Ri-Karlo Handy (born October 1, 1979) is an American media executive and the CEO of Sunwise Media. He is also the founder and chairman of the Handy Foundation.[1]
Handy co-founded Sunwise Media with Elverage Allen in 2018. He has written, produced and directed a number of films and television series, such as Hope Village and Unsolved History.[8]
Handy is the showrunner of Harlem Globetrotters: Play It Forward, hosted by Craig Robinson,[5] which premiered on NBC on October 1, 2022.[9] The series follows the Harlem Globetrotters through their tours and games, and shines a light on their community outreach.[10] The show's first season was successful, garnering high ratings among young Black viewers[11] and receiving an Emmy nomination.[12]
On June 16, 2020, Handy made a post seeking Black, unionized film editors on a Facebook group for film editors which had around 14,000 members.[15] Handy wanted to make a list of Black editors in the industry after receiving a number of calls from film executives seeking Black film editors in the wake of the George Floyd protests.[16] The post went viral and generated controversy among film editors, with some white editors claiming that it was reverse racism and demanding the post be taken down. An attorney began tweeting screenshots of replies to the post, many of which contained racist comments.[17][18]>[19]
The controversy sparked a larger discussion about the marginalization of people of color in the film industry, with producers such as Ava DuVernay, Matthew A. Cherry and Gina Prince-Bythewood speaking in support of Handy.[20][16] At the time, only 5% of unionized production crew members in the industry were Black.[21] In response to these events, Handy established the Handy Foundation, which provides training and job placement programs to early career production crew.[22] The foundation partnered with the Motion Picture Editors Guild, the Los Angeles Urban League,[23] and a number of studios and production companies.[21][24]African-American Film Critics Association president Gil Robertson IV wrote that initiatives like Handy's were needed to reform the industry.[25]
