Theater artist Todd Almond puts a modern spin on ancient forms of live storytelling. He has written and performed for New York’s Public Theater and Lincoln Center, Tokyo’s TOHO and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He cocreated (with Lear deBessonet) Public Works, a community theater program, for which he wrote large-scale adaptations of The Tempest and The Odyssey. His new book, Slow Train Coming, describes the development of Girl from the North Country, the Bob Dylan musical on Broadway.

Actor and singer Donna Murphy’s career spans theater, film and television, including four works of the late, great Stephen Sondheim; along the way, she has collected two Tonys and an Emmy. Her films include The Nanny Diaries, Spiderman 2 and Disney's Tangled (as the voice of Mother Gothel). She recently costarred with Zachary Quinto in NBC’s Brilliant Minds and is in her third season as Caroline Astor on HBO’s The Gilded Age.

Barry Sonnenfeld is an Emmy-winning film and television director, producer and author of two memoirs. He began his career as a cinematographer for the Coen brothers’ first three feature films, and was director of photography for beloved comedies like Big and When Harry Met Sally before making his directorial debut in 1991 with The Addams Family. Other credits include the Men in Black movies, TV’s Pushing Daisies and Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, which won a Peabody Award.

Space architect Ariel Ekblaw is helping to shape humanity's interplanetary future. In her vision, space stations circle the Earth, Moon and Mars, furnished with self-assembling habitats, and everyone has access to low Earth orbit. Her work and investments as founder and CEO of the Aurelia Institute and general partner of the Aurelia Foundry Fund reflect her belief that we should scale up life in space. She was the founding director of the MIT Space Exploration Initiative and is author/editor of Into the Anthropocosmos: A Whole Space Catalog from the MIT Space Exploration Initiative.

Tony Testa is a mixed-media artist who uses choreography, photography and film to explore movement and human connection. From crafting dance reels in his garage to creating visionary work for icons like Janet Jackson and Ariana Grande, Testa bridges pop culture and experimental art. His most ambitious project to date, b1, is now touring.

Aqeela Sherrills promotes community ownership of public safety, particularly by reducing violence in urban communities. Drawing on his own experience growing up amid gang violence in Los Angeles, he advises and trains local organizations as they counter brutality and fear with forgiveness and compassion. He is founder of the Community-Based Public Safety Collective (CBPSC). Backed by TED's funding initiative the Audacious Project, Sherrills is launching Scaling Safety, a joint venture by CBPSC and the Alliance for Safety and Justice that will support resident-powered violence intervention programs.

After a stint on Wall Street, Oz Pearlman decided to pursue his childhood dream, and in the process redefined the very nature of the magic show. He wows audiences around the world with his mind-reading abilities and unique blend of charisma, charm and quick wit. His TV appearances include the Emmy-winning special Oz Knows and a Super Bowl pre-game performance. In 2022, he broke the world record for most miles run around Central Park in a single day (116 miles) to raise money for Ukrainian children.

After a career in contemporary music, Frédette Lampre is now part of La Machine, a French artists' collective that brings together artists, designers, fabricators and technicians to produce giant performing machines. She cultivates the projects' connections in the performing arts, public institutions and international and industrial sectors, and also serves as head of communications at the Halle de La Machine in Toulouse, where La Machine displays all of their work.

Gary Hustwit is a filmmaker, visual artist and CEO of Anamorph, a generative media studio and software company. Many of his documentaries, including Helvetica and Rams, explore how design shapes our world. His latest project is Eno, a documentary about musician and artist Brian Eno that was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film pushes the boundaries of storytelling with generative technology, crafting a film that is never the same twice. Hustwit’s work has also been exhibited at art institutions such as MoMA and the Venice Biennale.