- Height6′ 1″ (1.85 m)
- An award winning Producer highly regarded for aligning with startups, celebrities, educational institutions, high profile brands, and nonprofits to build award-winning media companies. Known as an innovative leader who flawlessly orchestrates the generation of outstanding content, which consistently achieves mainstream and commercial appeal. Sought for cross-functional expertise in filmmaking, social media management, strategic business planning, audience growth initiatives, and more. Bayan is an out-of-the-box, inventive thinker who is fluent in content creation and champions extraordinary solutions to complex client requirements and nuanced market demands.
Bayan is best known for partnering with actor Rainn Wilson to translate SoulPancake's mission into digital video. As Head of Production for SoulPancake between 2012 - 2018, Bayan led the development and creation of award-winning original programming such as SoulPancake on OWN, Kid President, and My Last Days, which led to nearly a billion views, multi-season television franchises, and acquisition by Participant Media in 2016.
Prior to SoulPancake, Bayan provided weekly content for Jay-Z's digital media enterprise Life + Times and was a producer for the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C where he helped restructure the organization's online content workflow. Bayan earned a B.F.A. in Film, Photography, and Visual Arts with a minor in Art History at Ithaca College in New York, and prior to that attended Idyllwild Arts Academy, where he studied cinematography.- IMDb Mini Biography By: via webpage - Bayan is an Emmy winning producer best known for partnering with actor Rainn Wilson to translate SoulPancake's mission into digital video. As Head of Production for SoulPancake between 2012 - 2018, Bayan led the development and creation of award-winning original programming such as SoulPancake on OWN, Kid President, and My Last Days, which led to nearly a billion views, multi-season television franchises, and acquisition by Participant Media in 2016.
Prior to SoulPancake, Bayan was a producer for the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C where he helped restructure the organization's online content workflow. Bayan earned a B.F.A. in Film, Photography, and Visual Arts with a minor in Art History at Ithaca College in New York, and prior to that attended Idyllwild Arts Academy, where he studied cinematography.
Bayan currently lives in Los Angeles and is developing a slate of TV and Film projects for Scheme Engine (part of Jay-Z's Roc Nation), a Producer for a show on MTV coming in the summer of 2020, is developing a show for National Geographic and VICE, show-running a 10 episode interactive series for Eko, and is a volunteer panda keeper at the Dujiangyan Panda Sanctuary.- IMDb Mini Biography By: via website
- You often hear in new media circles that we're back in the Wild West of filmmaking," Joonam said. "There are no rules on YouTube. No one is going to tell you when to add a break, or there needs to be a specific format. You put it up and the world will tell you if it's successful regardless if you're following rules you learned in film schools.
- Our content seeks to open your heart or blow your mind. We focus on not only entertaining, but also engaging with the community to spark conversations that go deeper than the comment threads commonly seen on YouTube. It's a pretty cool thing to try and do every day.
- In every art form there's always been this democratization throughout history. When you look at photography in the early 1900s when Kodak came out with a Brownie camera, you would see a big reaction from photographers who despised this because now anyone could do what they were sought after to do. Filmmakers are going through a similar thing. Cameras are a lot cheaper, and software being massively available to everyone, it's going to cause a wave, and Hollywood should take notice.
- To me, it's always been about delivering a feeling that leaves viewers open to investigating their personal beliefs, while also inspiring positive social action," Joonam later told me. "That's what matters to me.
- SoulPancake is a place where you can go when you're looking to have conversations that go deeper than what you can typically find on the Internet," said Bayan Joonam, lead filmmaker and head of production at SoulPancake. "The amazing thing about the brand is that it allows everyone to take ownership over what they consider to be 'SoulPancake,' based on what they find important or meaningful about their human experience.
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