Drea Castro is a multi-hyphenate creative mainly known for her work as an award winning director and producer who's passionate about telling underrepresented stories and elevating the voice of underserved communities. She serves the community as the festival director of the FilAm Creative Film Festival and is also the Director of Business Development at the 70 year old camera rental and sales house, Birns and Sawyer.
She is WIF 2022 Mentee, WWF Cohort Mentee 2022, a recipient of the Woman of Her Word grant for her feature film documentary, Baldy for the Blind – the story of a group of blind and visually impaired hikers who attempt to climb the most dangerous mountain in LA county, Mount Baldy. Her film won the Audience Award and the Pinnacle Award at the 17 year old, BFI supported “I Will Tell Film Festival” in London. Baldy for the Blind with the amazing support of the disability community has a permanent mural in the walls of the Braille Institute in Los Angeles and will also have a special screening at UC Berkeley in partnership with the Dis/Ability Film Fest in Fall of 2024.
Drea CASTRO
Alongside Director Robbie Bryan, “Purgy’s” starring Richard Riehle (“Office Space”) and Arnold Chun (“Man in the High Castle”/“Bullet Train”) has garnered several awards including winning the Best Screenplay award at the Kevin Smith’s, Smodcastle Film Fest. She is working on various projects in different stages of development including the TV series “The Jungle” starring Princess Punzalan, “Browned”, a docu-series about chefs of color; the feature film "Crab” which is partnering with the El Rey Network and "the magical-realism short film, “Bless” (starring Arianna & Darius Basco, Ron & Maisie Jones).
Drea’s directed/produced commercials and digital content for companies such as Disney, Western Union, Snibbs, VH1, the New York Post and is also a celebrity portrait photographer who has photographed Lil’ Wayne, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Jaleel White, Taye Diggs, and Raven Symone to name a few. Her photography work has been seen in Times Square, Elle Magazine, Kapwa Magazine and Run Wild.
Her main goal is to help create a community that serves and elevates and to pave a pathway for underserved stories to be told on a mainstream level.