Tyshun Wardlaw

Tyshun Wardlaw learned early on in her electronic media career that stories are one of the best ways to make a brand relatable. A well-crafted story allows others to see themselves in the stories of the brand. Those potential customers and clients will recognize the brand relates to them as individuals.

Wardlaw has found a niche in that marketplace as executive director and producer of Wardlaw Productions.

“As a woman- and minority-owned production company, I’m creating an organization and culture by creating a platform as video storytelling to become a powerful change agent,” she said.

Wardlaw Production is a boutique woman- and minority-owned film and television production company with offices in Milwaukee and Chicago. It creates and produces independent/studio films, feature and short documentaries and television projects focused on branded storytelling for both the private and public sector.

“As Wardlaw Productions continues to scale, we plan to continue using the power of storytelling by providing minority representation in the production process,” Wardlaw said. “Helping craft diverse narratives gives us the power to dictate what is said about us and how our stories are revealed in the media and corporate branding because we’re creating the narratives.”

As one of the few women-owned and minority-owned production companies in the Midwest, Wardlaw Productions is positioned to grow in the coming years, and it intends to engage national and international contracts and film opportunities, the company said.

Wardlaw spent the first 10 years of her career in news broadcasting, daytime talk and freelance producing for several production companies. She worked for WISN 12 News and CBS 58 and as a show production assistant on “The Jeff Probst Show” in Los Angeles, a researcher on “The Steve Harvey Show” in Chicago and a production assistant for New Chapter Entertainment in Chicago, where she also worked in development.

She knew, though, that she wanted to create and direct her own content. About seven years ago, she started doing just that with her own production company, Wardlaw Productions.

One year after starting her company, Wardlaw was named the winner of the national McDonald’s “My Community” video competition at the 2016 American Black Film Festival for her short video commercial. Her short video highlighted the need for the influence of fathers in the lives of their children, healthy eating, and working for the good of one’s community.

One year later, she created her first short film, “Hummingbird: A Sister’s Courage,” which depicts a woman who goes undercover to rescue her teenage sister from a human trafficking operation.

Wardlaw directed and produced the “Growing Up Milwaukee” documentary, which is streaming on HBO Max. She is in development and pre-production as the director and producer of a feature-length NBA documentary about the Milwaukee Bucks.

In the spring of 2020, she won the Trailblazer award for Diversity in Business from the Milwaukee Business Journal.

“I am very committed to the Milwaukee community and extremely persistent,” Wardlaw said. “I am engaged with building communities through video partnerships. My world is captured through a third eye — my camera lens.”