Ilan Zechory
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Ilan Zechory
Ilan Zechory is the former founder of Genius Media Group Inc along with classmate friends Tom Lehman and Mahbod Moghadam. Ilan was a blogger in college with a substantial cult following.
Zechory resigned from Genius in 2020, and his wife Audrey Gelman resigned from The Wing. [27]
Education & Career
Ilan Zechory graduated from Yale University with a Religious Studies major. He is married to Audrey Gelman, the inspiration for the character "Marni" on the show Girls.
Ilan previously wrote for the TV show John from Cincinnati and worked for Google before joining the Genius tgruop in 2010 (at the time known as Rap Genius).
Ilan is a trained hypnotist.
References
[1]
Citation Linkwww.finance.yahoo.comVideo interview where Ilan claims (Rap) Genius is going to become bigger than Google
May 24, 2015, 8:24 PM
[2]
Citation Linktheworm.nycMahbod Moghadamwishes his ex-cofounder "mazel tov" on his engagement to Audrey Gelman- this is very funny!Kind of mean but very tongue-in-cheek - you can tell that Ilan and Mahbo will always love each other, deep down inside..
Sep 5, 2015, 10:27 PM
[3]
Citation Linkyoutube.comIlan announces that Eminemhas a verified account on Rap Geniuson Sway Calloway's radio show and also revises the history of Rap Genius claiming he was on board with the website the same weekend Mahbod and Tom created it...
Oct 13, 2015, 5:23 PM
[4]
Citation Linktwitter.comIlan's Twitterpage.His logo is good ole' Mikhail Gorbachevand his port wine stain.
Oct 25, 2015, 6:33 AM
[5]
Citation Linkilanzechory.comIlan's hypnosis website: Ilan was a "hypnotist to the stars" (his clients included the Olsen twins!) until the middle of Genius' time in Y-Combinator, at which point he quit hypnosis and started working on the site
May 24, 2015, 8:21 PM
[6]
Citation Linknews.ycombinator.comIlan's YCombinator username, some really interesting old replies to Rap Geniusrelated stuff in there.Kinda cool.
Oct 3, 2015, 4:13 AM
[7]
Citation Linkcrainsdetroit.comIlan's bio: he was a project manager at Google and a writer for Showtime before beginning Genius.
Jul 27, 2015, 6:27 AM
[8]
Citation Linkwsj.comIlan on The Wall Street Journalpodcast in October 2016.He talks about their ambitions to annotate the Internet, and shifting to mobile & video
Oct 5, 2016, 10:23 PM
[9]
Citation Linkhiphopdx.comIlan explains how Nas became one of Genius' first investors, and details the challenge of getting licenses from the music industry in order to display lyrics, even though Genius' annotation of lyrics is likely "transformative Fair Use", meaning the licenses were not in fact required
May 24, 2015, 8:22 PM
[10]
Citation Linkweb.archive.orgThe archived version of the post Mahbod Moghadamwrote about Ilan's engagement to Audrey Gelman(the original was taken down).
Apr 25, 2016, 3:17 PM
[12]
Citation Linkeveripedia-storage.s3.amazonaws.comIlan with his partner, Tom Lehman
Jun 10, 2016, 10:54 PM
[14]
Citation Linkyoutube.comIlan and Mahbod Moghadamwere featured on RTL Televisionin Germany for the "Rap Map", the first feature on Rap Geniusto get heavy media coverage, in 2010.
Aug 1, 2016, 9:46 AM
[15]
Citation Linkcrunchbase.comIlan's page on Crunchbase.He is originally from Detroit, Michigan.
Oct 29, 2015, 11:32 PM
[16]
Citation Linkgenius.comIlan's annotated blog posts from his blog, "The Actual God", which has been removed from the Internet.These posts inspired Mahbod Moghadamto also start blogging, which formed the core of what would later become the Rap Geniusearly team.
May 22, 2016, 2:54 AM
[17]
Citation Linkyoutube.comIlan speaking at the DLD -Annotate the World conference 2013 alongside Geniusco-founders Mahbod Moghadamand Tom Lehman
Oct 25, 2016, 5:05 AM
[20]
Citation Linkyoutube.comIlan backstage at TechCrunchDisrupt 2013 with Mahbod Moghadamand Tom Lehman
Oct 25, 2016, 5:07 AM