Director of Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California

Jonathan Taplin

American writer, film producer and scholar, with a career spanning 30 years in areas like music, cinema, high finance and technology. Taplin graduated from Princeton University in 1969, has lived in Los Angeles since 1973, and is currently the Director of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He started his career in entertainment in 1969, as tour manager for Bob Dylan, with whom he worked for seven years. In 1973 he produced Martin Scorsese’s first major feature film, Mean Streets, which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival. Between 1974 and 1996, Taplin produced 26 hours of television documentaries (nominated for 3 Emmys) and 12 feature films including The Last Waltz, Until the End of the World, Under Fire and To Die For. His films were nominated for Academy Awards (which Taplin is currently a member of) and Golden Globe Awards and chosen for the Cannes Film Festival seven times. In 1996, along with a team of engineers, he invented the Video On Demand (VOD) system and other award winning revolutionary technologic patents. Taplin is the author of Outlaw Blues: Adventures in the Counter-Culture Wars, an enhanced bestseller e-book from Annenberg Press that includes 105 clips on its pages.