Seeing their docuseries Rebuilding Black Wall Street appear on the Oprah Winfrey Network starting September 29 and stream on Max will validate the “do good” mission of the founders of Sunwise Media, the Black-owned production company behind the show.

Founded by Ri-Karlo Handy and Elverage Allen in 2017, Sunwise’s mission has been to create entertainment that inspires and compels social and cultural change. Getting a series on OWN, especially one about building minority-owned businesses, is an achievement that pays off years of hope and effort.

“We made a conscious choice as a studio and as a company not to chase things. We want to develop things that were not only brand safe, but also that were additive and helpful to the community,” Handy told Broadcasting+Cable.

Also Read: Hearst, Sunwise Media Make Plans To Reimagine Saturday Morning TV

“Sometimes that comes across as earnest and maybe not as exciting. But hey, the most popular things in our world are earnest,” Handy said. “We love superheroes, we love sports heroes and we love people who are doing things that seem impossible, and we want to see how they achieve them.

“That is really the crux of where this fits in. These are local hero stories we’re telling.”

Black Wall Street, the affluent Greenwood business district in Tulsa, Oklahoma, destroyed by racial violence in 1921, has been the subject of numerous television projects, including ones from Spike Lee and LeBron James.

Handy and Allen knew the story but got deeply involved through work it did on a commercial project for the Greenwood Bank in Tulsa that featured actor Jesse Williams.

“I think ours was unique because it was content around a business that was actually trying to give back to the community,” Handy said.

After meeting descendants of the people whose homes and businesses were destroyed and hearing the stories about what was happening now, Handy decided to come up with an idea for a show that would focus on the people trying to rebuild the business district.

“You can’t do that without telling the history, but I just felt like everyone was doing documentaries,“ he said. “I wanted to do something different and something that would be repeatable.” 

Hosted by Morris Chestnut, each episode of Rebuilding Black Wall Street tells the story of another business being created and the people behind it.

The rebuilding projects are led by designers Jon Pierre and Mary Tjon Joe-Pin.

One of the stories revolves around Kevin Johnson, the former NBA star and mayor of Sacramento, California, whose grandparents lived in Tulsa. Johnson opened a branch of his Fixins Soul Kitchen restaurant chain in June and it serves some dishes based on his grandmother’s recipes.

“We have to strike a balance between all those terrible things that happened and the rebirth that’s happening now,” Allen, Sunwise’s sales chief, said. “We want to be true to the history but we also want to make sure that the advertisers feel like they're being part of an aspirational story.”

Handy thinks there are more stories to tell, not only in Tulsa, but in other cities. “There were several Black Wall Streets that all experienced these horrific atrocities over a long span, primarily from the late 1900s through the 1940s and ’50s when things started to shift away from the Jim Crow laws.”

But first things first. Getting the show greenlighted was a long process. Of course, there is a direct connection to Oprah Winfrey herself. Handy was working on a mental health project with Winfrey and met with her the day after the Super Bowl in 2021.

“The meeting was about another project and that project went to a different company,“ Handy recalled. “But the meeting went well and the consensus was, ‘Let’s do something.’ We got a development deal within 24 hours.”

As part of the development deal, Sunwise pitched a number of projects. “This show happens because of [OWN president] Tina Perry,” Handy said. “We’ve known her since before she was president of OWN and she genuinely believed in our company.”

“Inclusion in the media has never been more vital, so having a Black-owned production company tell this story was very important to us,” said Drew Tappon, head of unscripted development, programming and specials at OWN.

“The most authentic, unscripted projects focus on situations that are happening whether cameras are in place or not,” Tappon said. “Sunwise is on the ground, capturing real-life efforts of a heroic community.”

The project also got crucial boosts from GroupM’s Diverse Voices Accelerator, an initiative that supports creators, writers, producers, directors and studios from traditionally underrepresented groups in entertainment, and from Sheereen Russell, executive VP, ad sales and inclusive content partnerships at Warner Bros. Discovery, OWN’s parent company.

