The Top 100 People of Color in Media: Part 4: 70-61
From creators to executives, from technicians to producers, the world of media and entertainment offers thousands of professions that cross and merge, giving the people that work in it the opportunity to fully discover how creative potential and business acumen often overlap. It is fascinating to study the careers of some of these people, thus understanding which opportunities they were able to seize and when did “the right moment” happen. This is why A Hot Set has compiled a list of “The Top 100 People of Color In Media”, a weekly series that for ten Mondays will explore a hundred of the most influential POCs in the entertainment industry. Below are numbers from 70 to 61, and you can find the previous article here. Stay tuned for next Monday’s list!
Christine Tsai - Gold House
70. Christine Tsai: Christine Tsai is Gold House's CEO and Founding Partner. She has spearheaded the firm's expansion of over $600M in committed capital, 2,400+ portfolio businesses, and a thriving network of founders spanning more than 77 countries since its launch in 2010. Talkdesk, Canva, Grab, Bukalapak, ApplyBoard, ipsy, Lucidchart, Intercom, Gitlab, Credit Karma (acquired by Intuit), Twilio (TWLO), TheRealReal (REAL), and SendGrid (SEND) are among the global portfolio firms.
Tsai has spent her professional career building and investing in Silicon Valley. From 2003 to 2010, Tsai held product marketing and operating roles at Google, including monetization and developer products such as Google AdSense, Google Analytics, YouTube APIs and syndication, and Google Developer Platform Tools. Outside her professional life, Tsai was a dancer and choreographer for Theatre Rice, her university’s (University of California – Berkely) first modern Asian American theater group whose mission was to create opportunities for students to participate as actors, writers, directors, vocalists, comedians, and dancers, and increase Asian American representation in the theatrical arts.
Taylor K. Shaw - BWA studios
69. Taylor K. Shaw: Taylor K. Shaw founded BWA Studios, the first animation studio run entirely by Black women and animators of color. Taylor has dedicated herself as a creative producer and writer to establishing a more inclusive media landscape and freeing narratives for Black women and other disadvantaged communities. That work is furthered by her job as Inspire Justice's Partner & Transformational Coach. Forbes named her a 30 Under 30 Hollywood & Entertainment honoree and the Shadow & Act Rising Executive Award winner in 2021. Her accomplishments at BWA Studios include a first-look agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery through their 150 Program, as well as the creation of digital and television series animation for Hulu, A&E, HBO, and others.
Shaw is also a Tory Burch Foundation & Soho House Fellow featured in Deadline Hollywood, Emmy Magazine, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and the LA Times for her work empowering marginalized voices in entertainment. BWA Studios prides itself in being committed to transforming representation in animation by serving as a platform for authentic storytelling and providing space for our base to create their narratives and control their stories. With a background in original IP development, BWA Studios provides innovative, efficient solutions through its design, animation, and advisory services for commercial and long-form entertainment.
Scott Yara
68. Scott Yara: Scott Yara is the co-founder and Chairman of WEVR, a virtual reality studio. WEVR is a virtual reality community and VR media player for both amateur and professional creators. WEVR engages with professionals in the immersive, creative, and technical sectors to provide VR creators with high-performance VR playback software. WEVR has been creating virtual experiences for over a decade to encourage other interactive producers around the world to collaborate on building the next-generation internet. Yara is also the co-founder of the technology company Nomic, the Managing Director of the venture capital firm Sutter Hill Ventures, and a team member of the software development company Astronomer, in addition to WEVR. Through his collaboration with other WEVR members, the studio has attracted investors like HTC, Orange Ventures, Samsung Ventures, and many more. WEVR's team consists of developers, artists, award winners, entrepreneurs, and producers who have been at the vanguard of virtual world creation and the VR business.
Kevin Lin & David Barthwell
67. Kevin Lin & David Barthwell (Co-Founders): Kevin Lin is a co-founder of Twitch, the world's largest live social video platform for gamers and creators. Kevin's reputation as one of the most successful Asian American innovators in technology history was confirmed in 2014 when he sold Twitch to Amazon for more than $1 billion. Lin, the company's long-time COO, delivered live social videos to hundreds of millions of people worldwide, enabling thousands of producers to make a living by developing communities around live, shared events. Lin has contributed to the reinvention of gaming, traditional sports, entertainment, and other interactive technologies as one of the most respected and adored entrepreneurs and executives in digital media. He is also a generous supporter of his hometowns of New Orleans and Taipei, as well as Asian American entrepreneurs and creatives. Lin is the CEO and co-founder of Metatheory Inc., an interactive technology and entertainment firm that creates Web3 games, interactive content, social experiences, and other community-driven adventures.
