The Hollywood Reporter Announces Inaugural ‘Raising Our Voices’ Luncheon With Marlee Matlin to Keynote

The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday announced its inaugural “Raising Our Voices: Setting Hollywood’s Inclusion Agenda” luncheon, featuring a keynote address by Marlee Matlin along with appearances by Troy Kotsur, Geena Davis and more.

The event, presented by Walmart, will bring together some of the industry’s most influential and inspiring executives, storytellers and thought-leaders for a groundbreaking series of discussions on the state and future of Hollywood’s diversity, equity and inclusion movement.

Kotsur, who won an Oscar this year for his performance in Apple Studios’ CODA, will introduce Matlin, his co-star in the best picture winner, written and directed by Sian Heder. Matlin became the first deaf performer to win an Oscar, for her breakout role in Children of a Lesser God, in 1987; Kotsur is now the second performer to hold that distinction.

Additional speakers and panelists set to take the stage include Oscar winner Davis, who is the founder/chair of The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and The Bentonville Film Festival; GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis; actor-activist Wilmer Valderrama; Dr. Sharoni Little, head of global inclusion strategy at CAA; writer-producer-director-actor Gloria Calderón Kellett (Netflix’s One Day at a Time, Amazon’s With Love); Samata Narra, senior vp equity + inclusion, content at Warner Bros. Discovery; producer and global Indigenous activist Bird Runningwater; IllumiNative president and CEO Crystal Echo Hawk; Nic Novicki, founder and director of the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge; Richie Siegel, co-founder and president of Inevitable Foundation; Dr. Yalda Uhls, UCLA assistant adjunct professor and founder of the Center for Scholars and Storytellers; and Heather Rossi, American Sign Language interpreter and chief ASL consultant on CODA.

The invite-only event will take place at the Maybourne Beverly Hills on April 20.

For more on THR’s “Raising Our Voices” initiative, click here.