Elon D. Johnson AAG ’94: Producing stories not found in Hollywood

Elon Johnson’s workplace is so large she might drive 15 minutes or more to get to a meeting. She passes Italian city streets, nightclubs, polished homes, a rundown trailer park, a yacht, and the White House.

“It’s almost to scale,” she said, of the Oval Office. “You’re not allowed to make it exact.”

It was this setting, the 330-acre Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, that hooked Johnson seven years ago when she interviewed for an executive position. An Emmy-nominated producer who had built critically-acclaimed shows for BET, Anderson Cooper, NBC and MTV, she was not eager to leave New York City. 

“But when I got here they gave me a tour. As soon as I got into the golf cart, I said ‘I’m moving to Atlanta,’’’ recalled Johnson, 49, now vice president of current programming. 

At Albany Academy for Girls, Johnson was an especially engaged student who started a culture club.

At Columbia University, she double majored in African American studies and comparative literature, and planned to become a cultural anthropology professor. Instead, she has pursued a high-caliber film and TV production career, from the heyday of MTV music videos to today’s streaming platforms.  

“What I’m doing now is 100% cultural,” she said by phone from her Atlanta office. “Everyone deserves their stories to be told. Let’s see diversity. How can we add layers to someone we haven’t seen or something we haven’t seen before?”

In late March, the Aspen Global Leadership Network recognized Johnson’s contributions by naming her among the first recipients of its Michael D. Eisner Arts and Culture Fellowship. The program brings together 26 influential artists, executives and other creative leaders who have used cultural expression to have a positive impact.

Even before joining Tyler Perry Studios, one of the nation’s largest film studios, Johnson was telling stories across demographics. 

She was nominated for an Emmy for an Anderson Cooper Live show she wrote and produced on bullying. She was behind BET’s flagship hip hop and R&B show 106 & Park, and Vh1’s reality show Mob Wives. Her credits also included The Megan Mullally Show and The Nate Berkus Show.

In joining Perry’s company she embraced his emphasis on creating programming for largely underserved Black audiences. 

 “This was important to me,” recalled Johnson.  "I’m Black and want people to know Black stories. And I so highly believe in building Black wealth.”

The granddaughter of immigrants from Barbados, she was born in Brooklyn. Her family moved to Troy after her parents divorced.  

Johnson started in public school, but her family wanted her to have the opportunities a private education offered. She enrolled at Albany Academy for Girls in ninth grade and soaked up classes with no more than half a dozen students. 

Being one of just three Black students in her class of 22, however, was an adjustment. She had never wanted for anything, but now saw people her age with  material wealth. 

“It was all the things I needed and wanted,” recalls Johnson, who returned to the school as the 2023 commencement speaker. “But it was a change of environment. It was a big challenge, but it was also wonderful.”

Johnson made friends from various social circles and served in student government. In 10th grade she created a culture club to celebrate traditions of Black, Hispanic and Asian students.

Perhaps most memorable were the teachers who took the time to discuss books with her. These include Audrey Koester, the head librarian and culture club advisor, whom Johnson remains in touch with. Also, the late Diane Burrows, her English teacher. 

“I read Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, alone in her classroom,” Johnson recalls. “We’d talk about the books and she showed me how to really dive in and pull things out, it was just the way Columbia teaches.”  

She attended Columbia with an eye toward an academic career. Before pursuing a doctorate, she

wrote for music and lifestyle magazines. That led to a job at MTV, and a new career trajectory.   

She joined Tyler Perry Studios in 2019 as vice president for development, discovering series and films. Last year, she became vice president of current programming. Her title, she says, means many different things as she travels, largely by car, to various sets. 

She was creative executive of the 2025 Netflix hit film Ruth & Boaz, a re-telling of a biblical love story. Johnson oversees the long-running Sistas, a BET show following the close friendship of five single Black women. 

She is also producing the seventh season of Ruthless, the saga of a woman trying to escape a religious cult. Her next appointment was to visit the set to see that the scripts were in actors’ hands, the hair and makeup people had specific plans and wardrobe people could show her dozens of looks they had in mind. 

“Producing means I have responsibility for the whole production creatively,” she explained. “I don’t like to be surprised.”

Elon Johnson '94 returned to Academy as the 2023 Albany Academy for Girls commencement speaker and was inducted into the Albany Academy Arts Hall of Fame in 2024.