Sky Dylan-Robbins

Born and raised in New York City,[5] Dylan-Robbins is the only child of media personality and education entrepreneur Ellie Dylan and Steven Robbins, a business executive.[6] She attended the Rudolf steiner school on Manhattan’s Upper East Side[7] and went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts in Radio/Television/Film, Italian, and Sociology from Northwestern University, cum laude.[8] She spent her junior year making films in Italy[9][10] and studying cinema at the University of Bologna.

Dylan-Robbins began her career at Tumblr as its editorial video lead.[11] With journalist Jessica Bennett and media executive Chris Mohney,[12] she covered subcultures, news, and trends among the platform's 475 million blogs for its online magazine, Storyboard,[13] while partnering with media outlets like Time[14] and WNYC.[15]

In 2013, she was hired by The New Yorker’s Nicholas Thompson to produce the magazine's video series[16] and short documentaries. Dylan-Robbins worked at the magazine when video was becoming the focus of media outlets as a tool for growth and developed The New Yorker’s video strategy.[17] During her four years at the magazine, Dylan-Robbins reported[4] on a range of topics from the rise of e-cigarettes[18] and the overuse of c-sections[19] to California's deadly drought[20] and psilocybin’s healing effects on the terminally ill.[21][22] She helped migrate the magazine onto emerging platforms like Snapchat[23] to reach a younger audience.

In 2017, Dylan-Robbins left the magazine for NBC to help launch a new video initiative under the umbrella of NBC News.[24] She worked across digital, streaming, and broadcast departments,[25] reporting on stories in America,[26][27] Japan,[28] Italy,[29] and the Balkans.[30] She worked at NBC exactly forty years after her mother, Ellie Dylan, was at the network,[31] which inspired Dylan-Robbins to use old segments from her mother's reportage and feature them to show changing trends across the decades.[32][33] While at The New Yorker, Dylan-Robbins founded the Video Consortium,[3] a 501(c)3-registered nonprofit network that supports, develops, and connects the next generation of video journalists and documentary filmmakers with resources, tools, and jobs.[34] The network has chapters around the world.[35][36][37][38] Dylan-Robbins serves as its Executive Director.

Dylan-Robbins is recognized for her media innovation and was chosen by Forbes magazine as a 30 under 30 in the Media category.[39] She has received numerous journalism accolades, including Pictures of the Year International,[40] New York Press Club,[41] the Newswomen's Club of New York,[42] the James Beard Foundation,[43] and the Society of Publication Designers.[44] She won a Webby Award in 2013 for her work with Storyboard.[45]