Miguel Ortiz is an Afro-Nuyorican film enthusiast who uses storytelling as a tool to center the real and raw stories of his community and highlight the disregarded stories of his kind: the broken, lost, and unapologetic. His passion for storytelling first flourished from his fascination for films, growing up around films that strongly inspired his work, such as Training Day and Raising Victor Vargas. Through both Miguel’s professional experience and freelancing, he has created passion projects that center the experiences of his people, like These Steps I Fucking Climb (2019), a short film about forgiveness through the subconscious of a young man tackling substance use, to American Dreams (2021), a documentary about the struggles of immigrant students transitioning to adulthood in America. After graduating from City College of New York with his bachelor's degree in Fine Arts, he further used his creative skill sets to amplify young content creators like himself through his bold social media platform, TheTelly. As the founder of TheTelly, Miguel has been able to create a platform that recognizes and embraces narratives of the disregarded, including his most memorable: Bodega Knights, following the struggles of two anti-heroes in their journey to surviving in Brooklyn, which later became an HBO NYLFF selection series in 2020. As a creative storyteller, Miguel uses his skill sets in content creation and filmmaking to elevate the disregarded stories of his kind through a new and better light.