Melinda Esquibel

Melinda Esquibel is a Los Angeles & Albuquerque based filmmaker. Esquibel's current projects include producing & hosting a serialized podcast called VANISHED: The Investigation of Tara Calico. The premiere season is about the case file of Tara Calico. Tara was Esquibel's former classmate that disappeared under mysterious circumstances. She is also producing a multi-part documentary series on the famous case and producing a feature film entitled: PAIS: The Untold Story of Cuban Revolutionary and a multi-part series. Other projects Esquibel has directed include Influential Women of Hollywood, and as a producer include National Wildlife Federation's Campus Chillout! (campus solutions for the climate crisis) and Shepard Fairey's Vote for Change and Hopes for Change Campaign. Previously, Esquibel worked in the Social Action Team at Jeff Skoll's company, Participant Media, and was the Campaign Manager for the Oscar nominated documentary, Muderball (which included raising money for program development at the Paralympics for Iraq war veterans who came home with spinal injuries), and has been a Campaign Contributor to films such as: Oscar & Nobel Prize winner, An Inconvenient Truth, with Al Gore - the Train the Trainer Program and AIT school curriculum , Charlie Wilson's War, Angel's in the Dust, Good Night and Good Luck, Fast Food Nation, Syriana and North Country. Prior to Participant Productions, Esquibel previously served in production management at Fox Family Worldwide. Some of her credits include: Addams Family Series & Movie, Captain Kangaroo, Casper Meets Wendy and Power Rangers Series and Movies. While at Fox Family, Esquibel served and was a founding board member on the Diversity Advisory Board at Fox Entertainment Group. This committee was created to increase minority vendor spending and diverse presence throughout the studio in compliance with the Multi-Cultural Coalition. Esquibel has also served on the Board of Directors of the Imagen Foundation. Esquibel has been awarded for her work by the Environmental Media Awards and was nominated for an Imagen Award in 2009 for Best National Informational Programming for National Wildlife Federation's Campus Chillout! Campus solutions to the climate crisis. Esquibel has also produced events for Sundance with Shriners Hospitals for Children to bring awareness to filmmakers on the inclusions of individuals with disAbilities in film and television, headed the team that created the #CutTheBull Campaign to stop bullying against differently able children and teens, and has worked with Scope, Channel 4 and the Paralympics in the UK to create awareness and open the conversation of inclusion for individuals with disabilities in all aspects of the industry. She has helped change the advertising/fashion world by working with designers and advertising agencies on changing the images of what the public sees as beautiful by merging talent that are differently abled and the fashion world for the following: Vivienne Westwood, So Popular, Julian Zigerli, Ovadia & Sons and GAP. She has also worked with numerous magazines within the US and Europe. Esquibel's passion for working with talent who are differently abled grew from having a father who had partial paralysis on the left side of body due to a brain tumor and the challenges that others had with accepting it as "normal." Esquibel is also a former talent manager.