Speaker Bio

DMA/Donna Michelle Anderson
Entertainment, Education and New Media Expert

For over a decade, DMA (Donna Michelle Anderson) was a writer, producer and show runner of dozens of high-rated non-fiction television programs for networks such as CBS, UPN, Fox, BET, TLC and more. In 2004, she founded her own television and new media production company, Tidal Wave TV, to create “powerful, provocative, signature entertainment” for domestic and international broadcast, selling her first full series within months of opening her doors. By 2006, DMA had shifted entirely into new media and applications, including producing an online political piece for Brave New Films and launching the new media department for Columbia College Hollywood.

Now an in-demand expert on TV production and new media, DMA consults with companies and individuals worldwide to help them integrate ever-evolving Web and mobile technology into both their processes and projects. She is the author of two popular industry guides for producing reality TV and screenwriting story structure. In 2007, she created and released “Show Starter Scheduling & Budgeting Plus,” a production scheduling, budgeting and cash flow software recognized as one of MovieMaker magazine’s “Top 40 Indie Film Friendly Businesses.”

Having also spent nearly 20 years of public service as an educational program founder and director in the college access arena, in March 2008, DMA launched The CLIC Network, a revolutionary new college-bound social network for students and the institutions seeking to serve and recruit them. The site combines her passion for educational parity with her expertise in new media and technology. DMA now speaks nationwide, year-round, on maximizing Internet and mobile solutions for brand impact and social change.

DMA is a graduate with distinction of Stanford University and is an active member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Producers Guild of America and Showbiz Mensans.

Speaker Bio (extended)

DMA/Donna Michelle Anderson
Entertainment, Education and New Media Expert

DMA (Donna Michelle Anderson) is the founder and CEO of The CLIC Network, a social network that lets students manage the college-bound process and institutions serve and recruit students from a single home page on a free shared site. The site evolved from First in the Family, a college access program she founded and ran as a volunteer for nearly a decade, while she was professionally rising as a writer, “rescue producer” and ultimately show runner of dozens of highly rated non-fiction television programs for networks such as CBS, UPN, Fox, Bravo, History Channel, A&E, Lifetime, TLC and more.  Now an in-demand new media and entertainment expert, DMA is an active member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Producers Guild of America and Showbiz Mensans.

Prior to her success in Hollywood, DMA’s challenging professional life included racing the halls of San Francisco’s City Hall as a political aide; gracing the runways of New York, Milan and more as a fashion model; and erasing educational obstacles for underserved students as a founding director of the non-profit Cornerstone Literacy Center in Manhattan.

It was helping to launch Cornerstone Learning Center that guided DMA away from an ongoing career in performing. A volunteer with teens since graduating from Stanford University with honors at the age of 20, she reinvested her entertainment industry income in student programs she developed in her Upper West Side New York neighborhood — and there, she found both clarity and her calling. She couldn’t ask her young mentees to wildly expand their own possibilities if she wasn’t taking enormous leaps in her own life.

In 1994, DMA was on national tour with her first musical when she spent a week backstage hand-penning a Seinfeld spec script for the highly competitive ABC/Disney Writing Program. Of the more than 5,000 submissions, DMA was one of only five awarded a Television Writing Fellowship. She arrived in Los Angeles having no idea what a TV writer did or what a TV producer even was. Within two years, she was both — ultimately becoming a sought-after “rescue producer,” whose challenge was to fix a failing show and motivate the production team to take on a new process and new goals. She would take those lessons with her as she evolved into a show runner for new hit series. Over a decade later, she is the author of two popular books on screenwriting story structure and reality TV production and also the creator of the game-changing production software Show Starter Scheduling & Budgeting Plus, heralded by MovieMaker Magazine as one of the “Top 40 Indie-Film Friendly Businesses” of 2007.

Using real-life tales from her exciting careers, DMA’s keynote, panel and workshop presentations have entertained, motivated and enlightened audiences and conference delegates across the U.S. Her signature stories of her own experiences as a TV producer, former model, political aide, non-profit founder and Stanford grad engage her audiences in a lively exchange, with Hollywood secrets that only can come from a true insider. She knows how to inspire an audience to go from rejecting change to rejoicing in it. She’s done it — and she shows you how it’s done!

Partial list of credits

Education & Service

• CEO, The CLIC Network
• Founder and Director, “First in the Family” college access program
• Founder and Director, “Summer Sisters” mentoring program
• Public School Teacher, Burbank Unified School District
• Alfred P. Sloan Public Policy Fellow
• John W. Gardner Public Service Fellow

Entertainment & New Media

• Executive, Supervising, Senior or Show Producer: Big Brother 3, Queer Eye for the Straight Girl, Star Search, Modern Marvels, Remixed! & more
• New Media Instructor: Columbia College Hollywood
• Screenwriting Instructor: UCLA Extension Writing Program
• Story Analyst: Kennedy/Marshall Productions
• ABC/Disney Special Talent Programs Television Writing Fellow

To book DMA for your convention, conference or panel, please click the Contact Us link on the right and select “Speaker Inquiry/Request.”

DMA’s Appearance Calendar

Testimonials

New Media & Education

“You are such an inspiration! I need to have a follow-up meeting with you and get a few of our smarter young people involved.”

“I was so excited about your webinar last night I could hardly get to sleep. DMA is dynamite-hot!”

“Your presentation was exceptional.”

“Just wanted to let you know that you were the highest rated speaker at our Forum.  Talking to people after the event, you gave them so much information to think about that they were kind of in shock or a stupor!!”

“I left your session feeling excited and a little overwhelmed about how I can use new media to take our projects to the next level.”

“YOU ARE WONDER WOMAN!!”

Reality Production & Screenwriting

“You Rock! I appreciate you putting together a no-nonsense panel that told us what it’s really like and not someone giving us false hope. This is the way seminars are supposed to be put on.”

“Would attend any seminars developed by DMA. She’s great!”

“I am still coasting on the natural high from your seminar. Thank you.”

“Can’t thank you enough for the amazing information you imparted to us at the seminar. I’ve recounted the quality of the panel to others as well because of how many different ends of the spectrum were represented.”

“Thank you so much for the amazing lecture, it was so informative.”

“This was great. DMA was fabulous.”

“I’m a writer and have taken a lot of screenwriting structure lectures and read every book, so I didn’t expect to hear anything new that day. I don’t know whether it was what you said or the passion with which you presented it, but I really did come away with some fresh insights that I’m using in my rewrite RIGHT NOW!”

“GREAT! It was GREAT! It was a ‘working’ session - it was so inspiring…the minds were actually working in the room! It was GREAT!”

“Just wanted to thank you again for the chance to attend your seminar… My friends and I are still buzzed from the experience. It was exactly what we needed.”

“Keep them coming, great seminars.”

“Obama/DMA 2012 - I’ll write campaign speeches!”