Bio
Charlie Fink covers AI and XR for Forbes and co-hosts The AI/XR Podcast. He is the author of the critically acclaimed AR-enabled books Charlie Fink’s Metaverse (2017) and Convergence: How the World Will Be Painted With Data (2019). Fink teaches at Chapman University in Orange, CA, and at Arizona State University’s LA graduate program in Emerging Media. In 2024, he co-founded ANIM8 AI Studio with Lion King director Rob Minkoff.
Fink's forty-year career at the intersection of storytelling and technology began at Walt Disney Feature Animation in 1986, where he famously conceived the idea for The Lion King and subsequently became the studio’s youngest creative vice president.
Fink's work in immersive media began in 1992 as COO of Virtual World Entertainment, a groundbreaking location-based VR company founded by Tim Disney and Jordan Weisman. In 1995, AOL recruited him as Senior Vice President and Chief Creative Officer of AOL Studios. After selling his subsequent venture-backed startup, eAgents, to American Greetings Interactive, Fink spent a decade as Producer and Chairman of the New York Musical Festival, which nurtured Broadway hits "Title of Show," "Next to Normal," and "Guttenberg!"
Fink’s career as a tech writer began in 2016, where his blog post about VR and AR attracted the attention of a Forbes editor. Since then, he has written over 1,000 stories, moderated dozens of panels, delivered keynotes and book talks all over the world.