Domino’s is one of the GroupM clients sponsoring the series.

In the recent upfront market, there was much more demand for shows that offered diversity, equity and inclusion opportunities, Jon Steinlauf, chief U.S. ad sales officer at Warner Bros. Discovery, said at B+C’s Advanced Advertising Summit this month.

“We were able to work with our channel, Oprah Winfrey Network, and now we're gonna deliver [Rebuilding Black Wall Street] through a minority-owned production company on the OWN linear platform, as well as on other platforms,” Steinlauf said. “I'm very proud of the fact that as a company, we have those values and we work with our advertisers who share those values to try to bring stories like that to life that otherwise may not have been seen.”

Karra Duncan, a television producer who has been a friend of Handy’s for years and is a descendant of Tulsa massacre victims, played another key role.

“Because of her, I was fully tapped into the community,” Handy said. “It’s a very tight-knit community. And to do any show like this, where you’re getting into something that is so important to people, you’ve got to make sure that they know you’re going to handle it with care.”

Handy and Duncan are executive producers of the show, along with Chestnut.

The show could be a turning point for Sunwise.

“I would describe it as our first commissioned project where we were able to genuinely partner with the network on every aspect of our business,” Handy said, from content development and content production to brand integration.” I felt like it was the first time where our model for Sunwise really started to come together.”

While Warner Bros. Discovery sold sponsorships and commercials in the show, Sunwise was able to sell product integrations.

The timing was off, and by the time Sunwise was able to make its pitch, most advertisers had already spent their upfront budgets, Allen said.

“It's got GroupM behind it and Warner Bros. Discovery behind it,“ Allen said. “We’re very hopeful and optimistic that we can get brands involved if there’s a season two.”

While diversity, equity and inclusion has been a hot topic, the challenging times in the TV business have led some companies to outsource their DEI efforts, Handy said.

“How many checks are being written to companies like Sunwise Media, you know, particularly for this type of content,” he said.

But Sunwise remains optimistic.

“This year showed me that there's a big shift in our industry,“ Handy said. “I think we're on the cusp of shows and content being financed more directly by brands. And I feel like Sunwise is in a position to work with other networks and other brands and other agencies in the same way because we've been working the kinks out of how that could look from a third-party producer studio.

“If brands or networks want to thoughtfully get involved I think our show and the way we went about it could be a good starting point, because the community is behind it and a community hasn't been behind everything that people have done in Tulsa,” Handy said.

Allen is hopeful that Rebuilding Black Wall Street will generate ratings and earn a second season.

“But if it doesn’t, that’s OK, too, because the story needs to be told,” Allen said. “Hopefully we, along with the network and the sponsors, will get recognition for walking the talk, which you don't see a lot of.”

Blacked-owned media company Sunwise Media will produce a documentary series for OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network called Rebuilding Black Wall Street: Greenwood, a project that is being backed by GroupM advertising clients including Domino’’s.

Rebuilding Black Wall Street: Greenwood is the first project resulting from a new strategic partnership between GroupM Motion Entertainment and Warner Bros. Discovery. 

The partnership supports GroupM’s Diverse Voices Accelerator, an initiative that supports creators, writers, producer, directors and studio from traditionally underrepresented groups in entertainment.

Also Read: Hearst, Sunwise Media Make Plans To Reimagine Saturday Morning TV

Rebuilding Black Wall Street: Greenwood is a six-part series that will premiere on OWN in the fall. It is created by executive producer Ri-Karlo Handy and his company Sunwise Media Inc.  Sunwise creates family-friendly original content for African-American viewers and promotes diversity and cultural relevance as an effective marketing tool.

The series will chronicle the reconstruction of the Greenwood District of Tulsa, which was destroyed in the 1921 massacre. Over the course of six episodes, viewers will be guided through Greenwood's rich history and the personal journeys of the cast, many of whom are the descendants of Black Wall Street residents.

