Meet Diallo Jackson

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Diallo Jackson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Diallo below.

Hi Diallo, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

I didn’t quite find my purpose. My purpose found me. Or maybe, it was always there from the very start.

As long as I can remember, all I ever really wanted to do was create and build things. Crafting stories, drawing pictures. My imagination has always been running, non-stop. Even my literal dreams when I’m asleep are vivid, expressive, vibrant, and alive. Every night. My entire life. Some of the places that have appeared in those dreams I still remember, from 20, 30 years ago. That has always been my natural state.

But this world isn’t really geared toward that. So in some ways, I was lured away from my purpose, trying to fit into the “shoulds” and conventions. But my natural state isn’t spreadsheets, or even being particularly organized. It’s in finding cracks and crevices, the other side of what everyone already sees, and thinking of new ways to do things.

A life of failing to fit in has led me back to my purpose. Whether I succeed in it or not is another story. But the peace and alignment my brain and body feel when I get to create, regardless of any external idea of success, that’s what I was born to do. Or at least, that’s what my body is geared toward.

Now, I’m finding a way to do that within this world and system that demands money along with the content. But the pure joy I had when creating as a child, without expectations, without outcomes, just the act itself? That’s my purpose.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I spent a lot of time trying to follow all the “shoulds” in life, but I’ve come to realize that every experience I’ve had has actually brought me closer to who I really am, or at least helped clarify the version of me I want to become.

Teaching as a professor helped shift what I knew intellectually about writing and story structure into something I now feel in my bones. Even relationships that didn’t turn out how I hoped gave me insight into how people operate, and that human understanding continues to inform my storytelling.

Working in web design and development helped me leverage technology to find ways of getting my content seen without relying on traditional gatekeepers. It taught me how to build platforms from the ground up, including my own website and review series, Another Review… That You Didn’t Ask For. That experience gave me practical tools for sharing my work with the world on my own terms and building visibility outside the usual channels.

I also wrote the screenplay for a short film that won first place in the Producer’s Guild Shorts Competition. That experience taught me how to drop my ego and truly collaborate. I learned how to trust talented people to see the vision through, to let go when needed, and to recognize when it’s time to push for what matters.

More recently, I wrote on DinoPops, a show that gave me the chance to bring storytelling to younger audiences in a way that was both playful and meaningful. It also helped me realign my writing and realize how much I enjoy the spark, the energy, and the fun of creating for younger audiences. That sense of joy is something I try to carry into all of my work.

Right now, I’m focused on a grand vision. In 2018, I published a comic book called Angela and the Dark with co-creator Russell Fox, a project I’m deeply proud of. It’s a cyberpunk-infused action adventure featuring Angela, a young girl of color who crosses paths with a crew of shady techno-thieves called The Dark. Chaos ensues. We released Volume Zero as a level set and entry point into the world.

Then in 2023, we expanded the story into a motion comic, combining the original comic panels with animated elements, voice actors, original music, and a theme song composed by Doctor Who’s Murray Gold. The goal was to bring the story closer to my full vision: a fully animated series or feature film that can inspire and uplift young girls of color, while also creating a thrilling ride for kids of all backgrounds. Angela’s journey, a girl trying to find her place in a chaotic world, mirrors the very real experiences many young people face today. And through it all, we want to capture that same spark and sense of possibility that made us fall in love with stories as kids.

That’s the dream I’m actively pitching and working to bring to life. I’m also finishing a passion project, a fantasy novel that’s been living in my heart for a long time. These two projects, the world of Angela and the Dark and the novel, are what keep me going. They are more than creative work. They are the reason I’m here, doing what I do.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention The Paranormals, my very first published comic. That was the project that taught me the most important lesson of all: just do it. I didn’t wait for permission or the perfect moment. I made it happen, and that experience showed me what’s possible when you move forward with conviction, even before you feel ready. It was also how I met my future Angela and the Dark co-creator, Russell Fox, a connection that shaped everything that came next.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

This might be a little outside the box, but for me the biggest thing was that I had to live life. I know a lot of things. There are books, courses, and concepts you can learn. I have an MA in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. But in my 20s, I hadn’t lived enough to see the full picture. The real growth came from heartache, breakdowns, small wins, and a persistence born from what I’ve always liked to call “being too dumb to know when to quit.”

So if I had to name the three most impactful things that shaped my journey, they would be:

1.) Embodied Experience
There are things you can only learn by moving through life. Lessons that start in your head eventually have to settle into your body. You have to feel them. Some truths don’t make sense until you’ve been cracked open. And once they land, they change the way you create. They give your work texture and weight that theory alone can’t offer.

2.) Routine as a Foundation
There’s an emotional cost to creating. Especially in the past few years, I’ve dealt with challenges around focus and attention. What I’ve learned is that routines are key. If you stick with something long enough to make it a habit, you stop needing willpower every single time. It just becomes part of your day. That structure has helped me stay consistent and committed.

3.) Creative Obsession
Recently, I’ve adopted a sliver of the mindset the late Kobe Bryant called the “Mamba Mentality,” especially when it comes to writing my novel. Finding time has been a struggle. Survival often clashes with passion. So I made a choice to treat my work like it matters. To let myself become obsessed. Not in a destructive way, but with focus and intention. Because when we’re gone, it won’t be the errands or bills that define us. It will be the work we poured ourselves into.

How do I want to be remembered? For me, it won’t be about anything other than the creations that found their way to me, and allowed themselves to be expressed through me and take form in this reality.

“Ganbatte” and “Kaizen” are two Japanese words that mean a great deal to me and have become a kind of reorganizing focus in my life. Ganbatte means “do your best,” a reminder to keep going even when it’s hard. Kaizen means “continuous improvement,” the idea of steady, intentional growth over time. Nothing will ever be perfect. Perfection is stillness. But life is motion. Life is change. The goal is to keep showing up, to keep learning, and to keep moving forward.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in the past year is this: don’t go it alone. I’m still a work in progress when it comes to fully living that truth, but I’ve come to see just how essential it is. I can’t do everything on my own, and I’m not supposed to.

In that spirit, especially with Angela and the Dark, I’m looking for collaborators who see the vision and believe in it. Agents, producers, directors, storyboard artists, animators, anyone who feels that creative spark and wants to help bring this world to life and get it in front of the people. We already have a small team, but we’re looking to round out the enterprise with passionate, aligned people who can help us take it to the next stage.

One of the key themes in Angela and the Dark is that we’re stronger together. You can be wildly capable, but you’re never more effective than when you’re surrounded by people who have your back. It takes a cyberpunk village.

We would love for the world to experience this story the way we’ve always imagined it: as a spark of wonder, joy, and inspiration. The kind of feeling I had as a kid watching my favorite cartoons and shows. That sense that anything is possible when your dream aligns with purpose, and you have a little help along the way.

Because no one does it alone.

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