Bio

BIO of Tanya Kersey

Hol­ly­wood Career Strate­gist Tanya Kersey is best known as the Founder and Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Hol­ly­wood Black Film Fes­ti­val, an annual 6-day cel­e­bra­tion of black cin­ema draw­ing together estab­lished film­mak­ers, pop­u­lar film and TV stars, writ­ers, direc­tors, indus­try exec­u­tives, emerg­ing artists and new audi­ences from South­ern Cal­i­for­nia and around the world; and as the Founder, Pub­lisher and Editor-in-Chief of the enter­tain­ment trade pub­li­ca­tion, BlackTalentNews.com, a lead­ing enter­tain­ment indus­try web­site that offers news, infor­ma­tion and resources rel­e­vant to Blacks in the enter­tain­ment indus­try. She also pro­duces and hosts the pop­u­lar iIn­ter­net radio show, “Inside Urban Hol­ly­wood” on BlogTalkRa­dio, and is a pop­u­lar pub­lic speaker and work­shop leader.

As as Hol­ly­wood Career Strate­gist, Tanya pro­vides a wide range of infor­ma­tional, coach­ing and con­sult­ing ser­vices to Hol­ly­wood hope­fuls and vet­er­ans alike.  Through­out her career as an enter­tain­ment jour­nal­ist, Tanya devel­oped and earned a rep­u­ta­tion for focus­ing on celebri­ties, film, tele­vi­sion, music, fash­ion, award shows, spe­cial events and the busi­ness of enter­tain­ment in a trend-setting, ground­break­ing format.

With over two decades of expe­ri­ence in the enter­tain­ment field, she is known as a “guru” who has an envi­able rep­u­ta­tion for hav­ing her fin­ger on the pulse of what’s hap­pen­ing in Hol­ly­wood. She is excep­tion­ally well informed on the state of Black Hol­ly­wood and the crit­i­cal issues faced by blacks in enter­tain­ment. Tanya is the author of Black State of the Arts: A Guide to Devel­op­ing a Suc­cess­ful Career as a Black Per­form­ing Artist, con­sid­ered by many to be the “Bible” for blacks in the per­form­ing arts;  The Black Film Report, a com­pre­hen­sive report on the finan­cial per­for­mance of black films; and the Urban Hol­ly­wood Resource Direc­tory, the “yel­low pages” of urban enter­tain­ment con­tacts and resources.

Tanya also pro­duces wide range of tele­sem­i­nars, home study courses, e-books and coach­ing pro­grams for Hol­ly­wood hope­fuls. Tanya recently launched two new web­sites, HollywoodCareerResources.com and BlackHollywoodUniversity.com, one stop shops for start­ing, build­ing and grow­ing a career in Hol­ly­wood.  Both sites are focused on serv­ing the career needs of every­one from begin­ners to vet­er­ans in the enter­tain­ment indus­try by offer­ing infor­ma­tion and tal­ent devel­op­ment resources that edu­cate, enlighten and empower one to achieve their goals in the enter­tain­ment indus­try, and accel­er­ate the process.

Tanya has appeared on news and enter­tain­ment pro­grams on count­less tele­vi­sion and cable net­works includ­ing CNN, NBC, the BBC, FOX-11, KTLA, BET and Reelz Chan­nel, to name just a few; and she has been inter­viewed by and writ­ten about in dozens of news­pa­pers and mag­a­zines. Her awards and activ­i­ties include being named a “Liv­ing His­tory Maker” by the pres­ti­gious Turn­ing Point Mag­a­zine in recog­ni­tion for her accom­plish­ments in pub­lish­ing. She was named as one of Hollywood’s ‘Urban Movers and Shak­ers’ by Daily Vari­ety (Novem­ber 8, 2002) for her work as publisher/editor-in-chief of Black Tal­ent News and founder/executive direc­tor of the Hol­ly­wood Black Film Festival.