TOM RIELLY
Community Director, TED Conferences
Film & LGBTQ+ Producer/Activist
Tom Rielly is a serial entrepreneur and NGO founder who created the acclaimed international TED Fellows program in 2009’s TED Conferences. There are currently 531 TED Fellows in all disciplines and from over 100 countries, whose global impact reaches 500,000+ people each year. Fellows have been awarded MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, Oscar, Emmy, and Tony nominations, among many other achievements.
Tom has been part of the TED community for 34 years, attending over 46 TED events all over the world. He has entertained numerous crowds with his TED Conference satires from 1995 to 2008.
Along with TED Fellow William Kamkwamba, best-selling author of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Tom founded Moving Windmills Project, a 15-year-old ambitious NGO that works on innovation and community economic development in rural Malawi.
Tom’s early career reflects his passion for tech and the Web, whose power he was quick to recognize. After working at Mac-related companies SuperMac, Farallon, and Voyager, Tom was founder and CEO of PlanetOut, the largest digital home for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people from 1995–2002. With Karen Wickre, he also co-founded the influential nonprofit Digital Queers (1993–2000), which helped LGBTQ groups get modern technology and educated the community on the coming technology wave.
Tom was educated at The Sorbonne, Georgetown, and Yale, where he dropped out to enter the nascent tech industry.
He enjoys his family, including grandchild Lorraine (4), film, tech, instant stage comedy, LGBT+ activism, all things African community economic development, and comprehensive mentoring. He resides in the Palm Springs area.
Filmmaking
- Co-founder Chaotic Guide For the Queer Moving Image (chaoticguide.com) 2020
- Special Thanks for The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Netflix 2019
- Executive Producer, Sundance Short The Joy of Life by Jenni Olson, 2015
- Donated editing equipment, The Celluloid Closet, 1996
- Donor on many films, 1990 on
- Reissman, speaking part My Bodyguard, 1980
LGBT Accomplishments
- Board Member, Frameline, the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, 1988–89
- LGBT Workplace discrimination/Domestic Partnerships Advocate, 1988–2001
- Editor, Newsletter Queer Nation, San Francisco, 1990
- Co-Founder, Digital Queers, influential NGO rebuilding U.S. LGBT org’s tech infrastructure and training leaders about tech, 1992–1995
- Founder and CEO of PlanetOut, first gay anything with over 1M people, first V.C. funded, first to go public, 1995–2002
- Co-founder, PopcornQ, the first website devoted to queer-themed films, featuring online clips 10 years before YouTube
- Subject of chapter in Signorile’s book Queer in America
- Guest columnist, The Advocate, 1995
- Advisory Board GLAAD Social Media Safety Index, 2022