Keely Cat-Wells

About

Keely Cat-Wells

Keely Cat-Wells is an Entrepreneur and Disability Rights Activist dedicated to making social, systemic, and economic change. Keely founded her first company at a young age during her time in hospital, which developed into C Talent.

C Talent is an award-winning talent management and consulting company that represents high-profile Deaf and Disabled talent. C Talent’s goal is to change the way the world views and defines disability, utilizing the entertainment, advertising, and media industries’ massive reach and power. C Talent works to place disabled talent into all roles, not just disability-specific roles – normalizing disabled people being experts in subjects beyond disability. C Talent has placed talent in thousands of projects with brands such as Savage X Fenty, HBO, Hulu, About-Face, Disney, Google Pixel, Subaru, Nike, and many more. C Talent is proud to represent a roster of artists who have a combined reach of over 50 million people!

In May 2022, C Talent was acquired by creator commerce company, Whalar. This acquisition marks one of the largest investments ever made in Disabled talent within the creator industry.

Keely has participated as a Disability subject matter expert in discussions with the President of the United States, Joe Biden and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Keely has been appointed as an Advisory Board Member to Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation and sits on the Board of Directors for No Barriers USA and 2-Gether International.

Keely has spoken for companies and organizations including, The LEGO Group, United Nations, NBC, Vidmob, Cannes Lions, Cannes Film Festival, The Valuable 500, and Virgin Media among others. In addition she was a youth leader at the inaugural Mental Health Youth Action Forum hosted by MTV Entertainment Group, in coordination with the Biden-Harris Administration and 18 leading mental health nonprofits. Selena Gomez, First Lady Dr Jill Biden, Surgeon General Dr Murthy and President Joe Biden were in attendance and conversation. The forum took place at the White House, driving mental health awareness to action through storytelling and media.

On 2 December 2022, on the eve of the International Day for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Keely became one of the laureates of the Youth Activist Summit at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Summit celebrates young people who have achieved outstanding results in advancing sustainability and human rights.

Keely has won many awards and honors for her work including; The Diana Award which was established in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, The Diana Award is the most prestigious accolade a young person can receive for their social action or humanitarian work, Forbes 30 Under 30 , AdWeek Young Influential, Great British Entrepreneur of the Year, most powerful executive in the creator economy by Fast Company, Linkedin Top Voice, One Young World Entrepreneur of the Year, Meaningful Business 100, Aerie Changemaker, Rebel Girl Changemaker and was featured their best-selling Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls series.

Keely is a Forbes Contributor, Tory Burch Fellow and has spearheaded many notable projects, including C Talent’s film, “Accessing Disabled Audiences” which was commissioned by Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for LIONS Decoded.

In partnership with UN Human Rights and other organizations, C Talent serves as a founding member of #WeThe15. A Silver and Bronze Cannes Lions winning campaign called sports most significant human rights movement in history that aims to transform the lives of the one billion disabled people globally.

After noticing the lack of accessibility in the entertainment industry, Keely formed Zetta Studios which is set to be the world’s first studio to be designed with Disabled people in mind.

“I believe to change the world; we have to learn to tell and listen to a new set of stories about the world we want to create, in accessible spaces and with authentic voices. Knowledge is power, and the media is a global teacher whether we actively realize it when we are watching entertainment or not.”