My name is Tyler Young, and I am a former morning news producer-turned-filmmaker from Greenville, SC, who weaves Southern culture into genre-blending women-led stories. That’s a long way to say that I’m from the South and for the South!

I’m a 2026 Blackmagic Collective Studio Ready Initiative fellow and currently on the festival circuit with my latest short film, Emergency Contact, which made its New York premiere at the Oscar-qualifying New York International Children’s Film Festival.

I tell very human stories with unintentionally funny protagonists working through later-in-life growing pains. Comedy is healing, and it’s the vehicle that drives my imagination.

In 2023, I began my journey as a film director. My first short film, Dying Laughing, won the 2024 Black Harvest Film Festival Audience Award and the 2025 People’s Choice Award at Reedy Reels Film Festival. We screened at the Academy Award-qualifying Urbanworld Film Festival and closed the year as a 2025 BHERC All-Star, honored by the Black Hollywood Resource Center. 

I earned my B.A. in Mass Communication from Winthrop University.  I began my TV career in Charlotte, NC. One morning I stood in the dressing room and said, “God, I’m tired of crying and praying about this job. Is it time for me to leave?”. He replied, “I have something greater for you.” I went on-air for my social media segment, walked over to my desk, and typed up a 3-sentence resignation letter. I haven’t looked back.

Greater is here.

For the last four years, I served as a Budgets and Production Scoping Manager at Vox Media, working at the critical intersection of pre-sales and production alongside our creative strategy team. I developed project scopes and cost breakdowns for award-winning branded videos, social campaigns, and audio segments. I’m currently a digital producer and video editor for a sports media company.

In 2023, I produced Gaps, a coming-of-age NAACP Image Award-nominated short film presented by Queen Latifah’s Queen Collective program in partnership with Tribeca Studios and Procter & Gamble.

I began my film journey in 2020 as an Associate Producer and researcher on the Emmy-nominated (Outstanding Historical Documentary), Peabody-nominated, and Telly award-winning documentary film, Downing of a Flag (PBS).

My credits include:

• Masters of the Game (Senior Producer + Director, TheGrio)
• Running While Black (Story Producer, VICE)
• Disrupt & Dismantle with Soledad O’Brien (Associate Producer, BET)
•  Phat Tuesdays (Associate Producer, Prime Video)

Fun Fact: I got my start in unscripted television as a production assistant on one of the highest-rated episodes of Hoarders.

As a writer, I am a Project Involve writing alum at Film Independent. I wrote the short film, Saving All My Love, based on my relationship with my mom and sister. My first screenplay, Body Count, advanced into the 2022 quarterfinals of the Academy Nicholl Fellowship. This comedy feature detailing the challenges of moving back home at age 30 was among 359 scripts accepted from 5,526 submissions. I’m also a former TV series fellow at Gotham Film & Media Institute.

I spend my free time scanning newspaper archives, binging A Different World episodes, and waiting to blow my retirement on an NSYNC reunion show.  

Proverbs 3:5-6 is my guiding light.