Our Team
Julia Willoughby Nason
FOUNDER / PARTNER
Julia Willoughby Nason is an Emmy-nominated, Peabody Award-winning filmmaker and founder of The Cinemart. Since launching the company in 2011, she has directed and produced a slate of acclaimed documentaries that explore power, justice, and the American zeitgeist.
Her debut, Welcome to Leith (PBS, 2015), a stark portrait of white nationalism in North Dakota, earned her first Emmy nomination. She went on to co-create Time: The Kalief Browder Story (Spike, 2017) and direct Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story (Paramount, 2018), both in collaboration with Shawn “JAY Z” Carter. This series received multiple Emmy nominations and a Peabody Award.
In 2019, she directed Fyre Fraud (Hulu), a sharp dissection of social media and deception that earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for writing. That was followed by The Pharmacist (Netflix, 2020), which traced one man’s fight against the opioid crisis.
Her series LuLaRich (Amazon, 2021), a satirical deep dive into multi-level marketing and gender roles, struck a cultural nerve. In 2023, Nason directed two major hits: Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets (Amazon), examining religion, politics, and media through the lens of a reality TV empire, two seasons of Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal (Netflix), which contextualized a high-profile murder case within a legacy of Southern power, and American Murder: Gabby Petito (Netflix), a series that interrogated the role of media, domestic abuse, and true crime obsession in shaping public narrative.
She is currently developing scripted and unscripted projects that delve into complex, real-life narratives at the intersection of power, culture, and identity.
Michael Gasparro
PARTNER
Michael Gasparro is a Film Producer and Showrunner with decades of experience in Film, Television Development, and Production in New York City. Gasparro produced The Wannabe, which starred Patricia Arquette and was executive produced by Martin Scorsese. Since then, he’s executive produced documentaries and docuseries, including Time: The Kalief Browder Story (Spike, 2017) for Jay Z and Spike TV, Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story (Paramount, 2018) with Jay Z for The Paramount Network, Fyre Fraud (Hulu, 2019), LuLaRich (Amazon, 2021) and The Pharmacist (2020) and Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal (2023) for Netflix. He was also an Executive Producer on Shiny Happy People for Amazon, a docu-series focusing on the unseen dark side of the Duggar family and the religious extremist group to which they belong. Mike also co-directed Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal (2023) and American Murder: Gabby Petito (2025) for Netflix with his partner Julia Willoughby Nason.
Angela Freedman
Head of Development
Angela Freedman joined The Cinemart team as the Head of Development in 2024. Here, she tactfully develops meaningful unscripted content that speaks to current events and essential pop culture topics to inspire conversation and change.
Before The Cinemart, Freedman worked at the Travel Channel, where she collaborated with producers to develop breakout series for the network and helped steer strategy for future programming. She has also worked at Mic Productions, developing and producing documentaries and series across linear and digital, including executive producing Hulu’s cultural hit Fyre Fraud. She previously worked in development at BBC America, Oxygen, and MTV.
