Imani Ellis: The Creative Collective and CultureCon Founder and CEO

Imani Ellis is the founder and CEO of The Creative Collective and CultureCon. Imani studied communications in college and soon after began her career as an NBC Page at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. After just two months, she was plucked from the program for a job in communications at Bravo. She spent the next few years at NBCUniversal, rising through the ranks, but she craved a more authentic connection and collaboration. In 2016, she founded The Creative Collective from her living room. What started as a weekly gathering for Black and Brown creatives quickly outgrew her apartment, as Imani realized there was a real need for these spaces. In 2017, she created CultureCon, a conference that brought together Black and Brown voices to collaborate and celebrate each other. Over the next few years, she scaled CultureCon considerably by moving to larger venues; inviting guests such as Tracee Ellis Ross and Regina King; and working with brands like Target, Google, HBO, and Netflix. In 2022, she left NBCUniversal, where she’d risen to VP of communications, unscripted entertainment publicity, to pursue her projects full-time. This year’s CultureCon, presented in partnership with Max, wrapped up just this past weekend.