"We have a responsibility to create a more inclusive and equitable industry," said Kirk McDonald, CEO, GroupM North America. "This benefits everyone. It empowers content creators who face barriers, provides brands with access to diverse and engaged audiences, and offers viewers authentic programming that captures the richness of the human experience."

In addition to content development, the Diverse Voices Accelerator provides opportunities for support from brands. Projects created under the DVA will be supported by GroupM agencies including Mindshare, Wavemaker and EssenceMediacom, with participating clients like Domino’s (a Mindshare client) and other brand partners, who are committed to diversity and inclusion. 

“At Domino’s, it’s important that both our media and advertising reflect the diversity of our customers, our team members and the communities we serve,” said Kate Trumbull, Domino’s senior VP, Brand and Product Innovation. “Through our partnership with GroupM’s DVA program, we are proud to support the creation of original programming developed by a variety of diverse voices in media and entertainment.” ■

The Globetrotters’ long winning streak continues.

On Saturday mornings, the TV series Harlem Globetrotters: Play It Forward is filling it up, attracting young viewers, especially young Black viewers, with a show featuring Black characters connecting with minority communities.

Following up on that success, Hearst Media Production Group, which produces the show with the Globetrotters, is entering into a partnership to develop inspiring, multicultural content for HMPG’s educational and informational programming blocks with Sunwise Media, a Black-owned media company.

The showrunner for Play It Forward is Ri-Karlo Handy, also CEO at Sunwise. 

Also Read: Sunwise Rises With Focus on Positive, Diverse Series

“The thing that’s cool about Play It Forward is it’s for and by and about the community,“ Handy told Broadcasting+Cable. “They’re doing real stuff that I can think about as a Black person, something that grabs my attention.”Handy said the numbers for the show are jumping with ratings in the time period up 55% year over year among 18- to 24-year-olds. Those numbers create an opportunity to reimagine Saturday morning programming.

“Because of that success, they were excited at the idea of doing more multicultural, African-American-facing shows for Saturday mornings,” Handy said. “We're going to bring that multicultural audience that we attracted with Globetrotters, but in a true partnership, versus just a work for hire.” 

Amy DeGregorio, senior VP, managing director of sales for educational/informational programming at Hearst Media Production Group, said the early success of Play It Forward has been “highly encouraging.”

She said Hearst has an “aspiration to develop more content that reflects the topics of diversity and inclusion.”

Hearst and Sunwise addressed the success of Play It Forward and their future plans at media agency Magna’s Equity Upfront on Wednesday (February 9), where advertisers are introduced to opportunities to sponsor minority-owned companies and programming with multicultural themes.

Working with a known entity like Hearst Media Productions Group brings a level of familiarity with media buyers and sponsors. “This is us telling all the brands in the room, ‘Hey, this is a new model. You’re going to partner with Sunwise and Hearst,'” Handy said.

“You look at TV One, BET and Bounce TV, basically none of those networks are Black-owned,“ Handy said. æYou have all these corporations that have made commitments to spend media dollars on Black-owned companies. Honestly, what they’re having to do is change to Black-created, because Black folks don’t own any of these channels that are serving Black audiences.”

Hearst’s E/I shows air in three-hour blocks on NBC, ABC, CBS and The CW, helping those networks and their affiliate stations fulfill their government obligation to provide educational shows.

Elverage Allen, partner and head of advertising sales at Sunwise, noted that Saturday morning kids shows are restricted in how much advertising they can run and what types of ads they can accept. But he said brands would be offered an opportunity to have their products integrated into the show, ensuring that whether they’re watched on broadcast, cable or streaming, the message gets delivered.

Many advertisers haven’t looked at educational/informational (E/I) programming as an advertising opportunity, but if they have community-based initiatives, sponsoring E/I programming could be a place where those companies can tell their stories and build their brands, he said.

Handy would also like to see more African-Americans working at the advertising agencies. His Handy Foundation is already playing an important role in workplace development in Hollywood, training and recommending minority candidates for production jobs.

