Tambay Amadi Obenson (b. 1975) ^[undefined] is a Los Angeles-based film critic, filmmaker, and entrepreneur. He is currently a writer and journalist at IndieWire, a film review website. His interests lie within writing about and participating in projects involving independent film and Black cinema.^[1]

He is also notable for founding Shadow and Act, a website dedicated to covering Black talent and entertainment across the television and film industries.

Obenson was born in Nigeria.^[undefined]

Obenson has launched and operated several small businesses over the course of his career.

In 2005, he founded an independent film distribution company called Voyager Film Company Inc. in an effort to create more awareness for indie films by and about people of African descent. In accordance with his steadfast belief in collective power, in 2009, Tambay teamed up with other black cinema bloggers to create a single web portal for cinema of Africa and Africana diaspora.^[1]

In 2008, Obenson founded a site called the Obenson Report.

He later renamed it to Shadow and Act, an allusion to Ralph Ellison's 1964 collection of essays. The website immediately gained traction and became one of the primary web destinations for black film, worldwide.

After founding the website, Tambay began speaking on topics related to black cinema, moderated panel discussions, hosted filmmaker conversations, and judged filmmaker talent at film festivals and educational institutions around the world.

In 2010, Obenson co-founded a film financing company called Shadow and Act Films LLC.

Adjoined with the website, Shadow and Act Films focused on providing funding for films relevant to the Black culture made by Black filmmakers.

They hosted an annual competition which provided production funds to filmmakers with winning screenplays.^[1]

In early 2017, Tambay sold the Shadow and Act website to Blavity.^[1]

In the early 2010's, Tambay co-founded the New Voices in Black Cinema Festival, which takes place annually at BAMCinematek in Brooklyn.^[1]

In 2003, Tambay Obenson directed and produced his first feature film called Beautiful Things;^[undefined] the film was released in 2006.^[undefined] The film is about two young artists (an actress and a filmmaker) struggling to make some inroads into their respective careers, while working to bring an end to the loneliness they feel as single adults in a big city.^[undefined]

In 2009, Obenson appeared in Indie Film Blogger Road Trip, a documentary about bloggers' participation in the world of independent film blogging. Tambay expressed his thoughts in the Sujewa Ekanayake film.

He was also an associate producer for the film Endless Shards of Jazz for a Brutal World (2015).^[undefined]