Fabrice Guerrier MA ‘15 was named this month to The Root’s 100 List. He is included among 100 of the most influential African American innovators, public figures, community leaders, change agents, and activists of 2021. The 12th annual list celebrates members of the Black community aged 25-45, who are changing the world by breaking down barriers and paving the way for the next generation. The Root is one of the largest sites covering Black news, politics, culture and opinion.
Guerrier, a graduate of EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, was also named to the 2021 Forbes “30 Under 30” list.
He is founder and CEO of Syllble, a sci-fi and fantasy production company based in Los Angeles, Ca., that prioritizes access and opportunity for underrepresented voices and Black, Indigenous, People of Color writers and creators.
“I’m honored that my work at Syllble is being recognized and to share this list with Pulitzer Prize- winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, Ibram X. Kendi, actress Zendaya, US representative Cori Bush, poet Hanif Abdurraqib, the late actor Chadwick Boseman and so many incredible Black innovators that I look up to who have paved the way in this changing the world for more presentation and radically expanded the possibilities of the Black imagination,” Guerrier said. “At this moment, I’m especially reflective of my beginnings as a young Haitian boy from Port-au-Prince, who came to the United States at the young age of 13 barely able to speak a word of English. This is just the beginning and much work remains to be done.”
This past year, Guerrier moved Syllble from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles. He is currently growing the production company to attract more creators, and “to broker partnerships and collaborations with some of the top players in the content distribution space who can elevate the thought-provoking worlds being created by our diverse creators community.”
“Creating new fictional worlds and thought provoking storytelling by underrepresented voices expands our collective imagination,” he explains. “It’s at the forefront of Syllble’s role in transforming society, especially when so much of what we operate under and have come to believe collectively just no longer works. Writers have written by themselves for thousands of years, and now through science fiction and fantasy, Syllble is ushering a new era of storytelling that is more collaborative, more creator-owned and empowered.”
This year’s list is led by Kizzmekia Corbett, a viral immunologist who worked closely on the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. Other notables include congresswoman Cori Bush, rapper Megan Thee Stallion, WNBA Legend Candace Parker, YouTuber and entrepreneur Marques Brownlee, Olympian Allyson Felix, actor MJ Rodriguez, and last year’s list leader, journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones. The list includes honorees who are influential in the arts, business, community, entertainment, the media, politics, science and technology, STEM and sports.
Nominees are graded by a committee on a proprietary algorithm that includes the number of people they touch through media along with Twitter and Instagram followers and the impact of their work, graded on a scale of 0 to 10 to determine their influence. Winners were then hand-selected from the finalists pool by a selection committee of award-winning, NABJ-honored journalists.
The Root, co-founded in 2008 by preeminent scholar Henry Louis Gates, is the leading African American news source in America, reaching more than 10 million visitors per month with an editorial featuring commentary, opinion, breaking news and culture content.