Tom Akel

Tom Akel is the co-writer of Stan Lee’s Backchannel and the CEO & Publisher of Rocketship Entertainment – a publishing, consumer product, and entertainment company with multiple Eisner-nominated and Ringo Award-winning series. Prior to Rocketship, Tom led the U.S. expansion of Webtoon as Head of Content where he oversaw a portfolio of over 150 titles while developing key partnerships with Crunchyroll, CAA, Image/Top Cow, and Legendary Entertainment while, an an editor, winning back to back Ringo Awards for Best Webcomic for Dean Haspiel’s The Red Hook and Sanford Greene’s 1000, as well as an Eisner nomination for Ryan Benjamin’s Brothers Bond.

He previously served as Executive Producer and Executive Editor of MTV Digital, responsible for 360 digital extensions of 175 seasons of MTV shows ranging from Teen Wolf to Jersey Shore, and while there founded MTV Geek and MTV Comics. At Comedy Central and Spike TV, Tom founded their mobile divisions where he produced South Park 10: The Game, the first network streaming app, Comedy Central Take Out– named Fierce Mobile App of the Year, the first made-for-mobile animated series Samurai Love God starring Ed Helms and Nick Kroll, produced and directed Robert Kirkman’s Battle Pope: The Animated Series, and wrote and directed Stan Lee’s voicetones. Tom holds an MFA in Design + Technology from Parsons School of Design in New York and resides in Los Angeles, CA.