David Barthwell serves as the CDO of Metatheory Inc. Before joining Metatheory, Barthwell was a graphic designer and web developer running his own firm for 20 years. Together with his friend and business partner Kevin Lin, Barthwell helped co-founded Metatheory and now works with interactive technology and entertainment companies to build games and content experiences. As a part of the team at Metatheory, Barthwell contributed to other ventures like Wakandacon, 96Next, On Point Creative, and The Harbinger.
Ashwin Gobindram & Lucky Lance Gobindram
66. Ashwin Gobindram & Lucky Lance Gobindram (Co-Founders): Ashwin Gobindram is the Chief Design Officer and Director of Operations at CemtrexLabs. In addition to being a founding member of CemtrexLabs, Gobindram also founded the IT services company OAB Studios in 2009 and served as CEO before it merged with Cemtrex Labs. OAB Studios specializes in web development, mobile applications, games, and enterprise solution systems. Lucky Lance Gobindram is the Executive VP of Sales and Marketing and the general manager of CemtrexLabs and CemtrexXR. Prior to becoming a general manager, Lucky co-founded OAB Studios with Ashwin Gobindram where he served as the studios’ director.
Cemtrex has been a major technology partner for the world's most prominent brands since 2004, providing them with cutting-edge technology that drives their businesses and products. Our roots are in electronics production, where we worked with world-class firms such as Daimler-Benz, Harmon Kardon, and Corning Glass. In recent years, they've switched their focus to emerging technologies such as AI-based analytics, virtual reality, and smart video management systems to assist enterprises and organizations around the world in discovering new value through technology. Cemtrex, headquartered in New York, has built a reputation for delivering results for high-profile brands such as HBO and Richemont, as well as smaller enterprises and startups such as +Subscribe and onXRP. The company has an award-winning multi-disciplinary team of architects, artists, designers, engineers, and strategists who collaborate with clients to actualize their goals and create new products.
Darshan Shankar
65. Darshan Shankar: A Berkley Engineering and Computer Science dropout, Darshan Shankar started his journey into tech startups at Y Combinator in 2011 after founding his first company, Flotype, in 2010. In 2014 he founded Bigscreen VR, which is now one of the biggest virtual reality software in the industry: its users can physically experience virtual space with VR headsets, which let them participate in work meetings, chat with friends around a virtual campfire, or even watch a movie. Bigscreen has raised $14 million from True Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, the latter having already funded Flotype a few years earlier.
Through the years, Bigscreen has partnered with multiple film studios to distribute their movies in 3D in virtual reality spaces, thus creating a new, totally immersive experience for movie-goers. Among its partners are Sony’s Funimation and Paramount Pictures, with which they made a deal in 2019 and already showed some of the biggest blockbusters, such as Interstellar (2014), Top Gun (1986), and Star Trek (2009). Bob Buchi, President of Paramount Picture’s Worldwide Home Entertainment, stated that Paramoun is “excited to be a part of this experiment using cutting-edge technology” as “Bigscreen’s virtual reality platform offers a new way for fans to experience films in their homes.”
Chris Lee, Wenda Wong, and Fritz Friedman
64. Chris Lee, Fritz Friedman, and Wenda Fong (Co-Founders): Chris Lee is a film producer who served as the president of Columbia/TriStar in the 1990s. During his time there, he was in charge of films including Jerry Maguire, As Good As It Gets, and Philadelphia. Lee was not only the first Asian American to oversee production at a major Hollywood studio, but he was also an active member of the industry's then-isolated AAPI community of executives and creatives. After leaving Columbia, Lee received the East West Players Visionary Award in 1999 for his contributions to the Asian-Pacific American community. Lee returned to his native state of Hawaii in 2002 and continued his aim of creating AAPI storytellers by establishing the Academy for Creative Media at the University of Hawaii, which he still oversees.
A retired publicist and Sony Pictures executive, industry veteran Fritz Friedman now serves as president of The Fritz Friedman Company, a Los Angeles and San Diego-based production and strategic marketing communications company. Among his past and current clients are Dean Devlin/Electric Entertainment; Invoke, a Boston-based market research technology firm; data company Parrot Analytics; and Sony Pictures Entertainment, where he worked with the worldwide chief diversity officer in diversity and inclusion and targeted marketing. In July 2021, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria appointed Friedman to the San Diego Arts and Culture Commission. Through his appointment, Friedman has helped Mayor Gloria fulfill his commitment “to celebrate, support, and champion the arts and the various, diverse creative communities which call San Diego home.”
