producer, change agent, and breakout star of ABC’s Emmy-and Golden Globe-nominated series black-ish. Shahidi is now the executive producer and lead of its Freeform spinoff series, grown-ish (#1 cable comedy, 18-49 yr olds), playing character Zoey Johnson. Off-screen, Yara is a full-time student at Harvard University where she is earning a B.A. in Social Studies and African American studies.

Shahidi is a champion for inclusive media programming and an advocate for equity. In 2019, Shahidi expanded her relationship with ABC by signing a multi-year producing deal with business partner and mother, Keri Shahidi, under the moniker: 7th Sun Productions. Next up, Shahidi will take on Tinker Bell in Disney’s live-action Peter Pan & Wendy. As Shahidi focuses on utilizing her platform to empower and inspire others, she continues to be one of Hollywood’s most heralded talents.

Lory Martinez
Executive Producer

Lory Martinez is the Creative Director/Executive Producer for Cultureverse. Lory is Colombian-American, originally from Queens, NYC and is the Founder of Studio Ochenta, a Paris - based multilingual podcast company dedicated to raising voices across cultures. Ochenta’s multilingual and multicultural projects are all made with the goal of celebrating who we are and where we come from. She is the executive producer on a number of podcasts for the studio in 19+ languages (and counting) and works as EP and host on Mija Podcast, a Webby(2020) honored audio drama that shares immigration stories with the world in English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Mandarin. The series also received acclaim at the 2020 European Lovie Awards.

MARU LOMBARDO
Senior Fiction Producer

Maru Lombardo is the Senior Fiction Producer for Cultureverse and for all fiction at Studio Ochenta, where she leads multilingual projects such as Season 3 of Mija Podcast and Ochenta Cuentos - this last one showcases 80 Latin-American fiction stories from all around the region both in Spanish and English. Originally from Argentina, Maru is currently based in Bogotá, Colombia. As an independent producer she’s also the co-founder of Loro Podcast alongside Rodrigo Rodríguez. Together they produced the acclaimed nonfiction Spanish podcast Recetario sonoro de ingredientes en peligro (Sound book of recipes for endangered ingredients), featured on the list of 100 Outstanding Podcasts of 2020 by Bello Collective. El hombre equivocado (The Wrong Man) (2019), her first co-production at Colombian national newspaper El Tiempo was awarded the Wan-Ifra Digital Media Award for Best Audio Project in Latin America (2020) and Best Digital Chronicle Award by the Colombian Kienyke Digital Journalism Awards (2020).

DR.KIONA
Cultural Consulting Producer

Dr. Kiona is our Cultural consulting producer on Cultureverse. Her role on the show was crucial in getting culture nuances right; she connected us with members of each community and did the work of having meaningful conversations about how we could make this show celebratory of cultures while remaining respectful in honoring our global heritage. She is Host & Senior Producer of the Studio Ochenta original show How Not to Travel Podcast, which hit #1 in the travel category in 12 countries.

Dr. Kiona has a Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences, concentration in the Human Microbiome in Hispanic Populations, M.S. in Data Sciences & Statistics, M.A. in Nutritional Sciences, concentration in Epidemiological Maternal & Child Health, B.S. in Kinesiology, Minor African-American Studies, Biology and Chemistry. Speciality in Sports Medicine. She uses her degrees to teach her followers on social media about cultural nuances around the world.