Renne Leatto, President of i. karumbah, wrote her first “book” at age 4 and promptly announced that she would become a writer when she grew up. Being a bossy child, she also wished she could get paid for telling people what to do. In 1982, her blend of talents found the ideal outlet when Renne wrote and directed her first film for an international educational film distributor.
Since then, she’s written more than 300 programs which have been produced and aired on national television, or used by Fortune 500 companies, schools, and consumers worldwide. As Director of Creative Development for Sandler Films, Inc., Renne worked with national educational and training program distributors to conceptualize and develop packages of investment– amortized films. She hired writers to help complete the scripts, as many as 30 per year, and edited the scripts before production.
In addition to writing, Renne also produced or directed many of her scripts and screenplays, including the pilot episode for the Emmy–winning Discovery Channel series, Shamu TV. After her pilot secured a series deal for Busch Entertainment, Renne went on to serve as Head Writer on the show for three years. She has also written for three other series seen on HGTV and national network syndication affiliates.
Check out Renne’s national television credits on the Internet Movie Database.
Renne’s corporate video credits include infomercials, major product promotions, convention display videos, management and employee training videos, and print collateral for clients such as Disney Multimedia, Disney Vacation Club, The National Safety Council, Darden Restaurants, Kemper National Insurance Companies, Lockheed Martin, and Caterpillar Industrial. She’s written for government clients near and far, from the City of Kissimmee, Florida, to the People’s Republic of China Ministry of Culture.
Renne has worked as a reader for feature film producers and taught workshops on screenwriting and story structure. She’s written screenwriting articles for iUniverse Writer’s Club online, and the well–respected international screenwriting magazine, SCREENTALK. (Read her articles.) Renne's accomplishments have been recognized by listings in several issues of Marquis Who’s Who In America, Who’s Who In American Women, and Who’s Who In Entertainment.
Renne writes, directs, and produces video and TV for i. karumbah. She also writes copy and documents of all kinds, and contributes creative and production assistance to graphic design and web projects.
Read Renne's blog, Creative Matters.
Lee Sommie, Vice President of i. karumbah, reminds people of someone they used to know. Remember that kid in grade school, the one who always ran the film projector? And then in middle school, he became the “media kid,” who figured out all the video and computer equipment before anyone else — even the teacher? That was Lee! So it’s no wonder that, at age 19 while still in college, Lee landed a plum job as assistant film editor with Sandler Films, a busy west coast film and video production company. By age 20, he’d become a film editor, cutting educational and documentary films for international distribution. By age 21, he had risen to Post Production Supervisor, managing three film editors, two assistant editors, and coordinating the workflow for up to thirty films a year. From there, he made an easy leap to film producer, helping the company negotiate sponsorship contracts and corporate product placement deals. Later, Lee produced video and television for clients such as AIMS Multimedia, Busch Entertainment Corporation, and Discovery Cove.
Check out Lee’s national television credits on the Internet Movie Database.
During the digital media explosion, Lee found himself in demand as a multimedia consultant for some of the world’s largest corporations. His growing technical expertise contributed to the research and development of such cutting edge projects as Time Warner Cable’s Full Service Network. As an interactive television and web producer, Lee became part of the world’s first large-scale interactive television experiment, which offered a wide range of on-demand services to consumers in a test community…years before the rest of the world had ever heard the term “broadband.”
For i. karumbah, Lee produces and designs web, print, interactive, and video/TV projects. He also co-writes video and television with Renne. Lee’s uncommon mix of visual creativity, an uncanny grasp of new technologies, and business communication savvy makes him an invaluable consultant to businesses, large and small. He knows what a project needs — and doesn’t need — for efficient productivity. He also knows how to get it as inexpensively as possible. He can work alone or organize and manage a team of workers. If a project needs a specialized set of skills not readily available, Lee will locate and contract an expert, then manage the work to guarantee the quality of the final product.