“We really operationalized solving the problem of, how do you source talent from these communities when there’s really no training or college they can go to?” he said. “I think there’s a gap in a lot of industries like that, where there’s a desire for people but no mechanism to train them and place them.”

Ad agencies have made equity and diversity a priority, but the needle has barely moved, Handy said. “If Hollywood can do it with the Handy Foundation, we’d like to see it translate to advertising as well.” ■

Sunwise Media founder Ri-Karlo Handy, whose social media post seeking Black editors set off a racial backlash, is spearheading a new partnership formed to create a pipeline of “below-the-line” jobs in order to foster diversity in Hollywood.

The partnership involved the Los Angeles Urban League, The Editors Guild and the Handy Foundation.

The partnership said it has a commitment to mentor, train, and employ Black and minority young adults to work in Hollywood through its Backstage Careers Program.

The Editors Guild will support Backstage Careers by recruiting trainers, mentors and program speakers from among guild membership. The goal is to create a space for learning to occur, and relationships to be cultivated and nurtured.  

The Urban League was already working on a training program designed to help create a pipeline of diverse talent for people doing the hiring in Hollywood for behind the camera jobs.

“It’s serendipitous,” said Handy. “Now, we can work together to place African Americans in Hollywood below-the-line positions, a term defining various behind the camera jobs.” 

Handy said that most job-training programs down give individuals the skills they need to get entry level jobs. Through his foundation, he'll start teaching people editing and help them find entry level jobs on non-union productions. Once they get enough hours, they'll should be able to join the union.

He said he has already been contacted by several companies about job opportunities.

"The response has been awesome, it's very exciting to have these conversations," said Handy. "Hiring mangers from Viacom, Tyler Perry Studios, Netflix, NBCUniversal, CBS, and so many more have reached out to me directly, or have downloaded the Black Editors list." 

Some white editors had charged that Handy’s search for Black editors as a form of reverse discrimination.

"Inequity in BTL careers requires a multi-faceted solution involving production companies, studios, unions, and training providers," says Brian Williams, Los Angeles Urban League chief of operations. "We're finally bringing all of these elements together to move the needle, and to do it at scale."

"As a union, we remain committed to enhancing our outreach to programs and schools that serve all communities, especially those who might not otherwise have opportunities to be exposed to the array of jobs with our jurisdiction so they can envision a career path they may not have known existed or believed was possible," added Cathy Repola, executive director of the Motion Pictures Editors Guild.

Sunwise plans to expand the partnership beyond Hollywood to Madison Avenue.

“We will seek to leverage the Urban League and Handy Foundation’s relationships with companies like CBS, Fremantle, Paramount, Tyler Perry Studios, Viacom, ITV, Sony, Adobe, AT&T, Disney, Hillman Grad Productions, AEG, Grammy Museum Foundation, and other’s as we seek to promote diversity within the advertising world,” said Elverage Allen, Handy’s partner at Sunwise and its head of advertising sales. 

“Hopefully, the key decision makers in advertising will emulate this effort and partner with us and promote corporate support for black-owned media companies including Sunwise,” said Allen. “While many brands are responding favorably to the Black Lives Matter Movement and social justice initiatives with advertising dollars, how many of those ad dollars are directed to black-owned media? Sponsorship of black media companies and the content we produce creates jobs! It recycles dollars within our economy and communities of color.”

As a 100% African American-owned media company and Certified MBE, Sunwise Media feels it is uniquely positioned to deliver content that preserves Black history, celebrates Black culture, and entertains responsibly through our empirical knowledge of the Black experience. 

After Sunwise Media founder Ri-Karlo Handy’s online post seeking ‘’black Union editors” went viral with social media criticism, the black-owned production and distribution company, said it was surprised by the reaction and insisted that race was “critical” to this particular position.

At a time when protests about police brutality against black Americans fill cities and the Black Lives Matter movement is gaining support according to polls, many of the posts complained that Sunwise was engaging in “black racism” by seeking to hire an editor of a specific race: not white.

