Who We Are

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS

Gina Grant Creator, Founder and Executive Producer

Gina Grant is a wife, mother of four and the CEO of Women That Soar (WTS), a Dallas-based media and content development company. WTS produces inspiring and empowering content, hosts live events, and provides community outreach via their four-tier platform.

Mrs. Grant is a dynamic woman who empowers other women by sharing her story, and the stories of women who have successfully overcome trials and tribulations to turn their testimonies into ones of triumph! Mrs. Grant’s calling is to weave together these unique narratives and create a powerful medium for women to bond, engage and inspire one another.

Grant’s desire and drive to empower and inspire women derives from her own journey. Once a teenage mother, the road traveled was not easy. She became a mother of her first child at the age of 17, and by the time she was 19, a mother of three; one daughter and twin boy and girl.

Told by her parents welfare was not an option, she enrolled in college. After two and a half years of schooling, she dropped out and took a job as a secretary at Equitable Real Estate and Compass Management and Leasing. Within two years she worked her way up from Assistant Marketing Director to Director of Marketing.

In 1993, Mrs. Grant was bitten by the entrepreneur bug. She left her corporate position to start her own public relations firm, The Grant Agency. Her mission was to provide clients with top-notch service. Her motto, “there were only two things she couldn’t do. She couldn’t get anyone into heaven, and she couldn’t get anyone out of hell. Everything else is possible.”

She ran the agency for 11 years, representing athletes and entertainers. In 2006, she outsourced her clients and followed her heart to launch WTS. In 2007, she held the first awards show honoring women.

In 2012, she produced and televised the “Women That Soar,” Awards, becoming the first to produce and televise a live awards show in Dallas. The show was syndicated in 75 markets nationwide for over 11 years. Mrs. Grant currently serves as the Executive Producer of the televised WTS Awards Show.

Mrs. Grant is also the Executive Producer of the reality based, Overcomers docuseries. Overcomers is an IMPACT NETWORK original series. The eight episode series airs on IMPACT NETWORK Fall 2024. In addition, she has launched, WTS real-estate development. She is building communities and affordable housing, while impacting the lives of single mother’s and closing the wealth gap via home ownership.

Reuben Cannon, (Producer)

Reuben Cannon is a visionary producer who has helped to shape and guide some of the most groundbreaking and critically-acclaimed film and television projects in Hollywood for the past three-decades.

From his humble beginnings in the Universal Studios mailroom (a.k.a. the executive training program), Cannon, a Chicago native, was promoted after one year to Universal Television’s casting department as a trainee. While working in that position, he set a personal goal to become the first African-American casting director at Universal Studios within a year. He achieved that goal.

It was his unwavering diligence that later paved the way for Cannon to reach yetanother professional milestone. He was recruited and hired to head up Warner Brothers’ television casting department from 1978 to 1980. In so doing, Cannon, again, became the first African-American to hold this position. Cannon’s keen eye for talent also earned him the well-deserved reputation for being an innovative and trend-setting force in the industry. Throughout his career, Reuben Cannon has provided opportunities to numerous aspiring actors — including Bruce Willis, (Moonlighting) Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover and Whoopi Goldberg (The Color Purple), Sophia Vergara (Meet the Browns), Michael J. Fox (Palmer’s Town) — to name a few.

After Universal and Warner Brothers’ Studios, Cannon launched his company, “Reuben Cannon and Associates”, which grew to become the largest casting agency in the country. Cannon has been responsible for casting over a hundred television series, made-for-TV movies and films. Film projects included “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, “Desperado”, “Geronimo and “The Color Purple.” The Color Purple went on to earn 11 Oscar nominations and showcased the talents of artists who would become some of our industry’s most distinguished stars.

Other projects include award-winning classic television series such as “Columbo,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “The A Team”, “The Rockford Files”, “Winds of War” and “Boondocks”. Cannon’s later credits also include the Emmy-Award winning comedy series “The Bernie Mac Show,” and “My Wife and Kids”.

Cannon’s reputation in casting provided a gateway to producing opportunitiesand he expanded his brand to Reuben Cannon Productions. Under his new banner, he produced both motion pictures and television programs. One of his early projects was the critically acclaimed television special “The Women of Brewster Place”. Cannon not only cast the special, but also produced it in collaboration with Oprah Winfrey who starred in the tele-film. “Brewster Place” marked Cannon and Winfrey’s second project together. The two have remained business allies and close personal friends throughout the years.

Cannon continued his partnership as a producer with some of the nation’s most influential luminaries in their respective industries: “Down In The Delta” directed by Dr. Maya Angelou, “Get On The Bus,” directed by Spike Lee, “Love Don’t Cost A Thing” starring Nick Cannon, and the box office sleeper-hit “Woman Thou Art Loosed,” based on the bestselling book by Bishop T.D. Jakes.

In the summer of 2004, Cannon began collaborating with a brilliant young playwright and actor turned director, Tyler Perry. Reuben Cannon Productions (RCP) formed a production alliance with Tyler Perry Studios (TPS) that would prove to be a powerful creative collaboration — garnering both record-breaking box office grosses and television ratings. The feature films — “Diary of a Mad Black Woman,” “Madea’s Family Reunion” and “Why Did I Get Married,” opened #1 at North American box offices. “Daddy’s Little Girls,” “Meet The Browns”, “The Family That Preys,” “Madea Goes To Jail,”, “I Can Do Bad All By Myself” and “Why Did I Get Married Too” and “Madea’s Big Happy Family” – all broke box office records.

Reuben Cannon served as Executive Producer for the comedy series Tyler Perry’s “House of Payne,” which debuted in 2008 on TBS and continues to be the highest rated comedy series in cable television history. “House of Payne” remains a popular television series in African-American households.

Reuben Cannon Entertainment is currently active with a slate of upcoming films and television projects, including concepts for new media. Reuben is the producing partner with Gina Grant and is Executive Producer of the star-studded, “Women That Soar,” Awards, and Overcomers docuseries.

Reuben Cannon is still a rare combination of an outsider who beat all odds, and who continues to be very active and relevant in all aspects of the business. He remains highly respected and admired among his peers and colleagues in the entertainment.

Vicky Free Sistrunk, CMO/Executive Producer

Vicky Free is an award-winning, twenty-year successful marketing executive with a proven history of brand strategy, digital media, integrated marketing, branded content,  consumer insights, and business analytics across various industries,  including media, entertainment, quick service restaurants, consumer products, and professional sports, with B2C and B2B experience.  For more than 25 years, Vicky has helmed teams responsible for developing purposeful, innovative, and impactful brand and business-centered marketing strategies for blue chip global brands,  including McDonald’s,  Time Warner Media, VIACOM/BET Networks, The Walt Disney Company, Adidas, and the NGL” Tampa Bay Buccaneers.