About
Brandii M. Toby-Leon is an award-winning, forward-looking communications leader with more than 20 years of publicity, media relations and writing experience in the entertainment and lifestyle industries. Currently an independent consultant, she is available for general counsel, strategic communications planning, writing, public relations, and talent management services. She is particularly interested in purpose-driven pursuits and welcomes the opportunity to contribute her skills accordingly.
Since 2013, Toby-Leon has served as an independent public/media relations contractor with various publicity and marketing agencies, such as Strathmore, Girl on the Roof, Pop N’ Creative, The Prenner Group, PowerHaus Consultants, Dr. Yashima, Leonard George, and Bullseye Communications. In this role, she has spearheaded publicity campaigns and earned media outreach for a vast array of clients including PBS, TEGNA, GBH, Remedy Television+Branded, Urban One, Cartoon Network’s “My HairStory,” TBS' “Friday Night Vibes” and “HBCU Cash Out,” Vickie Howell’s “The Knit Show,” NAMIC, Atlanta Dream, Albany Park, CHRISTALine Studios, ANCHOR: Affordable North Carolina Housing Organization, Luke’s Wings, Jack and Jill of America, and Artist Michael DeFeo.
Previously, Toby-Leon served as TV One's director of public relations, which included a six-month stint serving as the network's interim department head. She managed the network’s overall communications activities, including original programming consumer publicity, external and internal executive announcements, trade outreach, and celebrity media relations.
Toby-Leon spearheaded TV One's 2016 trade publicity efforts for its REPRESENT rebrand, Upfront and Empire acquisition, as well as led publicity and executive speaker placement for TV One at key 2015 and 2016 industry events, including the American Black Film Festival, Cablefax Multiscreen Summit, INTX, Realscreen Summit, PromaxBDA Conference and Summer TCA. In addition, she developed and executed press strategies for TV One’s original movies, series, awards shows, and news specials, such as "Runaway Island," "Girlfriends Getaway 2," "Rickey Smiley For Real," "The Game of Dating," NAACP Image Awards 2016, CNN-TV One Ohio Democratic Presidential Town Hall and NewsOne Now's "Election Night Watch Party," and more.
Her efforts at TV One resulted in a vast array of trade, consumer, and urban media coverage: Multichannel News, Target Market News, Cynopsis, PromaxBDA Brief, Cablefax Daily, Programming Insider, BrandChannel.com, YAHOO! News, VARIETY, Deadline Hollywood, Broadcasting & Cable, Media Life Magazine, WorldScreen, Associated Press, TV Week, Ad Week, MediaPost, Realscreen, SNL Kagan, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters, MSNBC News Nation with Tamron Hall, The Wendy Williams Show, Access Hollywood, The Steve Harvey Show, Hollywood Today Live, Late Night with Stephen Colbert, Essence.com, JetMag.com, Ebony.com, and more.
Before TV One, she spent seven years at Scripps Networks Interactive, serving as DIY Network’s public relations department head. In this role, she oversaw the network’s press strategies for more than 40 series and served as the primary liaison between consumer and trade media, and more than 50 of the home improvement channel’s talent and senior executives. Under her leadership, DIY Network received tremendous media attention, including regular home improvement and landscaping segments on national morning shows, such as NBC’s Today, ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS This Morning, and inclusion in articles for such leading publications as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA TODAY, TIME, Men’s Health, Sports Illustrated and more.
Of particular note, Toby-Leon spearheaded and managed DIY Network’s most successful publicity campaign in its history by garnering millions of media impressions and a 2011 Hermes Award for the series debut of The Vanilla Ice Project, featuring ‘90s pop icon Vanilla Ice. Other notable series publicity efforts she executed included The Bronson Pinchot Project and the popular Man Caves series, and Crashers franchise. Toby-Leon also developed award-winning publicity campaigns for Blog Cabin, the first-ever interactive homebuilding series, and Celebrity Rides: Burt Builds A Bandit, a limited series featuring Burt Reynolds, resulting in Platinum PR, Beacon and CableFAXIES awards.
Toby-Leon’s expertise also includes noteworthy trade and event media coverage garnered for DIY Network’s Vanilla Ice Goes Amish, Bronson Saves America, Daryl’s Restoration Over-Hall, Rev. Run’s Renovation and sister property HGTV’s experiential events, such as SXSW 2013, Comic-Con 2013, HGTV The Lodge at CMA 2012 & 2013, and HGTV Holiday House at Mall of America 2012. She also raised executive profiles by securing Multichannel News “Women to Watch,” “CableFAX “Also Influential List” and “Most Powerful Women in Cable: The Second 50” and VARIETY’s 2013 Daytime TV Impact Honorees accolades for the DIY Network/HGTV general manager.
Early in her career, Toby-Leon was the publicity manager for the Fox Television Stations duopoly in New York City (WNYW-TV and WWOR-TV). Her background also includes a stint with LB Lipman Public Relations, where she handled publicity for the nationally syndicated television shows Maximum Exposure and Real TV. She began her career as a production and publicity assistant for the nationally syndicated talk show, Leeza.
For many years, she was an active member of Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) and served as the Southeast chapter’s senior director of communications from 2010-2011. She received the 2009 WICT Atlanta Rising Star and Cheryl Greene Fellowship Awards. She holds current and past memberships with the Entertainment Publicists Professional Society (EPPS), Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), and National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC).
In addition, she is a 2010 WICT Rising Leaders graduate and a 2007 NAMIC’s Leadership Seminar alumni. Toby-Leon is a graduate of American University’s School of Communication with a master’s degree in journalism and public affairs, and holds bachelor’s degrees in communications (TV/film) and criminal justice from California State University, Fullerton.
When she isn't "thinking like a journalist and pitching like a publicist," she enjoys cross-country road trips, international travel, reading, binge-watching, dancing, exploring her community, and spending time with her husband and daughter.