Elverage Allen, Handy’s partner and head of advertising sales at Sunwise Media, said the company was formed to foster black media ownership and skill development.

Related: Sunwise Rises With Focus on Positive Diverse Series

“Why is this important? Because, over the years, black media ownership and employment has dramatically dropped, and we feel an obligation to proactively seek to retain it and the jobs it produces,” Allen said.

The company produces content that is “uniquely developed to positively depict the African American lifestyle,” Allen said. “As recent events have demonstrated, the African American experience is complex, multi-faceted and to say the least, Challenging! This is a story that one must live to more effectively tell!”

Both Allen and Handy were executives at Bounce, the digital broadcast network serving black Americans now owned by the E.W. Scripps Co. Their recent documentary, Hope Village, about a community based drug treatment program, has been making the rounds of film festivals.

“Hopefully, this will explain why 'a black editor' is needed to tell our uniquely ‘Black Stories,’" Allen said. “Our content requires knowing how it feels to watch, internalize, and explain the pictured experiences in 'black terms' with 'black emotions', 'black perspectives', and black empathy!”

It isn’t always easy doing good when you’re in the TV business. But it’s good to keep hope alive.

Sunwise Media, formed by former Bounce TV executives Ri-Karlo Handy and Elverage Allen, has shifted its focus from the multicultural market to doing work that’s socially responsible and hopes to help other businesses make a positive impact.

Sunwise’s current project revolves around promoting the Hope Village Project, a drug treatment and rehabilitation program, and shifting the conversation about substance abuse and the opioid epidemic — a subject with which Handy and Allen are all too familiar.

The company has made a documentary, Hope Village: Finding Recovery, which tells the story of “hope dealer” Lucy Hall, who went from being homeless and addicted to founding The Mary Hall Freedom House, a community recovery organization that has helped more than 10,000 women and children.

The film is being shown in several film festivals.

The company is working on a pilot partnership with a local Salvation Army chapter in Bell, California, providing the film, training for staff and supporting documentation about Hope Village and community recovery programs.

Sunwise is looking to find corporate sponsors and distributors for the documentary and is trying to raise money for a feature film based on Hall’s story.

“I think our mission as a company is not only to create good content, but create content that is going to have an impact on our families, our cities, our country and our world,” said Handy, CEO of Sunwise.

“We spend so much time chasing the dollar,” Handy, who had been senior VP of original programming at Bounce and executive-produced shows starring Nick Cannon and Keyshia Cole, said. “I spend that time away from my family trying to entertain people, but I think there’s some entertainment that’s so valuable because it shifts the conversation. And that’s the kind of entertainment we want to make.”

Allen, partner and head of advertising sales, said Sunwise still has a commitment to the multicultural space. “We felt like this was a broader opportunity,” he said. “And to be honest with you, the multicultural space is, I won’t say it’s congested — but there are a lot of players there.”

With more consumers looking to do business with companies that share their values, “I do think there’s a huge business opportunity here, supporting companies that are being socially responsible,” Handy said.

The Hope Village project also has a personal connection. Handy’s father is in recovery, but despite having resources, it took time and effort to locate an effective program.

Allen, who was executive VP of ad sales for Bounce TV and a director at TV One before joining Sunwise, has a nephew who has struggled with addiction his whole life but is now in recovery, holding down a job and living in his own apartment. He’s also got a brother-in-law who went through a community recovery program, but still struggles with addiction.

“I would imagine that a lot of people have someone in their life in that situation,” Allen said.

Allen is looking for national and local sponsors to back the documentary and provide organizations with books and other materials about community recovery programs. Many large companies have foundations to disburse funds to worthy causes.

The effort has been harder than expected, Allen said, but still worthwhile.

The picture has been well-received on the film festival circuit. It was recently shown at the Silicon Valley Film Festival and was a Gold Award winner at the Spotlight Documentary Film Awards.

“You know, people came out crying and saying how watching this film changed their whole perception of addiction,” Handy said of the Silicon Valley screening.

That’s a step in the right direction.