Dayo Ogunyemi

Entrepreneur, Idea generator, Lawyer, Parent, Producer, Single

I’m a producer, investor, and entrepreneur focused on media, technology, and AI. Currently, I’m adapting Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart with A24 and Idris Elba. I’m also working on an AI and law initiative. I collaborate with underrepresented storytellers and have advised both acclaimed and emerging filmmakers and authors. Selected for Cannes Film Festival’s Cinefondation L’Atelier and Producer Network, I also pioneered theatrical distribution in East and West Africa for arthouse films like Viva Riva, the Bob Marley doc biopic, and The Artist. Starting as a DJ and music producer, I later became an attorney and launched a startup applying AI to law in 2000. I’ve lived in New York, Lagos, Nairobi, Johannesburg, and Kingston, and have advised African and Caribbean governments on e-commerce, IP, and creative industry policies. My TEDGlobal2017 talk about how images shape perception and reality, “Visions of Africa’s future, from African filmmakers,” has been watched more than a million times; and I authored Framing The Shot, a report on Africa’s evolving film industry. I am an alum of MIT, Columbia Law, and Columbia Business School.

The interplay between creativity and innovation and the impact of art and technology on society.