Michelle Ray (MR) is a managing partner and producer at RR Film Production. Recently, Michelle served as the lead Executive Producer on the award-winning Netflix Original film "Trees of Peace (TOP)". Michelle was responsible for the TOP talent, including their strict meal plans so they could authentically lose 12 to 20 lbs safely in four weeks. Michelle managed the film from production through post-production and personally managed the complete delivery of the film to streaming giant, Netflix, where she was the point person dealing with nine different Netflix departments that included legal, licensing, residuals, marketing, post-production and more. Trees of Peace has won multiple prestigious festivals and has a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 100% and an audience score of 85%.
Netflix Original film "Trees of Peace (TOP)" was released in 191 countries and 32 languages on June 10, 2022. TOP won the Best Film Panavision Jury award and ADL - Santa Barbara Humanitarian award at the prestigious 2021 Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where the movie premiered for the first time. Since then, TOP also won Best Film & Best Director at the Phoenix Film Festival, won Best Film and Best Screenplay at the prestigious 2021 African International Film Festival in Nigeria, and won Best Ensemble Cast at the 2021 Rising Sun International Film Festival in Japan. TOP swept the 2021 American Black Film Festival awards and won the Best Film Jury award, John Singleton award for Best First Feature, and Best Director. At the 2021 Switzerland International Film Festival, TOP won the Best Drama Jury award. As the lead producers of this movie, RR and MR brought in Executive Producer Nicole Avant to the project.
Michelle has been focused on the media and entertainment industry for nearly two decades and has held various roles across business development, strategy and investments, and marketing for global media organizations; like Autodesk Media & Entertainment, a powerhouse in the AutoCAD and visual effects space; independent productions, and software startups. While managing her producing duties for Trees of Peace, Michelle was the New Business Director of Ziva Dynamics, a software company in the VFX and gaming space that Unity acquired in 2022. She was responsible for business development and maintaining relationships with various studios and Fortune 500 companies around the world. Some of her more prominent clients were Sony Pictures Imageworks, Scanline VFX, Tau Films, Pixomondo, DNEG, Image Engine, Method Studios, Luma Pictures, Digital Domain, Rising Sun Pictures, Epic Games, MPC and MR X, to name a few.
Prior to Ziva Dynamics, Michelle worked as an executive at PipelineFX for 12 years. Before PipelineFX, Michelle was an Account Executive for CBS affiliate, KGMB-9 Television in Honolulu, Hawaii. Michelle started her media career as a Media Planner in Boston, Massachusetts for NCC Media, an advertising sales, marketing, and technology company focused on cable television programming, new interactive technologies, and online products in every US market. Her responsibilities included selecting media time and space to disseminate the advertising message based on the marketing objective for America's leading regional and national advertisers, such as McDonald's, Toyota, Honda, Target, Toys R Us, and Walmart.
Michelle is also a Professional Fitness Athlete with the IFBB Organization (International Federation of Bodybuilding). Michelle won her IFBB Pro card by winning first place at the USA's in 2012. USA's is a national competition where over 950+ elite champions from all over the USA, who have won first place nationally, compete against each other, and the top two winners are awarded Pro status. In a very competitive and difficult fitness circuit, Michelle won first place in 3 out of 5 competitions she entered and turned Pro in five short months. She was considered a rising star in the sport and was signed to a lucrative endorsement contract by a cutting-edge company, Fuse Science. Michelle was included with international athlete celebrities Tiger Woods, Andy Murray, David Ortiz, Ken Griffey Jr., Tyson Chandler, Jose Bautista, Anthony Johnson, Paul Pierce, and a few others. Michelle was featured on a billboard in New York's Times Square and has made numerous television appearances across the USA as a fitness celebrity.
Michelle is currently taking a break from fitness competitions to focus on producing feature films in Hollywood. Michelle is also a licensed Nevada Realtor and has been vested in helping investors build out their real estate portfolios, as well as homebuyers and sellers, since 2012.
In her personal life, she is married to Ron Ray. She enjoys healthy cooking, anything fitness, sports, and giving back to the community.