From 8f730a63088f605d8dea7e156eebc15160e0fae1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Jeff Emmett Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2026 15:55:51 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] Update Elle Sam bio with full updated credits and background Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 --- index.html | 10 +++++----- 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff --git a/index.html b/index.html index 8eb3b12..a3a95bb 100644 --- a/index.html +++ b/index.html @@ -1169,11 +1169,11 @@
Elle — Writer and Creator
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Michelle Sam

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Writer · Director

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Michelle Sam is a writer, award-winning filmmaker, actress, and multimedia artist. Her work often explores the intersection of identities and stories in a visceral manner. The daughter of Ghanaian immigrants raised in Ireland, Michelle began her training at the Gaiety School of Acting before moving to Chicago, where she studied at Second City before turning her talents to filmmaking. She holds a Sociology and Visual and Dramatic Arts degree from Rice University.

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She wrote for Jason Katims' show on Amazon, As We See It, about neurodiversity, as well as Hardly Working on Paramount Plus. Her feature script, Sankofa, was selected for the 2018 Outfest Screenwriting Lab and her short film, Black Boy Joy, won an NAACP 2020 Best Short Award and the Diversity in Cannes 2020 Short-Film Showcase. She also wrote and directed the short film Missed Connections, starring and executive produced by Angelica Ross (Pose on FX), winning numerous awards and screening at over 30 film festivals.

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In addition to creating film and TV, she cultivates immersive and interactive experiences and art installations that engage the nine senses through somatic experiencing, across the Black diaspora and in continental Africa under her name, Yaa Tabriwaa. She is also a co-founder of Out The Box Creative, a hybrid Ghanaian production company and artist collective based in Accra, Ghana.

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Elle Sam

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Storyteller · Filmmaker · Medicinal Healer

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Michelle “ELLE” Sam is a storyteller, award-winning filmmaker, writer, multimedia artist, and medicinal healer of Ghanaian descent within the Fante, Akwapim, and Bwiti traditions. She holds a B.A. from Rice University in Visual and Dramatic Arts, Sociology, and Neuroscience—an interdisciplinary foundation that reflects the convergence driving her work. She carries a deep connection to land and lineage through her healing practice—a relationship that anchors her work across disciplines. A prolific storyteller with an extensive resume in film, television, immersive art installation, and community development, Sam brings indigenous knowledge systems, embodied narrative, and empirical neuroscience into every medium she touches.

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Her film and television credits include writing for Jason Katims’ As We See It (Amazon), based on the Israeli series On The Spectrum about neurodiversity, and Hardly Working (Paramount+). Her short film Missed Connections (KweliTV, CFMDC) won the audience award at TranScreen Amsterdam Transgender Film Festival and was developed in collaboration with the GLAAD Transgender Media Equality Program. She wrote Black Boy Joy, which received a NAACP Image Award. She has feature and series projects in development with several major studios and production companies.

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Sam was a speaker at TEDxAccra’s Chale Talks, and penned a limited series about refugees with Made Up Stories and Endeavor Content, Sankofa in the Outfest screenwriting lab. Beyond screen work, Sam cultivates immersive and interactive experiences and art installations that engage the nine senses, creating work across the Black diaspora and in continental Africa under her name, ELLE. She is co-founder of Out The Box Creative, a Ghanaian production company and artist collective based in Accra. Her practice bridges West African indigenous healing traditions, neuroaesthetics, and multimedia narrative—the convergence at the heart of The Last Draw/Home.