Sanjay Sharma

Founder and CEO of Marginal Mediaworks, a premium content studio focused on genre storytelling from marginalized voices in the US and around the world. https://marginal.media/

Sharma began his career as an IP, technology transactions and entertainment lawyer at Warner Bros. He left the law and the film business in favor of technology startups, joining advertising high flyer Spot Runner (Index Ventures, Battery Ventures, WPP, IPG, CBS, Tudor Capital) as an early employee. Sharma then helped start and lead Machinima, the first YouTube MCN, backed by Redpoint Ventures, The Raine Group, Google Capital and Warner Bros., the latter of which acquired the firm in 2016. He most recently was the Chief Executive of ALL DEF, a leading digital media brand in hip hop and urban content, where he drew the support of a broad range of investors including Greycroft Partners, WPP, Advancit Capital, Bryant Stibel, Andreessen Horowitz, Third Wave, and Universal Music Group.

Sharma has spent his career at the intersection of media and technology, and currently is an advisor or board member to a wide range of entertainment and technology companies including Mars Reel, Skybound Entertainment, EmoJam, Fourth Wave Blockchain Incubator, Culture Genesis and HEIR, through his advisory and investment firm, Short Message Service. He sits on the board of CAPE, the Coalition of Asian American & Pacific Islanders in Entertainment, has been an Adjunct Professor at USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism, and speaks widely, from Cannes to the United States Congress, on new and traditional media, but especially on the importance of diversity and representation in the content industries.

Sharma was born in India and immigrated to the United States as a child. He was raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is a graduate of Columbia University, where he studied film and history, and the Stanford Law School, after which he clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

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