Erin Ryder believes the best stories move people to action.

For more than 20 years, she’s built a career around that belief, producing and directing across sports and entertainment for Amazon Prime Video, ESPN and NBC Olympics, and earning an Emmy along the way. She helped shape the creative behind Prime Video’s first exclusive season of Thursday Night Football, the WNBA and the Yankees, and helped lead content for The Summer I Turned Pretty to #1 on Prime Video and more than 1.3 billion views on TikTok.

As co-founder of Pax Pictures, Erin created The Other Half for Facebook Watch, a player-led series on women’s soccer, and directed campaigns built to shift culture: John Legend’s HUMANLEVEL, Lisa Ling’s Yes I Am for Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles, and Light A Spark for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She’s executive produced series for Nickelodeon and YouTube and sold shows to Travel Channel, History and National Geographic.

But Erin’s real subject has always been people: who gets to be seen, and who gets to lead.

That’s what brought Playmakers Nashville to life, a community she co-founded to give women in sports the belonging, access and growth she wished she’d had earlier in her career. It’s also what led her to the classroom as Professor of Practice in Belmont University’s Sport Administration program, mentoring the next generation of industry leaders.

A photographer, former NCAA champion athlete and lifelong advocate for equality, Erin holds a master’s in television, radio and film from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School. When she’s not building something that matters, she’s out exploring with her dog and co-pilot, Cowboy, looking for the next story worth telling.