Tom Rielly

Activist, Filmmaker, Gay, Global soul, Performer, Philanthropist, Photographer, Producer

Tom Rielly TED Conferences Tom has attended every consecutive TED main conference since 1990. In those 30 years, he was an attendee for the first 16 and and a TED employee for 14. He created and ran for 8 years the prestigious international TED Fellows program, which brings outstanding young people from around the world to be part of the TED community. 500 Fellows from 100 countries take part. In 2020 Rielly became a grandparent the first time with baby Lorraine, darling daughter of son William and daughter-in-law Olivia. Naturally, she is perfect. Rielly may best known as the Founder and former CEO of PlanetOut.com or the NGOs he founded or co-founded including Digital Queers, Moving Windmill Project, and New Media Centers. Moving Windmills works on Rural Community Development in Malawi, where he has traveled many times. The latest project for 2022 is the Moving Windmills Innovation Center, a locus for creativity and entrepreneurship in Malawi, with the complex designed by Michael Murphy of Mass Design Group, who designed Bryan Stevenson's National Lynching Memorial Museum in Montgomery AL His original satires, which closed the annual TED (conferences, received standing ovations year after year. His deadpan delivery combines cerebral musings, wordplay, original props, and classic slapstick, including concussion-inducing pratfalls, bottles of olive oil drenching his head, or a dance duet with an inflatable lowlife woman. His "warm up acts" have included evangelist Billy Graham and former Vice-President Al Gore. In 1980 he played the role of Reissman in the feature film, My Bodyguard. He is based in the Coachella Valley, CA.

TED, Books, Science, the Environment, Climate Change, Design writ large, Product Design, Civil Rights, Entertainment in all its forms, iMovies, Humor/Satire.

TED Fellows: www.ted.com/fellows

Business Development, comedy, entrepreneurship, fundraising, gay and lesbian issues, Humor, Marketing, mentoring, non-profits, producing, satire

Been coming since 1990. Have been to every TED since then, including TEDGlobal, TEDMED (with the exception of TEDMED 2 and 3), TEDCity, TEDNYC, TEDKOBE. Worked with Russell Brown of Adobe to make TEDZilla, end of TED Satirical movies from 1991-1999. Started doing live TED Conference Satire in 1995. Founded my company PlanetOut after agent approached me after 1995 performance. TED is my other family.

Being Serious, and Parentlng and now Grandparenting.