Wenda Fong is an award-winning producer and director who has worked on award shows, reality specials, sitcoms, talk shows, documentaries, public service announcements, and live events. Fong has the distinction of being both the first person of color and the first woman to produce the Emmy Awards. Fong began her forty-year television career as the producer and host of her live talk show series in Los Angeles. She has since launched productions in the United States and around the world. Fong was a co-founder of Asian Americans for Fair Media and a member of the Association of Asian Pacific American Artists' board of directors. She has been a member of the Directors Guild of America since 1980 and is the founder and chairperson of the DGA Asian American Committee. Fong continues to be a member of both the Producers Guild of America and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences member.
In 1991, Lee, Friedman, and Fong formed the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE). The mission of the organization is to promote Asian American and Pacific Islander creators and executives in Hollywood by nurturing and engaging creative talent and executive leadership, providing cultural content consulting and talent referrals, and championing projects for critical box office and streaming success.
Carlos Jimenez
63. Carlos Jimenez: Carlos Jimenez is a Managing Director for Moelis & Company, a global investment bank that provides financial advisory. A giant of the banking industry, Moelis has advised in several transactions in the entertainment space, such as Plan B Entertainment’s sale of a significant stake to Mediawan that closed in January 2023, or the sale of a minority stake in Legendary Entertainment to Apollo for $760 million in 2022. Another major investment advised by Moelis was the acquisition of MSG Networks by Madison Square Garden Entertainment in 2021 for $3.3 billion.
With more than fourteen years of experience working in investment banking, Jimenez specializes in digital media and entertainment, covering all the industry’s areas, from film to music, to sport. Before going to Moelis, he was an Associate at Lehman Brothers in the Leveraged Finance Group. In April 2022, Jimenez was a guest on Variety’s podcast “Strictly Business”, where he shared his thoughts on the future of the industry as it “realigns for the streaming era”. He comments on the content spending boom as production companies strive to make hit TV shows, which in turn creates many “ancillary” jobs - even as far as in the real estate industry (to build new studio lots). On the other hand, other investors see how marketing is essential for the success of any movie or TV show, and therefore invest smaller amounts into more easily marketable projects with great potential for success that could then be sold for a much higher price.
Mona Scott-Young
62. Mona Scott-Young: Mona Scott-Young is an American television producer and entrepreneur. She is the CEO of Monami Productions, a multi-media entertainment company known for producing the VH1 reality show Love & Hip Hop. She has also garnered recognition from the National Association of Black Female Executives in Music Entertainment, was selected "Marketer of the Year" by Ad Age and was honored by the National Congress and Convention of Haitian Americans. Scott-Young was also awarded the Entertainment Pioneer Award by the Women's Entrepreneurship Day Organization at the United Nations in 2022, recognizing her as a trailblazer and inventor. The UN award recognizes female entrepreneurs and their global impact.
Monami Productions, led by Mona Scott-Young, has a varied roster of scripted and unscripted productions, encompassing a wide range of tales and experiences that appeal to a global audience. Monami Productions is a part of Scott-Young's lifestyle and entertainment company Monami Entertainment, which focuses on talent management and brand creation. Scott-Young has created incredible material through Monami Productions, as well as collaborations with corporations such as Amazon Studios, Hulu, HBO Max, BET, and others.
Yumi Yang
61. Yumi Yang: After more than twenty years working for Sony, in 2020 Yumi Yang was appointed as Santa Monica Studio’s head. Founded in 1999 as a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment, the video game-developing company grew over the years and now employs more than 400 people around the globe. It is mainly known for its God of War series, an action franchise based on ancient mythologies that first launched in 2005 and later released numerous installments, the latest of which is God of War Ragnarök in 2022. Yang was credited as an “Associate Producer” on the first God of War and has then continued working on all the series’ issues.
Yang’s career started at Santa Monica Studio in 2001. She progressively climbed the corporate ladder, becoming Senior Producer, Technical Project Manager, Director of Development, and finally Studio Head. Her experience and deep knowledge and understanding of the brand is what made her the perfect successor to Shannon Studstill, who had been the head of the studio for ten years.