Programmatic, FAST And Queerness – The Trifecta Of Revry’s Future
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By Alyssa Boyle
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Alia J. Daniels will be honored at the 2026 Cynopsis Top Women in Media Awards Gala on November 4 in New York City. Join us for an unforgettable evening celebrating the most influential women in media, entertainment and advertising. You have a few more days to save $100 on your ticket when you use code TWIM26 by Friday, October 30. Valid for new registrations only.
The law-professional-to-queer-media-founder pipeline is not a particularly common one.
But it’s exactly how Alia J. Daniels came to co-found Revry, a free streaming platform centering LGBTQ+ storylines. Revry is home to PrismRiot, a programmatic ad exchange that also connects advertisers to other multicultural and diverse-owned publishers.
Daniels studied entertainment and corporate law at Loyola Law School in LA. Turns out, a solid legal background comes in handy for building a sustainable business in monetizing multicultural programming. But the plan was always to work in the entertainment sector, she told me.
Specifically, Daniels saw an opportunity to build a sustainable business that addresses the lack of diverse representation on television. Revry’s content slate includes a comedy series called “Gayborhood,” a lesbian drama titled “To the Stars” and a new competition reality show called “King of Drag,” which is sponsored by e.l.f. Cosmetics.
I spoke with Daniels about her vision for Revry and what it takes to make a multicultural streaming platform succeed, from free ad-supported TV (FAST) offerings to the programmatic pipes in the background.
STREAMLINED: What inspired you during your legal studies to become a business owner and found Revry?
ALIA J. DANIELS: My studies focused on business, entertainment and communications in mass media. I also spent some time doing employment law, which included working with folks starting small businesses, such as production companies.
The inspiration for Revry hit when I wrote my thesis about how minority groups are represented on TV, which included telling the stories of people who couldn’t see themselves in modern TV. At the same time, I always knew that the future of TV would end up online. So, ever since 2010, I knew what I wanted to do was to establish an online TV network – and I knew I wanted to work to create representation of the queer community. There was a massive untapped opportunity in LGBTQ+ storytelling because there simply wasn’t a TV network dedicated to queer media.
During my studies, I also met a colleague who would become another Revry co-founder, Chris Rodriquez. In 2015, we joined forces to form Revry. We started by establishing relationships with queer content creators who would wind up in our programming library. We officially launched as a company in 2016 during San Francisco Pride.
What expertise did you develop at law school that has helped you make Revry a profitable company while pursuing that vision?
Much of my studies focused on the intersection of law and the business of digital media. That business background was really helpful in terms of understanding the intricacies of standing up a new company and how to address any legal questions or concerns that may arise along the way.
Knowing how to get started from a business perspective and having a pulse on the developing trends in media and entertainment is what laid the foundation for Revry.
For example, we really leaned heavily into FAST before FAST became the buzzword that it is today. We wanted to make sure that queer, representative storytelling is widely accessible to audiences that don’t typically get to see themselves on the big screen on the wall – especially queer identities outside of gay cisgender white men who are centered in mainstream queer storylines. Plus, having a clear understanding of the legal considerations involved in content licensing and distribution was incredibly helpful in standing up a business that revolves around FAST, which was still very much the wild west when we were fleshing out our FAST business roughly 10 years ago.
What other developments at Revry are you especially excited about?
I’ve been really excited about the growth we’re seeing with PrismRiot, which is our programmatic ad exchange that connects advertisers with other diverse-owned, multicultural-focused publishers.
PrismRiot is our answer to helping brands who want to secure scale in their campaigns but without having to buy additional audience extension deals on random platforms. Because those platforms just represent eyeballs – and that’s not what our clients desire. The reach needs to be relevant.
For diverse-owned publishers, a simplified way to reach a wide swath of advertisers interested in their inventory creates ways for those publishers to generate incremental revenue. And that additional revenue stream gives them the ability to invest in creating more programming to grow their audience and business.
Turning to the programming itself, which content on Revry are you particularly amped about?
I’m very excited about “King of Drag” that recently premiered. The drag king community is small and it doesn’t get the love and spotlight that it deserves, so giving the community this platform and having drag kings see themselves represented on screen has been huge.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.
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