4th Annual Patron of the Artists Awards

Honorees

Patron of the Artists Award Recipients

Greg Berlanti

Writer, Director, Producer

WGA, DGA and Golden Globe nominated writer, director, and producer, Greg Berlanti, is the force behind some of the most inventive and acclaimed works in film and television. Currently, Berlanti’s company has a record-breaking 18 scripted series across six different networks, the highest number of shows to air at one time for a tv producer and creator. He began in television on the hit show DAWSON’S CREEK and became an executive producer and showrunner of the series after one year on staff. Since then, Berlanti has served as creator, writer or executive producer behind shows such as EVERWOOD, BROTHERS & SISTERS, ARROW, THE FLASH, SUPERGIRL, BLINDSPOT, RIVERDALE and YOU.

Berlanti made his film directorial debut in 2000 with THE BROKEN HEARTS CLUB. His most recent feature was the 2018 critically acclaimed LOVE, SIMON. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his husband and two children.

Ava DuVernay

Director, Producer, Writer

Winner of the Emmy, BAFTA and Peabody Awards, and Academy Award nominee Ava DuVernay is a director, writer, produc​er and film distributor. Her directorial work includes the historical feature film SELMA, the criminal justice documentary 13TH, and Disney’s A WRINKLE IN TIME which made her the highest grossing black woman director in American box office history. Based on the infamous case of The Central Park Five, her current project WHEN THEY SEE US recently garnered 16 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Limited Series and Outstanding Director and Writer for a Limited Series nominations for DuVernay. Currently, she oversees production on the fourth season of her critically-acclaimed TV series QUEEN SUGAR and her upcoming romance anthology CHERISH THE DAY for Warner Brothers Television. Making history as the first African-American filmmaker to win the Best Director prize at Sundance for her micro-budget, self-distributed feature MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, DuVernay continues to amplify the work of other people of color and women of all kinds through her non-profit film collective ARRAY, named one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Companies.” DuVernay sits on the advisory board of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and co-chairs the Prada Diversity Council.

Artists Inspiration Award Recipients

Jennifer Aniston

Actor, Director, Producer

Golden Globe and Emmy winner actress Jennifer Aniston will next be seen in the highly anticipated APPLE TV + series The Morning Show opposite Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carrell.  She also serves as Executive Producer on the series. Most well-known for her role as “Rachel Green” in the classic television comedy FRIENDS, Aniston’s television and film career spans two decades, starring in critically acclaimed films including THE GOOD GIRL, FRIENDS WITH MONEY and CAKE as well as blockbuster comedies including THE BREAKUP, HORRIBLE BOSSES and WE’RE THE MILLERS. In 2018, Jennifer appeared in Netflix’s DUMPLIN’ and recently in the Netflix comedy MURDER MYSTERY opposite Adam Sandler.

A passionate humanitarian, Aniston has donated millions of dollars for natural disaster relief to organizations such as The Ricky Martin Foundation and the American Red Cross. She also has been an avid supporter and advocate of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Aniston was a recipient of The GLAAD Vanguard Award in 2007 for her outstanding contributions to increase understanding and awareness of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. Additionally, Aniston has supported many non-profit organizations that advocate for education, animal protection, and cancer research—even directing one of an anthology of five short films “Project Five” exploring the impact of breast cancer on people’s lives.

Mark Ruffalo

Actor, Philanthropist

Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Emmy nominee, and SAG Award winner Mark Ruffalo is currently in production on I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE, an eight-episode limited series at HBO based off the best-selling novel of the same name. He is executive producing and starring in the series playing the two main characters. He recently wrapped Focus Features’ DARK WATERS, directed by Todd Haynes, about the DuPont Pollution scandal, also starring Anne Hathaway, Bill Pullman, and Tim Robbins. This past summer he was seen reprising his role as Bruce Banner/The Hulk in AVENGERS: ENDGAME the grand conclusion to Marvel Studios’ Avengers franchise, spanning twenty-two films.

Ruffalo advocates for addressing climate change and increasing renewable energy. A regular contributor to the Guardian and Huffington Post, Ruffalo has received the Global Green Millennium Award for Environmental Leadership and the Meera Gandhi Giving Back Foundation Award. He was named one of Time Magazine’s People Who Mattered in 2011 and received The Big FishAward from Riverkeeper in 2013. Ruffalo helped launch The Solutions Project in 2012 as part of his mission to share science, business and culture that demonstrates the feasibility of renewable energy.

Performers

Melissa Benoist

Cynthia Erivo

Wé McDonald

Chrissy Metz

Presenters

Awkwafina

Willem Dafoe

Leonardo DiCaprio

Laurence Fishburne

Julia Garner

Norman Lear

David Oyelowo

Paul Rudd

Olivia Wilde

JoBeth Williams

Constance Wu