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Eric Easter is a producer, writer and media executive and CEO of BlackBox Digital Studios, which produces non-fiction multi-platform programming. The former CEO of streaming channel Black Heritage Network and co-founder of Urban News Service, he advises content-based media startups including streaming channels, Kweli TV and the upcoming content subscription service, Kurrent. 

A strong advocate for public media, Easter is immediate past chairman of Black Public Media, which funds and develops documentary film and digital projects on the black cultural experience for PBS. A co-founder and board member of tech and media policy advocacy group, Full Color Future, he is also a board member of WHUT TV and a former member of the board of the Public Media Platform, a joint effort to build a digital resource of public media content. 

The former chief digital officer and VP of entertainment for Johnson Publishing, Easter launched and served as founding editor-in-chief of EbonyJet.com (now Ebony.com). As head of its entertainment unit, Easter spearheaded the company’s push into documentaries, online radio and short form video. The partnership he established with Google led to the digitization of the archives of Ebony, Jet, Negro Digest/Black World and Ebony Jr.

Prior to joining JPC, Easter directed communications outreach for Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (washingtonpost.com, newsweek.com, Slate)  and served as executive director of Lawyers for the Arts, where he worked with content and music creators to navigate the impact of digital technology on intellectual property.

Easter is the creator and co-author of the bestselling book “Songs of My People” (Little Brown 1992) a historic book and international photo exhibition on the lives of African Americans. In collaboration with actor Edward James Olmos and journalist Manny Monterrey, he produced AMERICANOS: Latino Life in the United States (Little Brown, 1990), a book, exhibition and award-winning HBO documentary which launched HBO Latino.