Taryn Southern
Creative Strategist, Keynote Speaker, & Special Projects @ Blackrock Neurotech
"Deeply thoughtful yet boundlessly optimistic."
Taryn Southern is an award-winning storyteller and creative technologist exploring the intersection of emerging tech and human potential. Her groundbreaking creative experiments offer unique insights into how technology can help us unleash creativity, joy, wellbeing and productivity.
Originally from Kansas, Taryn’s first foray into entertainment began at 17 when she competed in the semi-finals of American Idol. In 2007, after obtaining degrees in journalism and anthropology, Taryn uploaded her first video onto YouTube.
Ten years and 750 million views later, this early YouTuber produced more than 1500 internet videos, at the forefront of the online content revolution. In 2007, she hosted and produced a TV series documenting her travels to meet her MySpace friends and uploaded her first viral video to YouTube.
Over the next decade, she created over 1500 videos garnering more than 1 billion views, served as an early advisor to YouTube, Google VR and Snapchat product teams, and consulted for companies like Conde Nast and Marriott on digital content strategy and narrative design.
