Leigh Davenport

Leigh Davenport is VP, Programming, Women & Lifestyle at Interactive One (iOne), the fastest growing and definitive digital platform for African American and Millennial audiences. Leigh is responsible for leading all editorial direction, strategy and programming for iOne’s Women’s Channel, which reaches over 7 million unique monthly visitors and includes the fast-growing HelloBeautiful.com. A well-respected creator of digital editorial content that speaks to today’s modern African-American woman, Davenport is also the founding director of the newly-launched HB Studios – an initiative that will create original digital video programming that celebrates stories of real women and the diversity of their experiences, from news and entertainment to lifestyle, beauty & fashion, including both scripted and unscripted programming.

HB Studios recently debuted its first short documentary film, Women on Top to much acclaim. The straight talk film featured interviews with celebrity women discussing power, sexuality, femininity and sisterhood. Currently HB Studios is in production on Power on Pointe a docuseries chronicling the New York City performance season of the Dance Theater of Harlem and most recently commenced production on Becoming Queen, a docuseries following the culture of pageantry on HBCU campuses.

Davenport is passionate about the intersection of gender, race, politics and pop-culture and continues to pursue work that shifts the narratives that surround women of color. She has written about these topics for key publications including as The Atlantic, TheGrio and NewsOne. She has four times previously written for Black Girls Rock! – an annual awards program created to uplift Black women throughout the diaspora. She is proud to have created the programs “Women in the Workplace,” “25 Women to Know” and “30 under 30” as marquee editorial franchises for the HelloBeautiful brand.

Davenport began her career in television production and has previously worked for BET Networks, TV One and VH1. Internationally, Davenport worked as a series producer in Johannesburg at South African based Channel O.

She is a proud graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia and received a Master’s in Media studies from The New School University in New York City. Davenport was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois.