Selly Thiam
Selly Thiam is a Senegalese- American journalist, filmmaker, radio producer and writer. She started her career reporting for National Public Radio in Chicago - this led to her producing for the Storycorps Oral history project in New York City and then becoming lead producer on the Storycorps Griot Initiative, which in partnership with National Public Radio broadcast the stories of African-Americans from across the United States. Selly went on to work for PBS and the New York Times and was a Carnegie Fellow with the ABC News Investigative Unit. After the murder of prominent Sierra Leonean LGBT activist Fanny Ann Eddy in 2004, Selly decided to dedicate her work to amplifying the voices and visibility of African queer voices. In 2006, she founded None on Record: Stories of Queer Africa, which collected and archived over 1000 first person narratives of LGBT Africans on the Continent and the Diaspora. Since then, None on Record has grown into an Africa-wide LGBT digital media organization. Through her work at None on Record, Selly and her team have trained hundreds of LGBT activists across the African continent on digital media and documentation. They have also produced numerous documentary series, most recently an African LGBT campaign in partnership with the United Nations. Selly is the CEO and founder of AQ Studios, an African podcast company and is the Executive Producer and host of the award winning AfroQueer podcast and other shows produced by AQ Studios. Selly is a 2018 #Africanofilter Fellow.