Simi catches up with Sujata Day, actress-model-screenwriter-director extraordinaire. She is best known for her starring role as CeCe in Issa Rae’s series, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl and her role on HBO’s Insecure. Over the course of her career, she’s appeared in an array of TV shows from Greek to The Secret Life of the American Teenager. In 2017, she produced and sold a short film titled Cowboy and Indian. More recently, she directed her first film, Definition Please, a South Asian dramedy about a former spelling bee champ.

In this episode, Sujata sheds light on how she first paved her path to Hollywood, from her early cameos on iconic shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer to her starring roles. She underscores the challenges she faced as a South Asian woman in the industry, and how those same experiences inspired her to tell her brown girl story. Listen in to hear hers -- it's powerful and telling of where South Asian representation is headed with women like Day at the helm. 

South Asian Trailblazers is an award-winning media platform, community, and agency dedicated to elevating leading South Asians. Join our community at SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. Subscribe to our newsletter to get new episodes and updates on our latest events in your inbox. Follow us @southasiantrailblazers on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Youtube, and all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify.

Simi sits down with Sarina Siddhanti and Arian Agrawal, co-founders of Riya Collective. Riya Collective is a YC-backed social shopping platform where customers can buy and consign clothing and goods from around the world, starting with Desi products. Riya Collective has been featured in Vogue and has raised $2.2 million to date. 

Sarina and Arian are college classmates turned serial entrepreneurs who always knew they wanted to be in business together. In this episode, they share their experiences launching Riya from their living room and navigating headwinds brought on by the pandemic. They discuss innovating by and for South Asians, and the ways in which they found and maintained conviction in their ideas. Tune in to hear their inspired vision for the platform -- with these two at the helm, the future looks bright. 

South Asian Trailblazers is an award-winning media platform, community, and agency dedicated to elevating leading South Asians. Join our community at SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. Subscribe to our newsletter to get new episodes and updates on our latest events in your inbox. Follow us @southasiantrailblazers on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Youtube, and all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify.

In our inaugural episode, Simi catches up with Sopan Deb, a journalist for the New York Times. Previously, he covered Donald Trump's presidential campaign for CBS. His work has appeared on The Boston Globe, Al Jazeera, NBC News, and other prominent news outlets. Sopan recently published his first book, Missed Translations: Meeting The Immigrant Parents Who Raised Me, which recounts a poignant reunion with his estranged parents. In this conversation, they leave no stone unturned: from the inspiration behind the book to the South Asian creatives that have inspired him. Sopan shares his journey to journalism and political intersections in the NBA and the... SpongeBob musical. Yes, you read that right -- you don't want to miss this episode.

South Asian Trailblazers is an award-winning media platform, community, and agency dedicated to elevating leading South Asians. Join our community at SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. Subscribe to our newsletter to get new episodes and updates on our latest events in your inbox. Follow us @southasiantrailblazers on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Youtube, and all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify.

Welcome to Trailblazers! In this trailer, we introduce our new podcast.

Trailblazers dives deep into the journeys of trailblazing South Asians, sharing the stories of the leaders and dreamers lighting the way across the Diaspora and beyond.  

South Asian Trailblazers is an award-winning media platform, community, and agency dedicated to elevating leading South Asians. Join our community at SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. Subscribe to our newsletter to get new episodes and updates on our latest events in your inbox. Follow us @southasiantrailblazers on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Youtube, and all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify.