Our Team
*
Our Team *
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Uzef turned a turbulent childhood on the rough streets of Coney Island into a creative career steeped in character-driven storytelling.
A fully self-taught filmmaker, his debut short Stone (2018) saw him writing, directing, and starring—an early testament to his instinctive style and willingness to do whatever it takes to bring a story to life.
His follow-up, Waiting Room (2019), pushed further into the surreal and intimate, blending underground psychedelia with grounded emotional beats.
In Gem Mint (2021), Uzef wrote, directed, and edited a gritty dramedy set in the underground world of rare collectibles, following a baseball card hustler as he navigates shady deals, personal ambition, a crumbling family, and the hypnotic pull of nostalgia.
Award-winning and untrained by design, Uzef is known for filming in stormy climates and without permits, editing on instinct, pushing every creative boundary and forging films from sheer force of will.
With Violet Oak Films, he’s building the creative infrastructure he always wished existed—for misfits, magic makers, and Southern storytellers who don’t fit the mold.
Uzef Gavrilova | Co‑Founder
Writer • Director
Lisa Fernandez | Co‑Founder
Writer • Actor
Lisa’s roots run from the stages of Off-Broadway to the moss-draped backroads of Louisiana. A classically trained actor with a sharp pen and scrappy spirit, she’s worked with some of the most respected acting coaches in the industry and starred in dozens of independent films that lean strange, soulful, and subversive.
Before co-founding Violet Oak Films, Lisa trained at HB Studio in New York City and appeared in both stage and screen work that earned praise for her depth, presence, and vulnerability. Her range spans sharp satire to haunting drama—and her commitment to character shines through in every scene she touches.
But Lisa’s artistry didn’t stop at performance. With a background in copywriting and campaign strategy, she brings equal parts creative vision and organizational firepower to Violet Oak. She writes screenplays that blend the poetic and profane, the sacred and the Southern-gothic, and she produces with the tenacity of someone who knows what it takes to build something from the ground up.
Lisa believes the most powerful stories aren’t polished—they’re pulsing. They emerge from gas station parking lots, backyard churches, motel pools, and late-night conversations you barely remember but never forget. Violet Oak Films was born to honor that spirit.