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Zadi Diaz
American producer and director From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Zadi Diaz is an American creative executive, producer, and director. She launched Jet Set Show in 2006 (later renamed Epic Fu) and became the first female web series host to win a Webby Award. Epic Fu was also the first web series about internet culture to be recognized with a Webby. Diaz has held creative leadership roles at Disney, DreamWorks Animation, AwesomenessTV, Ipsy, and Mitú. Her work continues to explore themes at the intersection of digital culture, storytelling, and creative leadership.
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Early life
Zadi Diaz was born in Harlem and grew up in the Washington Heights section of New York City, as well as the South Bronx. She is of Dominican descent.[1]
Career
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Before co-creating Jet Set Show and Epic Fu, Diaz was an early participant in the emerging videoblogging community of the mid-2000s. Under the alias Karmagrrrl, she created and shared videos on her personal blog, blending personal storytelling with political and social commentary.[2] One of her most notable early works was a video montage in response to Hurricane Katrina, set to Green Day’s song “Wake Me Up When September Ends.” The video used emotional imagery and music to highlight the governmental failures surrounding the disaster. It was cited in a 2005 New York Times full-page article.[3]
Diaz also taught video blogging workshops at Apple Stores in Los Angeles and contributed to the broader vlogging movement through communities like FreeVlog and Rocketboom. These early experiences helped establish her voice as a digital storyteller and laid the foundation for her later work creating web-native series about internet culture.
Epic Fu
Zadi Diaz co-founded Epic Fu with Steve Woolf, which first premiered as JETSET (also referred to as Jet Set Show) on June 1, 2006. Amanda Congdon and Andrew Baron were initially tied to the first few episodes of the production,[4] but the partnership dissolved with the Rocketboom split in July 2006.
The show, later renamed Epic Fu, became one of the first and most influential web series focused on internet culture.[5] Aimed at a youth audience, the series blended art, technology, news, and social commentary in a fast-paced, web-native format. Diaz served as both host and executive producer.
In April 2007, JETSET was the first established web show to sign with an entertainment studio Next New Networks (NNN).[6] In its tenure with NNN, the show grew from 30,000 to 40,000 views per episode to 3 million views a month.[7] After briefly being signed to West Coast digital studio Revision3 in June 2008,[8] Epic Fu was independently run and distributed through Blip.tv.[9] The show was praised by publications such as Wired[10] and Ad Age[11] for its innovation and cultural relevance. It became the first web series about internet culture to win a Webby Award.
Podcasting
In 2006, Zadi Diaz co-founded the podcast New Mediacracy. Created with Steve Woolf and video blogger Steve Garfield, the podcast featured candid discussions about online video and new media, and often featured popular web series creators as guests.[12] In 2010, Chris McCaleb of Big Fantastic joined the podcast as a regular and series host. Notable guests included Felicia Day, Joe Penna, Illeana Douglas, John August and Paul Scheer.
Creative Leadership
Diaz went on to lead creative development for digital content at major studios. From 2012 to 2013, she served as an head of content development and executive producer for Disney Interactive’s Online Originals division, producing series including Where's My Water?: Swampy's Underground Adventures, Talking Friends, Blank: A Vinylmation Love Story, and multiple other digital shorts and one-offs.[13]
She later served as VP of Programming at Awestruck,[14] an AwesomenessTV initiative, and as executive producer of YouTube Nation,[15] a daily curated series developed in partnership with YouTube and DreamWorks Animation.[16] She also served as Vice President of Programming and Development at Ipsy and Head of Digital Studio at Mitú.[17] In 2018, she became the co-founder and chief creative officer at Major Digital Studios, a digital storytelling studio based in Los Angeles.
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Speaking
She has spoken at events such as Cannes Lions, SXSW, VidCon, NAB, Comic Con, and New Media Expo.
Awards
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References
External links
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