Biography

Joel Newton is the co-founder of immersive entertainment company CityLights. With a mission to use virtual and augmented reality to enhance narrative storytelling, CityLights provides production financing for virtual art projects, as well as distribution to all major platforms. With works ranging from films to museum exhibitions, CityLights consistently showcases how virtual and augmented reality is not a tech product, but actually the cutting edge of creative filmmaking.

Newton brings over 20 years of experience in Hollywood to CityLights, working as an artist manager for many years representing writers and directors and also producing films, including The Kids Are All Right which won Best Picture at the Golden Globes and received four Academy Award Nominations. With a belief in the power of new technology to transform how we tell stories, Newton went on to co-found The Virtual Reality Company with Robert Stromberg, Guy Primus, and Chris Edwards. Together with director Ridley Scott, they developed The Martian VR Experience in 2016, which went on to win a prestigious Cannes Lion award.

In 2018, CityLights acquired Executive Producer Darren Aronofsky's "Spheres," the space-themed narrative three-piece series that debuted at Sundance and won the Grand Prix at the Venice International Film Festival. It was also the first-ever VR project to screen at Telluride. In January 2019, CityLights produced a sold out Spheres Pop-Up at Rockefeller Center. They also recently announced The MVP Experience, an extended reality project featuring NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes, in which fans can put on a VR headset and be transported into the shoes of the star quarterback.

This year also marks Newton's directorial debut with the multi-million dollar virtual reality experience, Tutankhamun: Enter The Tomb, which was created and produced by CityLights and will debut as a new immersive theater gallery within the record-breaking King Tut museum exhibit which is touring the world and produced by IMG.

Joel attended the University of Southern California's film school and lives in LA with his wife and four kids.
- IMDb mini biography by: Lauren Busto