Brown Johnson

Brown Johnson is a visionary and innovator in the world of children’s entertainment. Nickelodeon’s ground-breaking pre-school block, Nick Jr. is her brainchild. She is responsible for producing hundreds of hours of high-quality, diverse, interactive, educational programing—and for changing the way kids watch TV. One of her projects, Dora the Explorer, introduced the first-ever bi-lingual, Latina lead character in children’s television. Brown ran Nickelodeon’s Animation Studio in Burbank, simultaneously producing shows in five countries. Brown’s work has won 3 Peabody Awards. She has also been recognized multiple times by the NAACP, The Imagen Foundation, the NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children), ASIFA (the International Animated Film Society, and the Academy of Television, both here and abroad. She is passionate about building diversity into business. As a master storyteller, she is lending her expertise so that stories can be used as a tool for justice. She has been a long-time supporter of WITNESS, and as an Advisory Board member, looks forward to deepening her contributions to WITNESS’ impacts in the fight for human rights. Brown currently splits her time between NYC and Los Angeles. She sits on the Board of the Mobile Film Classroom, a classroom on wheels that brings digital film training to underserved kids in Los Angeles. She was previously a Friend of Explore Charter Schools in Brooklyn.