Meet the team behind the quest to teach America a better way to eat

Pyet DeSpain

(Host, Executive Producer)

Pyet DeSpain is an award winning and global private chef. She is the first winner of Gordon Ramsay's new groundbreaking TV show, Next Level Chef, on Fox. In 2021, Pyet was named Top 25 best private chefs in Los Angeles by Entrepreneur Magazine. Her life's work is dedicated to Indigenous Fusion Cuisine, where she combines the food of her heritage - both Native American and Mexican. Pyet's passion is to uplift Indigenous culture and traditions via storytelling, traveling, and cooking.

Charlie Perry

(Executive Producer)

Charlie Perry is a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, a 2015 graduate of Haskell Indian Nations University (AA Media Communications) and 2017 graduate of the University of Kansas (BS Film and Media Studies, BS History).

He currently works as a producer on various non-fiction projects centered around Native Americans including Vision Maker Media funded episodic series Spirit Plate w/ Pyet DeSpain. Previously Charlie served as Director of Programming for Vision Maker Media where he oversaw the production agreements of 40 plus filmmakers. He managed production agreement deliverable processes and brokered funded film distribution between Vision Maker Media and public television entities. He also spearheaded station relations and film festival outreach campaigns for the organization.  

Charlie served as Editor-In-Chief of the Haskell Indian Leader newspaper in 2015. He led a staff of 7 to 23 Native American Journalist Association (NAJA) awards that year.The most ever won in a one year span by the university. During his time at Haskell, Charlie won over a dozen awards for his own video and written works through NAJA. Charlie is an accomplished documentary filmmaker and journalist  who has written and produced over 100 non-fiction stories in his career.

Charlie began his career as a national correspondent for NDNsports.com where he reported on Native American athletes as they competed in NCAA/NAIA football and basketball, NFL, MLB and the Olympics. Charlie has worked in multiple major media markets including New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, Louisville and Kansas City. Charlie’s dedication to Indigenous communities began with his grandmother Georgia Perry. In 1994, Charlie accompanied his grandmother, mother and aunt as they joined Dennis Banks and the American Indian Movement (AIM) on the Walk for Justice. He was 9 years old at the time. 

Charlie is an outspoken advocate for Native American social justice, environmental protection and tribal sovereignty. He joined Water Protectors from around the world on four separate occasions in Cannonball, North Dakota, documenting the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline. He has since worked for Native American media outlets including First Nations Experience (FNX), Indian Country Today (ICT) and Native News Online. 

Charlie’s mission is to increase the exposure of Indigenous communities through accurate representation in film and media. He believes education and cooperation sit at the core of advancing national discussion concerning Indigenous communities across North America. 

He currently lives in Los Angeles, California where he enjoys long walks on the beach, praying and taking pictures with his phone of life unfolding in front of him. 

Steven Hoggard

(Executive Producer)

Steve’s television and documentary work has spanned six continents and 60 nations.

SOME OF THE STORIES STEVE HAS COVERED INCLUDE:

  • The war in Afghanistan for National Geographic, where Steve and cameraman Ryan Hill were seriously wounded in an IED explosion and Taliban attack on a US Green Beret team in Uruzgan Province. Ultimately, the ambush took the lives of two American soldiers and wounded seven more.

  • The Srebrenica Massacre and war crimes investigation in Bosnia.

  • The efforts by one man to protect a so-called ‘lost tribe’ of the Amazon.

  • A piece on teen gang-bangers set on the streets of Compton. During filming a gang war broke out between those profiled. In the midst of it all, we meet an amazing Jesuit priest who’s spent a lifetime working to reach kids most at risk.

  • A profile of a post-Katrina New Orleans High School as kids struggle to reach their dreams.

  • The Inupiaq whale hunt in Barrow, Alaska is the setting for an unexpected collaboration between indigenous elders and marine scientists seeking to understand and preserve a way of life above the Arctic circle.

  • A film project profiling a year in the work life of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

  • An archeological quest to solve the riddle of an ancient table that, some claim, outlines the story of a messiah who would die and rise after three days. Nothing controversial here - but for the fact that the table predates Jesus of Nazarath by several decades.