Shilpi spent her childhood growing up in North Carolina, the child of Indian immigrants. After attending Vanderbilt University on a full-tuition scholarship, Shilpi moved to Los Angeles and became a producer’s assistant for Warren Littlefield, the former president of NBC. Shilpi then decided to pursue a directing career and so came to the USC Film School for an MFA in Production. While there, Shilpi was awarded the extremely prestigious Annenberg Fellowship. Shilpi also acts as a mentor for under-privileged kids in the Los Angeles area, through a non-profit organization called Remmedee. In her last year at USC, Shilpi hopes that her thesis film will be the stepping-stone to completing her first indie feature, which includes many of the same themes and characters as The Indian and the Samurai.

Maria A. Miller is one of the founders of Top Dog Films, Inc. She is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music with a degree in theatre. Maria is also a graduate of Second City’s Conservatory Improv program in Chicago in addition to studying film at UCLA. She is a certificate holder from The Hollywood Film Institute with a concentration in film producing. Maria served as a film screener for the 2007 Venice, Italy Film Festival. Prior to starting Top Dog Films, Maria worked for MTV Networks from 1997- 2004. Maria is an accomplished actress with credits in commercials, TV, film, and theater. She is a member of Women in Film (WIF).

Kasia Trojak grew up in Warsaw reading scripts, participating in film festivals and watching her father produce films. Instead of following in his footsteps in Poland she moved to France to attend The American University of Paris. While there, she earned a B.A. in International Communications and wrote and directed two short comedies. In her junior year, Kasia participated in an exchange program with UC Santa Barbara and fell in love with California. She moved to Los Angeles to pursue a graduate degree at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts with a focus on producing. She produced several student thesis projects and music videos while at USC. As an aspiring film and television producer, she has interned at NBC Universal, CNN Paris, TVN Warsaw, and currently interns at The Mark Gordon Company.

Anthony C. Kuhnz is a mid-westerner with an eastern sensibility. A deep interest in Buddhist philosophy has influenced his painting, music and cinematography, with the hopes of spreading happiness and peace. Born in Milwaukee, WI, Anthony was raised in Oshkosh and graduated from Lourdes High School in 2001. A student of all forms of art, Anthony studied painting and music throughout his childhood. Since he was 10 years old, he wrote and recorded music and for a while this was his passion. Only after he received his first 35mm SLR camera did the thought of filmmaking arise as a place to stretch his active imagination. He then earned a bachelor's degree as a double major in Radio/Television/Film and Art Theory/Practice at Northwestern University in 2005. He is expecting an MFA in cinematography from the University of Southern California in May 2008. Anthony has shot many films on many formats and is excited about the visual opportunities of the ever evolving medium. Visit his website at www.ackuhnz.com.

Ann Frederick is a graduate of the renowned University of Iowa Film School. For the past six years, she has worked with legendary casting director Mike Fenton. Most recently, Ann cast "Camille," starring Sienna Miller and James Franco, and "Ride of Nine," starring an ensemble cast including Desmond Harrington, Elden Henson, Barry Corbin, Sunny Mabrey and Sara Rue. Ann has also worked on Alan Moyle's "Weirdsville," Walden Media’s "Journey to the Center of the Earth" starring Brendan Frasier, "A Very Merry Muppet Christmas," John Singleton's "Baby Boy" and many other independent films. In addition to the films she has cast, Ann has cast music videos for Ashlee Simpson, Panic At The Disco, Natasha Bedingfield, Gym Class Heroes and Armor for Sleep.

Wendy is thrilled to be editing The Indian and the Samurai. After earning a bachelor’s in Philosophy at Boston College, Wendy quickly moved back home to LA to pursue filmmaking from the comforts of warmer weather. Starting out as an editing intern at MTV News and Docs, she has gone on to edit a wide range of projects, from documentaries, music videos, commercials, and short films. One of her recent short films is featured on the DVD for the film Once, released by Fox Searchlight. Documentary editing credits includes Trashed, Shoving the Meeting, and The Orphans of Bairoling. Outside of editing, Wendy is the Art & Media Director for the Druk Charitable Foundation, a non-profit devoted to preserving Himalayan culture in the face of modernization. She travels regularly to Ladakh, India and Nepal as part of those efforts. Locally, she is a founding member of The Magic Meathands, a community-based comedy improv troupe that services homeless shelters, rehabilitation centers, and battered women’s shelters around the country. In her 3rd year of the graduate production program at USC, Wendy is currently directing a playful documentary on the fear of dentists, called Say Aah. Wendy is an avid fan of surfing, break-dancing, and samurais!

Tom Abrams is an award-winning writer and director in both film and television and instructs both graduate and undergraduate students in the practice of screenwriting and directing. As a writer, he shared a 1992 Emmy Award for the children's television series, Rugrats, and his short film Shoeshine (1987) was nominated for an Academy Award and received the Montreal World Film Festival first prize. 1989's Performance Pieces won a special award at that year's Cannes International Film Festival. His projects include The Desperate Trail (1995) for TNT, Conversations With The Beast (1995, co-written with Armin Mueller-Stahl), The American Princess (2000) for New Line Cinema, The Captain’s Wife for Fox 2000, Have Gun Will Travel for Warner Bros and The Battle of Ono for Executive Producer John Woo at Universal. For the last 15 years, Abrams has taught filmmaking internationally and consulted on projects in more than 20 countries.