The Top 100 People Of Color In Media: Part 5: 60-51
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 60 to 51, and you can find the previous article here. Stay tuned for next Monday’s list!
James dubose - Unique Nicole
60. James DuBose: James DuBose is the General Manager and Head of Programming at FOX Soul, a digital television network operated by FOX Television that offers programming targeted to African American audiences on a large variety of platforms. The streaming channel offers both original and syndicated, such as the talk show The Sharpton Sisters, and The Pulse With Bill Anderson, a podcast and TV program that deals with news, entertainment, and local issues. Even though the channel explicitly targets African Americans, its programs have a larger scope and aim at including a vaster audience - also with an educational goal in mind. FOX Soul’s mission is to “continue to build a network that entertains, educates and inspires the culture through relatable stories where everyone’s voice is heard in real time”. In fact, another focus point of the channel is to have a constant dialogue and interaction with its audience, as it invites its viewers to comment and participate in the discussion of the issues raised.
DuBose is a renowned producer as well as TV executive, and is the CEO of his own production company, DuBose Entertainment, under which he produced hit projects of the caliber of BET Networks’ Kevin Hart’s One Mic Stand and E! Network’s WAGS Atlanta. FOX Soul launched in January 2020 and was led by DuBose from the very start, and three years later, in February 2023, it was recognized by the White House and POTUS Joe Biden as a trusted and game-changing network for the African American population.
cathy straight - cnn
59. Cathy Straight: After earning a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Southern Mississippi, Catherine (Cathy) Straight began her career in journalism holding an Editor role for many publishing houses. In 2010 she started working for CNN Wire as Senior Editor, and since then has always stayed with the news giant, progressively climbing the positions until earning her current role of Vice President of Features and Opinion, CNN Digital Worldwide. CNN Opinion is a division of the larger news platform, a space for active discussion about global events, news’ headlines, and political and social commentary.
In her role, Straight oversees CNN’s global digital platforms, and greenlights top national news daily. She also oversees a 24-hour team of journalists that provide news coverage around the clock, as well as the award-winning column “5 Things Newsletter”. In a recent interview to PressGazette that covered her promotion to her present executive position, Straight emphasized her mission, stating that her “day-to-day work will be focused on elevating and growing the coverage we call ‘content diversity.’ This is content that is rooted in the news of the day but takes us beyond that breaking news.”
Ellen russ - CNN
58. Ellen Russ: Ellen Russ is Senior Vice President of People & Culture, News, and Sports at CNN. She is responsible for global talent strategy execution across all platforms, including CNN/US, CNN International, CNN en Espaol, HLN, CNN Digital, Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, and Bleacher Report. Russ leverages her twenty-five years of HR experience in her collaboration with CEOs to execute strategic projects by leveraging the contributions of its people. She began her work with CNN in the Washington, DC office in 2006 before shifting to Atlanta, GA. During her 15 years of employment, she has worked in practically every business unit at CNN and various HR positions.
Prior to joining CNN, Russ worked for a boutique consulting firm in the Washington, DC metro area, where she collaborated with corporate leaders from non-profits and high-tech enterprises. She began her career in the financial services industry, achieving top positions as a retail banker before moving into human resources. She has been on the boards of several civic organizations and is currently on the Board of C2HR, an entertainment industry-specific HR organization that offers relevant insight, industry-specific statistics, and a dynamic venue for learning and networking with a focus on commercial impact.
Saagar enjeti - Breaking points
57. Saagar Enjeti: Saagar Enjeti is a prominent figure in political journalism. Among his most considerable achievements are multiple interviews with former President Trump, being the White House Correspondent for The Daily Caller, and co-hosting Rising with Krystal and Saagar at The Hill. He recently also grew as a YouTube personality by hosting two YouTube channels: The Realignment and Breaking Points.
Enjeti co-leads Breaking Points with Krystal Ball and offers anti-establishment, multi-week videos and podcasts that cover major global political news. The opposing political views of Enjeti, a right-wing populist, face Ball’s, a left-wing populist, sparking interesting and lively discussions which invite the viewers to participate in the debates and lets them analyze news with a transparency that bigger broadcasters often lack. Breaking Points was created in July 2021 and the associated YouTube channel has almost one million subscribers. The Realignment-associated YouTube channel, co-hosted by Marshall Kosloff, focuses on current events and trends on a larger scope, as well as offering a wide array of interviews with industry experts. The Realignment was created in July 2020 and currently has almost seventy thousand subscribers.
Andrew and David Fung - Nina Westervelt
56. David Fung & Andrew Fung: The YouTube channel Fung Bros. was launched in 2011 by the two brothers David and Andrew Fung, and in twelve years it has accumulated more than two million subscribers. The channel covers a wide range of topics: pop culture, mainstream news, food, and issues concerning people of Asian descent. In 2015, the Fung brothers starred in the food show Broke Bites: What the Fung? on A&E Networks, which was their TV debut. They have also done numerous interviews, released rap music, and filmed music videos, as well as acting in comedy festivals and online skits that got nationwide viewership.
Alongside their career in entertainment, in 2022 David and Andrew Fung joined the advisory board of Legendary Ventures, a New York-based venture capital firm. Always in the venture capital space, the brothers founded Fung Brothers Ventures, which is focused on accelerating young consumer media companies.
