Meet the Team

  • Lauren Melinda is an award-winning Persian-American filmmaker, artist and founder of SIMBELLE PRODUCTIONS. Her work explores issues of feminine identity and perception, while critiquing the forces of culture and circumstance that mold the roles assigned to women.

     

    As a mixed-media artist, Lauren’s video installations have been commissioned by galleries, museums, and private collectors in North America and the Middle East, while her photographs have been sold to major collections around the world.

     

    As a filmmaker, Lauren has written and directed three short films that have screened in 52 festivals on nearly every continent – garnering the top prize at six of them. Her most recent narrative film, Before You, is playing the festival circuit and is in collaboration with Planned Parenthood. She is now developing her first narrative feature, ECHOES, in which a Persian-American artist faces a Faustian bargain when a Berlin gallery demands she exploit her heritage for success, as well as a TV series based on her Ukrainian great-grandmother, who served as the midwife to the Shah of Iran.

     

    As a mother of two young girls, Lauren’s passion for women’s issues only continues to grow in depth and perspective. Inspired by her daughters, Lauren launched SIMBELLE PRODUCTIONS in 2024, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering women through film. The organization fosters female-centric stories that promote mutual validation, awareness, and hope. Most recently, SIMBELLE PRODUCTIONS Executive Produced the feature film, Satisfaction, by Alex Burunova and featuring Emma Laird, which premiered at SXSW 2025. 

     

    Lauren received a dual Bachelor’s degrees in Fine Arts and Art History from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of California, Irvine. She is based in Los Angeles.

  • Rafael Thomaseto is a film producer and co-founder of Driven Equation, a boutique production company with bases in Los Angeles and São Paulo. He is also a founding member of the Brazilian Filmmakers Collective, a community-driven initiative supporting Brazilian voices in global cinema, and currently serves as Head of Production at the nonprofit production company Simbelle Productions.

    Rafael has produced several award-winning short films, including The Ballad of Tita and the Machines, which premiered at the Tribeca Festival, and I Am the Nature, which debuted at DOC NYC and received the UNESCO Awareness and Sustainable Vision Award in Venice, Italy. His short film Huella premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is currently being developed into a feature-length project with support from both the Producers and Screenwriting Tracks at the Sundance Institute.

    He recently completed post-production on his first two feature films: Satisfaction, which had its world premiere at SXSW 2025, and The Eternity Man, an international co-production between Ukraine, Finland, and Canada.

  • Charlotte (Sharlotta) Hacke (Hacka) is honored and proud to be a part of the core team at Simbelle Productions, leading communications and collaborating on creative development. Hailing from Telluride, CO, with family roots in Germany, Hacke is a trained actress with an extensive background in the film and festival industries. She has worked closely with directors such as Sebastián Lelio and has contributed to TV and Film production with Fabula Productions and Jax Media. Additionally, she has accumulated years of experience in guest management at the Telluride Film Festival, the Berlinale International Filmfestspiele, and the Cannes Film Festival. Hacke is a graduate of Brown University and The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater.

  • Alette Segerstrom is an actress and creative from Orange County, CA, now based in Los Angeles. She earned her BFA in Theater and Performance with a minor in Marketing Communications from Emerson College, where she graduated Cum Laude. Alette launched her career interning at Ramo Law PC, an entertainment firm based in Beverly Hills, following marketing internships at South Coast Plaza and the Boch Center. Since moving to Los Angeles two years ago, she has pursued acting professionally and taken classes at The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute. Alongside her work with Simbelle Productions, she sits on the board of directors for the Segerstrom Foundation, helping to facilitate support for various arts-related non-profits across Orange County. Alette is immensely passionate about the film and television industry, and is deeply grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the Simbelle team. 

  • From the South Coast of Brazil and currently based in Los Angeles, Helena Sardinha is a creative producer. Her work is recognized at prestigious festivals such as Sundance, Tribeca, DOC NYC, Aspen Shortfest, and Fantastic Fest. In 2018, she co-founded Driven Equation, a boutique production company bridging Los Angeles and São Paulo. Helena's work has garnered awards at the Humanitas Prize, Outfest, the Imagen Awards, and the UNESCO Award for Awareness and Sustainability.

    A Sundance Producing Lab and Film Independent fellow, Helena continues to push boundaries with projects like Huella, with the support of the Sundance Institute; Piratas, supported by the SFFILM Rainin Grant, and Angel in Retrograde, a finalist in the AT&T Untold Stories at Tribeca. Her work spans both scripted and documentary filmmaking, with her first documentary feature, Barry and Joan, now streaming on Netflix, and first narrative film Beautiful, FL, currently available on Disney+.  Her latest feature, Satisfaction, premiered at SXSW and showcases a stellar cast including Cannes winner Zar Amir (Holy Spider), BIFA nominee Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk), British model Adwoa Aboah, and Scottish actress Emma Laird (The Brutalist). Helena leads the development arm of Simbelle Productions, a newly launched nonprofit dedicated to amplifying women's narratives.

Board Members

Jennifer Loh

Eric Bromberg

Jean-Louis Rodrigue