David Steward II
CEO, Lion Forge Animation
About Speaker
David Steward, II is an Academy Award®-winning producer who owns and operates multiple companies with a mission of creating, discovering, and highlighting multicultural and diverse content in the entertainment industry. In 2018, Steward founded Polarity, a holding company to oversee the operations of a portfolio of companies. The companies offer an array of content offerings including graphic novels and comics, animated television, streaming and cinematic features, and gaming. Key portfolio companies include Oni Lion Forge Publishing Group (the merged entity of The Lion Forge and the twenty-year comic book publisher Oni Press), the European publishing house Magnetic Press, the original content developer Illustrated Syndicate, the animation studio Lion Forge Animation, and Lion Forge Labs. In 2019, Polarity launched the Lion Forge Animation Studio, credited for producing the Hair Love short film, distributed by Sony Pictures Animation, and winner for “Best Animated Short” in the 2020 Academy Awards®. Lion Forge Animation has gained recognition for highlighting animators of color and in 2021 was named one of Fast Company Magazine’s Most Innovative Companies in the World, placing #3 in the film and TV category. Among the significant entertainment deals brokered by David in the last year include: a partnership with Wendell Scott Ventures to introduce the iconic and groundbreaking life and legacy of Wendell Scott, NASCAR’s first black racer, to audiences through films, TV series, digital content, games, and more; a first look deal with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Kids + Family label; a partnership with BRON Studios on an animated TV series Heiress; a Hair Love spinoff series (Young Love) for HBO Max; and a multi-picture joint venture partnership with Chinese studio Starlight Media, to name a few. David’s entertainment portfolio started with the founding of The Lion Forge, LLC, the St. Louis-based publisher in 2011. Before merging with Oni Press, the company published comics and graphic novels with a mission to create content for everyone, regardless of gender identity, ethnicity, or cultural background – a mission which is still maintained at Oni Lion Forge Publishing Group. The company boasted multiple publishing accolades. The first original graphic novel Andre the Giant: Closer to Heaven was nominated for three Glyph Awards, as well as the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity, and Lighter Than My Shadow was voted the 2017 Graphic Novel of the Year by Amazon. The benefit collection, Puerto Rico Strong, brought home the company’s first Eisner Award in 2019 in the “Best Anthology Comic” category. Across multiple imprints and formats that has included licensed properties like DreamWorks Voltron Legendary Defender, original works from top independent creators, and the original and all-inclusive Catalyst Prime superhero universe, Lion Forge has published something for every level of comic book fan, young and old. A past Board Chair of Nine PBS in St. Louis, David was recently elected Lay Vice Chair of Americas Public Television Stations (APTS). He was the recipient of the APTS Advocacy Award in 2021. David was also the recipient of a coveted Eisner Award, the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award, earned on behalf of the Comic Book United Fund, which he started with Binc and DC at the onset of the COVID pandemic to provide aid to comic book retailers. The fund was an offshoot of the Forge Fund he had created years earlier. Before starting Lion Forge, David founded and operated Photographx.com. Started in 2000, the company grew from a photography solutions provider into a multimedia company providing photography, filmmaking, animation and design to its clients. Steward has also worked as a film producer for a Christian media company based in Los Angeles, and later formed and managed The Chi Rho Group, a “traditional” private equity organization focused on making acquisitions in consumer-packaged goods, technology, and media & entertainment. David graduated Magna Cum Laude from American University in 1998 with a B.S.B.A. in International Marketing.