TRUST ME I KNOW WHAT I'm DOING

Once again, thank you for listening to TRUST ME I KNOW WHAT I’m DOING and sharing it with your friends, and for following along on social media. If you’re enjoying it, please take a moment to submit a rating and review, as it’s very much appreciated, especially because it feels great to share conversations that come from the heart and offer a platform here for community expression. So, speaking of expression and platforms, on TRUST ME I KNOW WHAT I’m DOING, one thing I try and elevate is storytelling. For some, it can maybe take years of practice and for others, it may be combining natural instinct and practice to harness that gift of sharing stories that are so uniquely authentic and personal and reflective of one’s own inner voice and imagination. Now, in a sense, sharing a story offers a lot of self fulfillment …no doubt. But listening to a story sometimes is even more possible because someone has lifted you onto a stage and amplified your voice and provided a backdrop that makes you and your story shine. And someone who’s doing this on an ongoing basis, particularly for communities of color and the voices of those who are marginalized is Rishi Rajani. Rishi is a South Asian American who grew up in upstate New York and in Oregon and whose family came here via India then Africa and the UK.
He’s been in the film and television industry for over a decade as a producer and a development executive. In 2018, Rishi joined Hillman Grad, the company founded by actor, producer, and Emmy winning writer Lena Waithe, to advance the mission to create art that redefines the status quo by amplifying and celebrating the stories and voices of diverse, historically marginalized communities across all industries. Rishi became CEO in 2022, and he’s had producing credits that have included The Chi,Gifted and Black, Boomerang, and The Forty Year-Old Version. He also originated Indeed’s Rising Voices short film program, serves as an Executive Mentor for the Hillman Grad Mentorship lab, and launched a South Asian mentorship program under “The Salon.” Now in 2023, he produced several film projects with even more coming, including Chang Can Dunk that aired on Disney+ and also Being Mary Tyler Moore on HBO Max. I have to tell you - what’s so compelling about Rishi is that even though it has come from a backdrop of superb effort and creative rigor, he makes inclusion feel natural and comforting and accessible. I had a chance to catch up with him to chat about everything from all the expectations to the evolution of his producing and relationship development to mentoring, and I started by asking him if he remembered when he first identified as being a South Asian American or even a person of color.