There is a specific, quiet magic that happens on a film set just before the director calls for action. It is a moment of suspended animation. The grips have secured the rigging, the lighting technicians have painted the shadows, and the actors are holding their breath. It is a world of pure creative potential, but it is also a world completely dictated by invisible ledgers, unseen investors, and distant executives. For years, the people who actually make the art have looked at the people who fund the art across a vast, unbridgeable divide. The creators ask, “How do we make this beautiful?” The financiers ask, “How do we make this profitable?” Rarely do the two languages translate seamlessly.
But then, you meet Clyde C Harris.
As the Chief Financial Officer at NuFangled TV, Clyde operates at the exact intersection of these two warring factions. He does not look, speak, or think like a traditional corporate gatekeeper. He is a man who understands the raw, physical exertion of storytelling just as intimately as he understands the architecture of a private investor slate. His mission is not to restrict the creative process, but to liberate it. He operates with a singular, driving purpose: to protect the dream, and to ensure that the money never kills it. In an industry built on the premise of saying “no,” Clyde has dedicated his life to figuring out how to say “yes.”
To understand the financial strategies, the AI-driven disruptions, and the grand vision of NuFangled TV, you first must understand the deeply human journey of the man helping to build and grow it. You must understand who he is serving, why he is climbing, and how a world-class ballroom dancer became the vanguard of modern media finance.
The Rhythm of the Climb
The story of Clyde C Harris does not begin in a corporate boardroom or a university finance class. It begins on a hardwood floor.
“You know, it all started in 2001 when I walked into a National Dance Clubs studio as an instructor,” Clyde recalls, his voice carrying the steady, measured rhythm of a natural storyteller. “Within just a few years I had become one of the top teachers in sales in the country, flying all over Europe, South America, and Cuba with clients who trusted me completely.”
Dance is a discipline that requires an absolute surrender of the ego to the partnership, and it was here that Clyde learned the foundational elements of his future career. He learned how to read people, how to build trust, and how to scale an operation. In 2008, he joined Dance with Me USA. At the time, the founders, Maks and Val, had only two studios. They brought Clyde in to build the systems, the training programs, and the revenue models. Together, they scaled that company from two humble locations to seventeen studios spread all over the world.
Clyde had the mind of an executive, but he still possessed the soul of an artist. He returned home to Tennessee in 2013 and partnered with Summer Black Elkin. That was when the trophies truly began to stack up. World titles, National titles, Continental titles, and Challenge of the Continent titles filled their shelves. Thanks to the mentorship and innovative coaching of David Elkin, the pinnacle arrived in 2017 when they represented the United States and made it all the way to the finals of the prestigious British Open Exhibition Championships in Blackpool. One of the Seven Couples invited.
“I was the first Black ballroom exhibition dancer invited to those finals in over twenty years,” Clyde says, a quiet reverence in his tone. “That one still gives me chills.”
He officially hung up his competition shoes in 2018, stepping away from the floor at the absolute height of his physical career. Two weeks later, the universe presented a new stage. He met producer Penny Styles and pitched her a television series about healing through dance called ‘Good Grief.’
Penny looked at him with the pragmatic clarity of a seasoned producer and said, “You need a screenwriter.” Then, she gave him advice that would alter the trajectory of his life. She told him to go to work on a real set, noting that it was the only film school that actually mattered.
The Education of the Set
Clyde did exactly what she suggested. He stripped away his titles, his trophies, and his status, and he started at the very bottom. He embraced the grueling, unglamorous reality of production work. He started as a hand model in a Hardee’s commercial. He did background work. He became a Production Assistant. Eventually, he earned the featured roles. He choreographed the Cinderella sequence on ‘Tell Me a Story,’ a piece of work that people in the industry still talk about. He became a core dancer on ‘American Soul’ for BET.
“Every single day I was pulling directors, grips, lighting guys and props people, aside asking questions, turning every lunch break into my masterclass,” Clyde explains. He was a sponge, absorbing the mechanics of how a story is physically manifested into light and sound.
The credits accumulated quickly. He worked on twenty-five television shows, several music Videos including being casted as a model for Carrie Underwood’s Cry Pretty, a mob boss for Our Last Night’s ‘When Humans Become our Gods’, ‘Simple’ by Florida Georgia Line and made uncredited appearances in four major studio films, including ‘The Suicide Squad,’ ‘Jungle Cruise,’ and ‘The Tomorrow War.’ But the true turning point, the lightning bolt that rewired his entire understanding of the industry, struck in 2019 on the set of ‘Teenage Bounty Hunters.’
During a break in filming, Clyde called Penny and asked a simple question: “Who comes up with this stuff?” Penny, knowing what result this would bring, delivered a profound truth. “Better question, who gets it green-lit?”
