Nikhil Taneja

Nikhil Taneja is a multi-award winning writer, producer, podcaster, entrepreneur and mental health & gender equality advocate.

Nikhil is the creator and host of ‘Be A Man, Yaar!’, the viral Indian chat series on positive masculinity, as well as of 'Brave Talks', a podcast on mental health. He’s the co-founder and Chief of Yuvaa, India’s first Gen Z-driven youth media, research and impact organization. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the girls’ education focused international non-profit, Girl Rising and has previously served on the Global Advisory Board of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations’ SDG-focused community, Goalkeepers.

He is a proud Special Jury Awardee of the Kamla Bhasin Award 2024 for enabling a gender-just ecosystem across South Asia. He also won the Laadli Foundation Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2024. 

Nikhil has previously led creative teams across Yash Raj Films and MTV India, and found most joy in being a professor of journalism at Jai Hind College, Mumbai. In almost two decades, Nikhil has created digital content, web series, TV shows as well as movies on and around social impact, including creative producing the 6 Pack Band, India's first transgender pop group, which won the Cannes Grand Prix Glass Lion Award.

With Yuvaa, Nikhil has traveled for several months across India to 40+ cities and 150+ colleges to meet 20,000+ young people, to document the mental health and identity issues faced by India's Gen Z and to create safe spaces for young people to express themselves.