The Impact of Funding Disabled Media Makers: A Conversation with Richie Siegel and Marisa Torelli-Pedevska

In this episode of Disability Inclusion: Required, host Emily Ladau welcomes Inevitable Foundation co-founders Richie Siegel and Marisa Torelli-Pedevska for a conversation on the importance of supporting authentic disability representation in the media. Richie and Marisa call on philanthropy to provide funding for media makers both through individual grants and broader initiatives. Together, they highlight the impact of such funding efforts, including helping disabled writers secure jobs and fostering inclusive spaces for disabled creatives.

Our podcast theme music is by Andre Louis and Precious Perez. Thank you to Recording Artists And Music Professionals With Disabilities (RAMPD) for connecting these talented disabled musicians with the Disability & Philanthropy Forum.

Featured Guests

A white man with brown hair and a thick beard, smiling, wearing a blue button up shirt.

Richie Siegel

Richie is the co-founder and President of Inevitable Foundation, charged with leading the Foundation’s overall strategy and day-to-day operations. He is a filmmaker and entrepreneur by trade who solves big equity problems in untraditional ways with an unwavering sense of pragmatism. Before founding Inevitable, he spent seven years running a consulting and research firm in the consumer goods industry called Loose Threads. Under Richie’s leadership, Loose Threads became a leading strategic partner to the C-Suite of many brands, private equity firms, media companies and real estate investment firms. Richie has a younger sister who lives with epilepsy and other developmental disabilities, which he rarely saw on-screen growing up.

A white woman with brown hair in a ponytail, smiling, wearing an orange sweater.

Marisa Torelli-Pedevska

Marisa is a co-founder of Inevitable Foundation, tasked with leading all writing programs. She is a screenwriter with an invisible physical disability who recently completed her MFA at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. She’s the recipient of the Jay Roach Endowed Award, the USC Sloan Screenwriting Award and the national ​​Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize. Before Inevitable, Marisa spent eight years working and living at a residential summer camp for teens and adults with developmental disabilities. Marisa’s experience with disability has informed the ways she views accessibility in the traditionally inaccessible entertainment industry and drives her passion for systematic change.