ok…
I think I actually solved it. When importing a .wav file from my original project into a new project I was prompted with an import failure and an error message which stated that unreal was unable to import 24bit audio files.
I re-output all my audio files to .wav files with 16bit audio channels. That didn’t work. Then I remembered my h264 .mp4 files that were being referenced had audio attached. Audio that wasn’t being used. I re-output my video files so that they had no audio channel at all and bam that worked for me.
I believe that the solution is both making sure that your video files have no audio channels and also making sure your .wav files are 16bit and not 24bit.
My windows 5.1 unreal project has been zipped, sent to mac, opened and all video widgets using electra media player are working as intended.
I really hope that works for everyone on this thread as well.
Good luck!!