Kareema Bee is a 2x Emmy-nominated producer and content creator from New York City. She is a graduate of SUNY Albany (Phi Beta Kappa) and Syracuse University's Newhouse School where she received a Master’s in TV, Radio, & Film.
Her professional background as a producer spans from major TV and film productions, to creative development, representation, digital media and social impact events.
As a writer, she has been a semi-finalist for the Sundance Features Screenwriting Lab, Fox TV Writers’ Lab, the inaugural Sesame Diversity Writers' Workshop, Orchard Episodic Lab, Disney ABC Writing Program, @Benthewritersroom and in 2023, The Roadmap Writers’ Coletta Preacely-Garcia Diversity Fellowship.
As an artist-in-residence, she has extended her poetic talents to the 20/20/20 Film Program led by Christine Vachon at Stonybrook University, the Cambridge Writers' Workshop in France, BetterArts Farm, and Renaissance House.
She is an alumnus of Dustin Felder's Acting Studio, and diversity scholar recipient to both the sketch and improv programs for the Upright Citizens' Brigade in NY & LA.
In 2019, she co-starred in “All-American”, a film created as part of the Asian American Film Alliance’s 72 Hour Shootout challenge, which placed in their list of 2019 Top 10 Films. Kareema also participated in the Weekend Women’s Film Challenge where she co-starred in her team’s short film, “Empty,” an official selection for the 2019 Urbanworld Film Festival among others. She later returned to the revival of the same film challenge in 2022 as a producer and team leader for the short film, Bon Voyage.
Kareema made her directorial debut with her digital pilot, A Rose By Any Other Name, which tells the story of a young professional who changes her name on her resume to a presumingly ‘whiter’ one in order to get her dream job at a PR firm. It was accepted into ten film festivals, including Reel Sisters of the Diaspora, Toronto International Women’s Festival, Females Voices Rock Film Festival and the Adirondack Film Festival.
From 2021-2023 Kareema lent her creative talents to digital series she created, directed, and produced as a Senior Producer for Parent Magazine’s Black-focused vertical, Kindred. One of the projects, We Live & We Learn won Best Family Series at the 2022 NYC Web Fest. A second project, Kickback with Kindred that she also hosted was picked up by PeopleTV and became its #3 show, a first-of-its-kind featuring all Black talent, and a third, Our Family Portrait was Emmy-nominated for Outstanding Human Interest - Long Form Content.
In 2023, Kareema made her first major on-screen debut in Season 2 of Netflix’s High on the Hog - Episode 2: The Black Mecca reciting I Too written by famed poet, Langston Hughes.
She was deemed a recipient of the Big We Foundation’s SheStories Grant with her project The Self-Love Act. It won Best NY Film at the 2024 Imagine This Women’s International Film Festival and Best Doc at Kwanzaa Film Festival.
In 2024, Kareema was also nominated for her second consecutive Regional Emmy for her work producing an episode of Travel + Leisure’s Locals (Santa Fe), in the Arts/Entertainment category - short form.
Through her company, MC Gran Productions, her work can be seen with brands such as Google, NAACP, Moonbug Entertainment, and more. Her company’s mission is to create inspirational content, and provide new possibilities for storytelling for underserved voices.
Through Kareema’s initiative The HiveMind Unified, Kareema also shares resources to advance the careers of professionals of color in the Entertainment industry with virtual workshops and her podcast, Coffee, Tea & Dranks.
LATEST NEWS and contributing pieces for People.com (scroll down when you get there) and Travel + Leisure.
