Ashley Zahorian Selg, MFA

Bio

Ashley Zahorian Selg, MFA, is an award-winning producer and director passionate about creating media that explores the expanses of the human experience and human dignity. Films and shows on which she was a producer or director have won twenty-five awards. She released the award-winning film The Preacher to the Popes: Raniero Cantalamessa, the first feature-length documentary on the preacher to the papal household at the end of 2021. Her recent long-term broadcast project, FantomWorks, was the top-rated show on Discovery’s Velocity Channel with over 8 million viewers. She was the Unit Publicist for Eleanor’s Bench for Sony/Affirm, which was the top-watched show in its first month of release on PureFlix. She launched CMAX Media Corp. and became CEO in 2018. The company is a Christ-friendly media and distribution company, including the OTT streaming platform CMAX.TV.

Ashley hails from Norfolk, VA. She earned a B.A. in Music and a B.S. in Media Studies Production Technology from Radford University in Radford, VA, and an MFA in Cinema-Television from Regent University in Virginia Beach, VA. She enjoys traveling, the great outdoors, always learning, and generally enjoying life with her husband while they raise and homeschool their four children.

Research Interests

• Producing and directing both scripted and unscripted formats
• Media influence on faith
• Coming-of-age films featuring a lead grappling with making faith his or her own in the modern era

Publications

• The Preacher to the Popes: Raniero Cantalamessa (Feature documentary film, Producer and Director)
• FantomWorks (Discovery network show, and independently produced show through CMAX Media – Showrunner of Off-Grid; Director and Story Producer on 37 episodes of the Discovery network show)
• Currently in pre-production for a short film, Trigger, as the Director.

Memberships

• Omicron Delta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, National Society of Collegiate Scholars, and Radford University Honors Academy
• International Christian Visual Media Member

Affiliations

• Sacred Heart Catholic Church
• King’s Players Community Theatre
• CMAX Media Corp.
• Awakening the Domestic Church

Awards

• Academic – Beazley Recipient, Regent University; Celia Whitt Recipient, Radford University; Outstanding Sophomore of the Year Award, Radford University.
• 11 festival awards to date for The Preacher to the Popes: Raniero Cantalamessa (Producer/Director)
• 6 Telly Awards for FantomWorks (Director/Story Producer)
• 4 Awards for The Best Gift (Director)