(Writer/Director/Editor): Alek Lev is a director, writer, editor, actor, and American Sign Language interpreter. (He has interpreted for three presidents, two Broadway shows, and one Beatle.) He began his journey into the Deaf community as a student and touring actor with the National Theater of the Deaf and went on to perform with Deaf West Theater in Los Angeles. (He also directed both the Vagina Monologues and an opera with casts of Deaf and hearing actors, but, then again, who hasn’t?) He directed the horror film Ready or Not, which his mother saw, and once edited a music video directed by Josh Radnor, starring Alison Janney as a dancing clown. No, really. Alek was the New Media Director for How I Met Your Mother, where he produced and hosted their official podcast and is now also the producer of iHeartRadio’s podcast, Meeting Tom Cruise. Alek also served as the Vice President of the International Buster Keaton Society and his younger son’s name is Chaplin. So yeah, he’s into silent films, too. WHAT? -- a black-and-white silent feature film starring a cast of Deaf and hearing actors -- truly brings together the passions in Alek’s life. AlekLev.com.

(Executive Producer): Paul J. Maucere was inspired by the technical side of the television industry at an early age through his uncle, J. Bruce Nielsen, a prominent TV cinematographer. As a Technical Director, Paul worked with his brother and business partner, John L. Maucere, on various productions throughout the years, including shows at the Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas. Paul was the Assistant Director for Vibrations, a Deaf Performing Arts Troupe at the Indiana School for the Deaf. He received accolades with an Emmy Nomination for Best Short Documentary by Keaton Wooten. After his travels to France for the Festival Clin d'Oeil, a global festival hosted by CinéSourds, dedicated to the arts using sign language, Maucere saw his brother John’s ability to delight international audiences, both hearing and Deaf. From there, Paul and John created the film No Ordinary Hero: The Superdeafy Movie. In 2019, the Maucere brothers — now properly and appropriately under the shingle THE MAUCERE BROTHERS — collaborated with an extraordinary group of artists to produce WHAT?.

(Director of Photography): Born in South Africa where lions, zebras, and elephants roam the land, Ruan du Plessis has an eye for the lens. Ruan moved to the United States when he was fourteen and settled in Indiana for his high school years. At Indiana School for the Deaf, he found his passion for filmmaking with an opportunity to make a motion picture. He produced nine films over the next few years, and then landed a job at Communication Service for the Deaf and refined his skills with a marketing perspective before becoming one of the co-founders of Bus Door Films.

(Music): Justin Asher is an LA-based composer, sound designer, performer and audio producer whose work narrates the technological-human relationship. He's a multi-instrumentalist whose repertoire includes repurposed, non-musical devices and often involves production-as-instrument, feedback, modulated speech, and hyper-acoustics. On TV and radio, his composing work has been in programs for ABC, CBS, A&E, MTV, NPR, and in films by Hasbro, and MGM. His work has also appeared on the recording labels Astralworks, Bongo Beat, Crammed, Island/Def Jam, Koch, Knitting Factory, Munich, Pan, pfMENTUM, Setola di Maiale, Shanacie, Touch and Go, and the Stitcher/Earwolf and Freakonomics podcast networks.

(Executive Producer) Robin is from deaf family and graduated from Rochester School for the Deaf and later from Rochester Institute of Technology with an Associate in Graphic Design and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography Illustration. Theater projects include: ‘Flying Words Project,’ a college poetry troupe, (1985-1986); ‘Lights On!’ Rochester Deaf Community Theatre; performer in “Tales From A Clubroom” written by Bernard Bragg and Eugene Bergman, Directed by Patrick Graybill (1992); “Trouble’s Just Beginning- A Play of Our Own”, written by Dorothy Miles, Directed by Vicki Nordquist (1992). In April 2013, Robin acted in The Vagina Monologues: Snyone of US! - Words from Prison, a narrative play about domestic violence against women, written by Eve Ensler and directed by Jennifer Clupper.

In film, Robin were has been involved with the independent, deaf-owned and operated production company, ASL Films, and with Arthur Luhn’s The House Across the Street (2013), Five O’ Clock Comes Early (2015), and Cursed Hill of Kill (2015). Robin is delighted to be an Executive Producer working with Maucere Brothers for first time on WHAT?.

(Co-Executive Producer): Jonathan “Rock” Weiss is a renowned Los Angeles-based chef. He has worked alongside master celebrity chefs including Patrick Terrail, Wolfgang Puck, Julia Child and many more. As a third generation restaurateur, Weiss was first exposed to the culinary world as an 8-year-old in his grandfather’s iconic British pub, The Fox and Hounds, in Santa Monica, California. Weiss then went on to operate his own Big Mango Catering Company cafes and restaurants for 30 years, hosting private events at the homes of such celebrities as Arnold and Maria Schwarzenegger, Kirstie Alley, Tom and Rita Hanks, Norman Lear, Richard Dreyfuss, Elton John and David Furnish, to name a few.

Weiss is also a veteran chef and caterer for prominent companies in the entertainment world such as The Oscars, Emmy Awards, CAA, the Endeavor Agency, Fox Studios, Warner Brothers, Sony, MGM Studios and Star Wagoners. WHAT? marks his first film venture as Co-Executive Producer.