Jasmyn Lawson (born 1991)[1][2] is an American digital media executive. Lawson has been manager of original series at Netflix since 2020. She previously worked for the streamer's Strong Black Lead initiative, and was a culture editor at Giphy.[3]
Lawson was raised in Jackson, Michigan.[4] She received her bachelor's degree from Spelman College, where she was a drama major and a film studies minor.[4][5] During college she held an internship at Cartoon Network.[5] Lawson also blogged regularly and at 21 wrote a post expressing her desire to work at Netflix.[6]
Lawson's first position out of college was as a page at NBC.[5] After her program term ended she worked at social media marketing agency Glow.[5]
She left Glow in 2016 to work as a culture editor at Giphy. She developed GIFs relevant to Black culture and used Twitter to inform which ones to create.[7] Maintaining a Twitter presence is central to Lawson's work and she credits Black Twitter with driving cultural trends.[5]
Lawson was scouted by Netflix in 2018 to join their fledgling Strong Black Lead initiative.[8][6] She was hired as the editorial and brand manager for the project and oversaw social media communications.[1][8] Lawson produced the podcasts Strong Black Legends and Strong Black Laughs.[4] She noticed conversations Twitter users had about the desire to stream Black sitcoms from the late 1990s and early 2000s.[9] That influenced her to advocate for Netflix to pick up licensing rights for programs such as Sister, Sister and Moesha.[9] The shows had high viewership ratings after they debuted on Netflix.[9]
In November 2020 Lawson was promoted to the executive level as manager of original series including Never Have I Ever and Dear White People.[10][6] She also oversees the development of new comedy shows.[10]
Lawson resides in Los Angeles.[11]