Amanda Kasmira “Kazzy” Cryer

Amanda Kasmira “Kazzy” Cryer is a filmmaker, advocate, and storyteller with over two decades in the media industry. Known as a Champion for the Unseen, she has built a career around centering the voices of people overlooked by systems — the incarcerated and exonerated, displaced communities, and those whose stories mainstream media rarely tells. Born in Toronto, Ontario and raised in North Vancouver, British Columbia, she built her Hollywood foundation at Roy Lee's Vertigo Entertainment — the production company behind The Departed (2006), The Lego Movie (2014), It (2017), and Doctor Sleep (2019) — before turning that discipline toward independent films driven by urgency rather than spectacle.

Across 68 countries, her collaborators include UN officials, Nobel laureates, grassroots organizers, scientists, and media executives — assembled not by industry but by a shared conviction that cinema can compel change rather than merely document it. She brings the same discipline from the editing room to the stage: no room for vague intention, only the next necessary thing.

After 20 years in the film industry, she grew increasingly concerned about media's role in amplifying polarization and division. She relocated from Los Angeles to New Orleans and then across the American South, dedicating herself to uniting humanity through storytelling.

Her directorial debut, Living UNDONE (2024), won 22 awards worldwide including the Grand Jury Award at the ETHOS Film Festival in Santa Monica, the Dublin International Film Award, the ATL DOC Jury Award, two Gold Telly Awards, Best Documentary Short at the Paris Art & Movie Awards, Best Impact Director at the World Culture Film Festival, and the Audience Choice Award at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival. The global festival run concluded in December 2025. The 26-minute documentary examines how America's criminal justice system perpetually stigmatizes rather than rehabilitates formerly incarcerated individuals — featuring Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five, Betty Anne Waters (the real-life subject of Conviction), and seven others whose lives intersect with the system. The film is now in development as a feature film and limited series.

Her producing partnership with Carole Joyce continues with two new projects in production as of 2026: a feature-length documentary (subject not yet publicly disclosed, currently in post-production) and a death row short film — directed by Morgen Ludwig, starring Josh Datant Villareal, co-produced with Marcello Cacioppo — about a man's final hour on death row. She also serves as an advisor to Footboz (sports platform backed by Snoop Dogg and Magic Johnson), and mentors through BELOVED, which serves women in crisis and re-entry.

As CEO of The Rewired Collective and Global Ambassador for GetBundi, she continues to build media infrastructure that transcends division. Her YouTube channel @KazzyStories has reached 10M+ views, and she has been recognized by LinkedIn as a Top 200 Influencer & Voice for two consecutive years — Top Voice in Leadership, Film Production, Mentorship, and Social Impact. She is also featured with a dedicated chapter in the bestselling book Top 50 Fearless Leaders Vol. 4 (IAOTP) and was named to the Harvard & Housing Narrative Lab 2026 Creator Cohort.

She is featured in Forbes (December 2023), Inc. Magazine, LA Weekly, Yahoo Finance, Women in Business Magazine, The Good Men Project, Artist Weekly, The Guardian Nigeria, The Indie Post Magazine (cover, July 2025), and dozens of other publications. She was honored by the International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP) as Top Social Impact Influencer of the Year 2024 at a gala at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, and named to the Global Excellence Awards Top 300 Leaders of the Year (Social Impact & Purpose, 2025) and Top 100 Thought Leaders (2024) — as seen on ABC, Fox, NBC, CBS, CW, and Telemundo.

From 2008 to 2012, Cryer worked with a cohort of Native American actors — including alumni of the Twilight film series — to bring awareness to water infrastructure issues negatively impacting Indigenous communities across the country. She has practiced the Conscious Full Spectrum Response framework since 2009, a methodology developed by Dr. Monica Sharma, former UN Director of Capacity and Leadership Development.