Meet Our Team
Jackelyn Viera Iloff, President and Co-Founder
As an executive producer of Starlighter Films and Entertainment, she brings a vast array of business experience and knowledge to filmmaking and production. Her skills include strategic planning, marketing, public relations, social media, financing, and production. She has worked as a producer and consultant on numerous projects. Her involvement in the entertainment industry includes the award nominated History Channel’s, Jesus: His Life, the films IAmAllGirls, Walking with Herb, Houston Ben-Hur Film Premiere, Channel 55/Wild About Houston. She has been an executive advisor for the 18th Annual NFL Sanctioned Houston Super Bowl Gospel Celebration, and the Houston Recovers with Clay Walker and Friends Benefit Concert.
Jackelyn is also the author of “What if You Could? Find Faith in the Face of Fear” and a Senior Advisor and ordained minister at Joel Osteen Ministries/Lakewood Church where she leads Lakewood MovieNight - a faith films ministry outreach. She regularly writes for ChurchGrowth magazine and offers expert opinion on talk radio and television.
Previously, Jackelyn established and managed Southstar Communications, a consulting company engaged in public relations, product/service branding, promotional marketing, crisis communications, new business development, public affairs, and international trade.
Jackelyn has served at the highest levels of government working on economic development, transportation safety, women and minority outreach, and international policy initiatives. She was a Presidential Administration appointee under Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole Office of Special Projects and worked under Virginia Governor Allen developing economic initiatives and trade missions. She was Mid-Atlantic Public Relations Director for KPMG, one of the world’s largest professional services firms and key liaison to The Accountants Coalition enacting landmark tort reform legislation.
Simon Swart, Co-Founder
CEO of Nthibah Pictures, formally EVP and General Manager, with Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Simon managed the development and release of hundreds of programs - generating over $3bn in annual sales with over 200 new releases a year. He managed the distribution and marketing for Twentieth Century Fox Film & Television in addition to MGM, Relativity, and DreamWorks Animation. Including the management of many major franchises such as Avatar, Titanic, Star Wars, Ice Age, Alvin and the Chipmunks, James Bond, Die Hard, Aliens, the X-Men.
In addition to launching worldwide franchises he recognized an opportunity and created a service organization offering distribution services to smaller studios, this third party distribution model started with Lionsgate and grew to include MGM, Relativity, DreamWorks, and Miramax, generating almost $4bn in fees over 15 years. Additionally, he recognized an undeserved market launching FoxFaith in 2002 ( the first ever big studio division dedicated to servicing the faith based audience) which generated more than $700m in revenue. He selected and secured rights to multiple successful properties such as Passion of the Christ, Strawberry Shortcake, Love Comes Softly, Ultimate Gift, and The Bible.
He has championed and created new markets within the realms of entertainment and digital media delivery channel during his tenure at Fox, Disney and Warner Brothers in a career spanning more than two decades. He is currently Producing /Executive Producing several movies including 6 Below, I Can Only Imagine, iamAllGirls, Alone, The Amy Purdy Story, The Kings Daughter and Tour Dates. I Can Only Imagine exploded into the Box Office on March 16, 2018 becoming the most profitable movie of the year in US - doing more than $83MM of Domestic Box Office on a $7.7m budget.
