Payton Mack is a filmmaker from Houston, TX with her B.A. in Film & TV from Howard University and second year MFA Film Production candidate at the University of Southern California. From a very young age, she has always appreciated capturing the beauty in the small things and has developed her skills before she knew she was interested in storytelling. Simultaneously, she always found a pleasant escape in diving into her favorite films and tv shows. But as time went on, she noticed something was missing from a majority of these shows and movies. By attending Howard University, she was able to meet a plethora of other intellectual, funny, and kind Black students in a space designed to uplift them. At that moment she understood what the media during her upbringing lacked, proper diverse black representation. With the lack of diverse representation and her love for filmmaking she is creating a wider range of black stories beyond the narrow point of view they were during her upbringing. Taking what she learns every step of the way, she enters the industry as a Director and Cinematographer to provide growing Black kids with the constant sense of self within the media she wishes she had growing up.