Kenhee Park - Linkedin
55. KunHee Park: KunHee Park is the CEO and founder of KOCOWA (KOrean COntent WAve), an OTT streaming centered around taking Korean entertainment to a larger audience. Based in LA and partnered with three of the most important Korean broadcast networks (Korean Broadcasting System, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, and Seoul Broadcasting System), KOCOWA offers a content library of Korean TV in the United States, all subtitled in multiple languages. It also has a Live Stream focused on the platform’s main areas of interest: Music, Reality, and Dramas.
Park comes from a background in engineering, having earned a bachelor's in industrial engineering from Inha University. After graduating, he worked for various companies as an engineer, including NDS Limited and CISCO. KOCOWA’s goal is to ride the wave of interest for Korean content to make it part of the cultural taste of the American audience. In fact, there is also a feature that lets subscribers comment and chat with each other in real-time, thus making the watching experience truly interactive.
Michael gaston - linkedin
54. Michael Gaston: Mike Gaston is the founder and CEO of the viral digital studio Cut. The studio has several series listed under its four brands: CUT, hiho, This Matters, and 100 Years of Beauty. Cut produces short-form videos that drive fandom and deep engagement - more than 10 million subscribers across YouTube, Facebook, and Snapchat. With more than 250 million views a month, Cut challenges and determines the zeitgeist for digital short-form video. Gaston is considered a creative and social provocateur known for “programming between the lines” among veterans in the industry. Gaston also serves as the President of Stage TEN Studios, a live video commerce platform for retailers and brands with clients like Target, Netflix, YouTube, and more.
Several years before Cut, Gaston started a nonprofit that attempted to create new communities through projects that were exercises in the digital humanities. These included an interactive curation along public transit routes, a multimedia project centered around the first Filipino American novel, and a series on the displacement of low-income residents in favor of developing mixed-income units at the first nonsegregated public housing in the U.S. In general. Unfortunately, after a year of making no money or real headway on his mission, Gaston returned to freelancing. In between freelancing and founding Cut, Gaston worked with a digital marketing company in Seattle that used techniques of “predictive virality” and SEO to drive lead generation for a portfolio of websites.
Philip wang, ted fu, wesley chan - Wong Fu Productions/facebook
53. Wesley Chan, Ted Fu, and Philip Wang (Co-Founders): Wong Fu Productions is a content creation company founded by Wesley Chan, Ted Fu, and Philip Wang. Chan and Fu grew up in the same area but didn't socialize much until they went to the same college years later. Chan met Phil and Ted in a visual arts seminar at the University of California, San Diego in 2004. The three bonded quickly and began collaborating on short films and projects. They relocated to Los Angeles after graduating together in 2006 and continued to work together, eventually forming Wong Fu Productions.
Wong Fu Productions is an independent digital production studio with over three million subscribers and over 600 million views on YouTube for its dramatic shorts and comic routines. CNN, NPR, and the White House have praised the creative effort for its excellence, emotional depth, and accurate portrayal of Asian Americans. The Wong Fu Productions team is a lean collection of passionate and dedicated individuals who continue to expand on and outside their channel. They are considered pioneers and leaders in the field. Wong Fu Productions' projects include the Netflix feature Everything Before Us, the original series Single by 30 for YouTube Premium, and other famous programs such as Yappie, Dating After College, Strangers Never Again, and SHELL.
jason y. lee - Melly Lee
52. Jason Y. Lee: Jason Y. Lee is the founder and CEO of Jubilee Media, a media company that creates videos, shows, and movies to develop a movement of human empathy. Prior to the company’s founding in 2010, Lee once worked as a consultant at Bain & Company after he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. All the while, he felt compelled to do something that was both more creative and meaningful to him. Lee has stated in many interviews how the images of loss and destruction he saw from the 2010 earthquake in Haiti made convinced him to spread awareness. With no video-making skills, Lee left his consultation career behind and partnered with his brother (Eddie Lee) and a close friend (Eric Lu) to start a non-profit called the Jubilee Project. Their crew shot a video of Lee busking at a New York subway stop to raise money for Haiti. That video notched tens of thousands of views and raised thousands of dollars, all of which were donated to help Haiti’s disaster relief efforts.
When the company grew and its founding partners left to pursue their artistic endeavors, Lee rebuilt it into the for-profit corporation known today as Jubilee Media. Jubilee Media has received over 30 million online views for various causes and featured in The Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Mashable, The Queen Latifah Show, and other publications. Lee saw the influence an Asian American leader could have. He established Jubilee to create a firm of diverse and creative individuals where people from underrepresented communities, such as himself, could prosper. To give back, Lee began advising and investing in other Asian-led start-ups, such as the sparkling water firm Sanzo, personalized clothing brand Sene, and the social media platform Fora.
Roland martin - Slaven Vlasic
51. Roland Martin: Roland Martin is the founder of Black Star Network, a digital streaming platform that combines in a single media space several films, news, and other media content by the most prominent Black media creators working in the industry. The content library is personally curated by Martin himself. He also produces the daily digital show #RolandMartinUnfiltered, which he had been hosting for three years before announcing the launch of the OTT platform in September 2021. Broadcasting from Washington, D.C., #RolandMartinUnfiltered covers topics ranging from politics to entertainment, from financial news to academia, and the first interview that aired on Black Star Network was with civil rights attorney Fred Gray, who was the legal counsel behind Martin Luther King Jr.’s movement.
The black-owned network is entirely ad-supported, with some of the biggest companies being Procter & Gamble, General Motors, Coca-Cola, and Target. The strategic choice of leaving the platform completely free followed a specific wish of Martin, who said that “a lot of our people simply cannot afford to pay for a streaming service. We purposely chose to keep this free.”