Jesse Byrd is an award-winning children’s book author and the youngest African American NPR Foundation Board Member. He started his professional journey as a Silicon Valley techie before pivoting to pursue his true passion of creating stories for audiences young and old. Jesse has been fortunate to perform readings of his children’s books to over 25,000 kids and is currently in partnership with Airbnb Experiences to provide families and corporations with virtual storytime experiences during COVID. Aside from traditional and independent publishing, Jesse is also working with one NBA athlete and three non-profits to develop original stories for young readers. He’s also been hard at work adapting two of his children’s books for consideration to become animated TV series (fingers crossed!).

Jesse loves french toast with sliced strawberries, reading, writing, film, video games, and warm popcorn. He also makes a mean milkshake (or at least, he thinks so). Jesse has swum with sharks and stingrays, snuggled lions, and draped a boa constrictor around his neck but, at 6 feet 8 inches tall, he is most afraid of butterflies.