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The Akils Get Black Film Festival Spotlight

Salim and Mara Brock are featured guests at the 16th Annual American Black Film Festival.

After their combined success, film and TV's favorite power couple will soon talk shop about their work in the industry.

Salim Akil and Mara Brock-Akil are the featured guests for the “A Conversation With” discussion at the 16th Annual American Black Film Festival (ABFF) on June 22 in South Beach, Florida. A festival highlight, the event showcases the individual stories and experiences of industry insiders.

Attendees of this year’s ABFF are in for a real treat because, to date, this husband and wife team’s screen credits read like an all-time favorite lineup of television series and movies. The pair, who formed their company Akil Productions in 2000, created the CW hit Girlfriends, which aired for eight years. That show’s spinoff The Game aired for three seasons on CW before moving to BET Networks, the channel the sitcom now calls home. And soon, Mara Brock will be debuting a new series on BET that she both created and wrote called Being Mary Jane, which stars Gabrielle Union and chronicles a news anchor searching for the missing pieces of her successful life.

The duo also have made equally impressive turns on the big screen. Salim directed the feature film Jumping The Broom, which starred Angela Bassett, Paula Patton and Laz Alonso. And the pair worked their magic on this summer’s highly anticipated musical Sparkle starring Whitney Houston, Jordin Sparks, Mike Epps and Cee Lo Green. Produced by Akil Productions, the film was written by Mara Brock and is directed by Salim.

Past ABFF “A Conversation With” guests have included Paula Patton, Idris Elba, Ice CubeLaurence Fishburne, Jeffery Wright and Cuba Gooding Jr.

For full details on this year’s festival visit: www.abff.com

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(Photo:  Christopher Polk/Getty Images for NAACP Image Awards)

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