He dove headfirst into the business of permission. He secured invitations to produce several projects, including one currently in development called ‘Wounded Glory.’ All the while, he never stopped writing his own original stories. When the pandemic hit and the physical world shut down, the film sets went dark. Every conversation moved to Zoom. It was during this digital isolation that he landed meetings with Joshua Harris, at that time, he was the Vice President of Citi National Bank. Also known as the “The Bank of Hollywood”.
Though they share a last name, there is no relation between the two men, yet a deep mentorship is formed. Joshua took the time to walk Clyde through the labyrinth of real film financing, teaching him how to think outside the box when packaging projects for private investors.
That relentless grind, learning the intricate money side while still nurturing his own creative work, forged the unique leadership style he relies on today.
The Birth of NuFangled TV
Today, as the Chief Financial Officer of NuFangled TV, Clyde’s core responsibility is a profound one. He is the joint guardian of the creative spark which he connects with monetization. He operates in a true, equal fifty-fifty partnership with founder and Chief Executive Officer, Penny Styles.
The origin of their current venture is deeply rooted in human loss and the desire to honor a legacy. They built this iteration of the company together after Penny’s husband, former Tennessee State Representative and State Lobbyist Steve Bivens, who passed away due to cancer in June of 2025.
Before his passing, Steve had a beautiful, sweeping vision. It was his brainchild, ‘Wounded Glory,’ a massive college football historical drama. The project was daunting. It carried a fifty-two-million-dollar budget (if filmed using traditional methods), and a three-million-dollar state’s appropriation had expired. It was a brutal, uphill battle. Then, in February of that year, a friend connected Clyde with Mike Burns, the founder of Movipods.
Clyde and Penny jumped into Mike’s AI-filmmaking course, utilized his proprietary software, and hired Movipods to produce a full AI teaser for the TV Series.
“Steve got to see his dream come to life before he passed,” Clyde says, his voice softened with the memory. “I’ll never forget the look on his face that day.”
After Steve was gone, Clyde and Penny looked at each other and made a vow. They could not let the story end there. They executed a hard pivot into the future. By utilizing AI, they discovered they could cut production costs by sixty percent on projects that previously seemed impossible to finance. They officially joined forces. Clyde brought every piece of intellectual property from his company, Native Soul Pictures. Penny brought everything from the company she had started back in 2005, NuFangled TV.
They realized they had the perfect foundation. “What’s more NuFangled than an AI-integrated TV, film, and music production virtual studio?” Penny asks.
Serving the Ecosystem
At the heart of Clyde’s financial philosophy is a deep sense of service. He remembers what it felt like to have closed doors in his face, and he is determined to build an ecosystem for creators who are stuck exactly where he and Penny once were. He knows there are brilliant, unedited projects sitting on hard drives, half-finished ideas gathering digital dust, and beautiful pitch decks that never received funding.
“We want to give every indie project, from broadcast-ready to ‘still-in-the-pitch-stage,’ a real shot at exposure, while we keep creating our own work at the same time,” he explains.
On the finance side, this requires a radical reimagining of the CFO role. NuFangled TV structures every single deal so that the creator retains ownership. They package private-investor slates with genuine safety nets, relentlessly chase every available tax credit and incentive, and utilizes AI to make the mathematics work in scenarios where traditional studios would simply walk away. Penny handles the budgets and crew hiring as from her 21 years being an Indie, Studio and Producer for a Disney series. They both collaborate on the creative vision, the storytelling heart, and the artist’s relationships, while Clyde endeavors to ensure the capital serves that vision instead of strangling it.
They have woven a network of strategic alliances to make this possible. They secured a distribution first look with Fairway Film Alliance, working closely with Marty Poole and Kirk Harris. They handle music sync licensing through Donna Desopo’s Syncology, forming a strong alliance with poet & screenwriter James Russell Goddard. They are even collaborating on video games based on ‘Wounded Glory’ and their MythoPunk saga, ‘NVMEN,’ using these alternative mediums to drive promotion and raise additional capital.
Their newest strategic partnership is with Nick Parmelee Motorsports. NuFangled TV will produce the TV series The Hotseat: Full Throttle, taking viewers inside the helmet and inside the body for Nick’s entire 2026 season. Whether he is competing in the McLaren Trophy America or the Lamborghini Super Trofeo, the series will capture the real human cost of mastering these machines. This is the pulse, the sweat, the fear, and the guts; a deeply personal look at what it takes to perform both on and off the track.
“Traditional CFOs say ‘no,’” Clyde notes. “Penny and I say, ‘how do we make this a yes?’ That’s the redefinition: finance isn’t the gatekeeper anymore. It’s the launchpad, and we’re doing it together, fifty-fifty, every single day.”
This is what sustainable disruption truly looks like. It is not about tearing down the old system; it is about building a Nu system, a more equitable one alongside it. It is about building with others, not despite them. By wrapping their alliances around a simple promise that the creator keeps ownership, and the investor gets a smart, de-risked play, they ensure that no single hero or gatekeeper controls the narrative.
