Taryn Southern

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. In 2017, Taryn began experimenting with emerging technologies to push the boundaries of her creative work. She composed the world’s first AI album , which landed on the Top 100 US Radio Charts and received widespread media attention. She then combined VR, blockchain, AI and spatial computing to create an award-winning Google VR series , earning her the AT&T Film Award. Her directorial debut, “I AM HUMAN,” a documentary on brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, won numerous awards, and is now available on Apple and Amazon. Since 2021, Taryn has served as Chief Storyteller at a leading implantable neurotechnology company, where she launched the world’s first BCI museum and oversaw communications strategy for two successful funding rounds totaling over $230M+. An advocate of women in science and tech, she has also angel invested in future-forward companies such as Oura, Etched, Extend Fertility, Vessel Health, and Forever Labs. As Chief Storyteller at implantable neurotechnology company Blackrock Neurotech, Taryn created and launched the world’s first BCI museum and oversaw a company rebrand , the creation of a BCI Ethics Advisory board, video storytelling initiatives , and story strategy for two successful funding rounds totaling over $230M+ (led by Thiel Capital, Apeiron, Tether.) Taryn’s directorial debut I AM HUMAN, a sci-fi documentary following three of the first real-world patients with brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2019. Prouduced the world’s first solo pop album composed with artificial intelligence, I AM AI, which hit the Top 100 US radio charts (Mediabase) and ignited a global conversation around the possibilities of human/AI creative collaboration. Producer of an award-winning spatial series for Google, which won the 2020 AT&T Film Award, nominated for Best Interactive at the Streamy Awards, and was featured in Ayzenberg’s XR Gallery. Creator of the world’s first Ethereum-enabled song token, which enabled artists to share royalties with hundreds or thousands of fans using blockchain technology . Taryn has launched social campaigns for issues across women in tech (DWEN/Dell Tech), consumer VR (Oculus, HTC VIVE), egg freezing (Extend Fertility), personalized genomics (Invitae), neurotech (Blackrock Neurotech) and AI (Amper, AIVA.) An advocate of women in science and tech, Taryn has angel invested in future-forward companies such as Oura, Etched, Extend Fertility, Vessel Health, and Forever Labs. Taryn has served on the board of the National Academy of Medicine’s Longevity Challenge, which aims to award breakthroughs in longevity science. Taryn has delivered keynotes for Deloitte, YouTube, Salesforce, Dell, Fiverr, Google, Gartner, Lenovo, as well as spoken at large consumer conferences such as The World AI Summit, Fortune Brainstorm, VidCon, Google’s