“When I was three years old, I used to walk around with a box over my head saying, ‘I want to be in TV,’” Jessica L. Ransom says. The sentiment didn’t change as she got older. Following her internship at a local cable access station, she embarked on a career in production, learning the elements for television, commercial, film, and digital media. She spent over six years in reality TV, working on shows like “Alaskan Bush People,” “Teen Mom,” and “16 and Pregnant,” and as a commercial and branded content producer with over eight years of experience, she created spots for companies like Panera, Google, Kit Kat, and Diet Coke. Now, she is the owner and operator of The Gig Media, which she co-runs with Leyla T. Rosario. Under The Gig Media, Ransom helps create, write, and produce an array of diverse projects for Netflix, Vox, and other platforms. “My quest to create awareness, break the status quo, and my focus on creating content that features BIPOC, LGBTQ, age diversity, and body positivity remains my true mission in life,” Ransom tells GO. “Television is my first love, but diversity is my passion.” With her web series under The Gig Media umbrella, similarly titled, “The Gig” — which she writes, produces, and co-hosts — Ransom discusses film and TV on the screen and behind the scenes from a diverse lens and interviews BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and female talent in the entertainment industry. Of all that she has done, Ransom is most proud of her work at The Gig Media, which “focuses on having film and TV production reflect the world. … The world includes gay, straight, queer, trans, bi, Black, white, Asian, and Indian people,” she says. “The Gig embodies the voices that have been silenced for decades.” —RK