The Alchemy of Risk and Discipline
Entertainment is an industry famous for its paralyzing uncertainty. To navigate this, Clyde employs a philosophy of betting the future before it is proven, but betting incredibly smart. NuFangled TV is venturing into a world which resides in human inspiration, creating fully produced, broadcast-quality television and film built primarily with AI & AI hybrid content.
Because nobody has reliable metrics for this yet, Clyde knows the only way to move the needle is to show people what is possible. “We build it, we screen it, and then belief shows up,” he states.
He uses the exponential curve of technology as his biggest ally, taking creative swings that would have been financially suicidal just five years ago. He balances this creative risk with ironclad financial discipline by utilizing hybrid models. They will produce full pilots or features in AI first, at a fraction of traditional costs. This allows their distributor, Fairway Film Alliance, to take real, watchable material into the market to secure minimum guarantees. Once those guarantees are in hand, they finish the funding with absolute confidence. This single step transforms an uncertain gamble into a thoroughly de-risked business decision.
Yet, Clyde is adamant that technology never replaces the human touch. “We never hand the wheel over to it,” he insists. “AI is our collaborator, our test track. We let AI handle speed and iteration, but we keep creative control and taste at the center.”
This discipline allows them to scale only what they have proven works. They never let the technology outrun the storyteller.
A Constellation of Opportunities
When it comes to monetizing flagship intellectual properties like ‘Wounded Glory,’ ‘Good Grief’ and ‘NVMEN,’ Clyde treats every story as a living, breathing universe. He does not see a single product; he sees a constellation of opportunities designed to earn revenue in ten different ways simultaneously.
His strategy is guided by three core principles. First, he aims for maximum reach with minimum friction. A single story might live on TikTok and Instagram as vertical micro-dramas, paying through Creator Funds and Reels bonuses, while simultaneously feeding full-length music videos and longer-form content on their own platform.
Second, he turns every format into another revenue engine. For example, they recently signed a deal with a collective of poets. They take those spoken words, turn them into songs performed by their AI artists, Natty James and NYX444, release the tracks globally, push the videos virally, license them for sync, and retain the catalog for future games and live events. One single poem blossoms into ten distinct income streams.
Third, they own the end-to-end process. By eventually capturing ad revenue directly on nutube-network.com, they ensure that every dollar flows back to the creators and the company, rather than disappearing into the pockets of an external platform.
“We have our fingers in micro-dramas, vertical series, hybrid live-action/AI productions, sync licensing through Syncology, game development, live experiences, every single area, because a great story deserves to exist everywhere its audience lives,” Clyde explains.
Building the Future, Brick by Digital Brick
The milestones that matter most to Clyde today are tangible. They launched NuFangled TV and NuTube Network just months ago, and their YouTube channel, @Nufangeledtv, is already dropping cinematic music videos under NuFangled Studios. The early sync inquiries and distribution of conversations are proof that the model is working.
But the truest milestone was the look of pure joy on Steve Bivens’ face when he saw the AI teaser. Steve was Clyde’s biggest fan, often telling people, “If I was building a team, I would want Clyde on it.” That memory continues to fuel the fire at NuFangled TV.
Looking ahead, the vision is expansive. Through a connection with Aaron J. Braunstein, a passionate advocate who truly understands their mission, they are in talks with creating a trade-off deal with the Sam Spiegel Film School in Israel. Once approved, they will host student content on the NuTube Network in exchange for training those students on AI workflows, with plans to expand this model into Morocco and the UAE.
They refuse to hand out flat rejections to creators. Even if a project is not ready, they will sit with the creator and provide straight strategic advice to get it there.
The Hungry Wolf
Balancing this monumental workload requires a specific kind of energy. For Clyde, work-life balance is not a perfect schedule; it is about staying obsessed with growth. He speaks several languages and is currently teaching himself to code through late-night sessions with Grok.
He lives by a favorite quote: “The wolf on the hill is never as hungry as the wolf climbing the hill.”
Clyde will always be the wolf climbing. He still craves movement and expression, a lingering gift from his dancing days. He travels constantly; a wanderlust instilled in him early by his mother, Vanessa, and his father, Anthony Porchia, who served in the military for over twenty-four years.
He never wants to assume he knows it all, because the second you do, you stop growing. He stays hungry, he stays curious, and he lets his work and his life feed each other.
In the end, Clyde C Harris is a man who understands that whether you are on a dance floor in Blackpool, a film set in Atlanta, or a Zoom call with global investors, the core truth remains the same.
“Somehow, some way, it all comes together in the end,” he says, offering a final message to the dreamers.
“The principle I live by is straightforward; enterprise should be fueled by creativity. Every creator out there, you’re merely one sincere move, one persistent yes, one final push from seeing the world embrace you the way it always should have. Keep pushing forward. Your narrative counts. Your perspective counts.”
Clyde C. Harris has spent his life learning how to build the stage. Now, he is leaving the lights on for everyone else.
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