BIO

Kalina Silverman is an entrepreneur and documentary journalist (founder of the award-winning viral media project Big Talk - skip the small talk, make more meaningful connections), U.S. Fulbright Ambassador, public presenter and facilitator, artist, and model (she has appeared in campaigns for Nike, Adidas, Coca-Cola, Athletic Greens, Google, Spectrum, Oakley, Meta, Sony, and more).

Originally from Santa Monica, California, Kalina travels often to present and deliver workshops about Big Talk (her TEDx talk has over 6,500,000 YouTube views) or for video, research, and public relations projects. Kalina has lived in Singapore as a Fulbright Research Scholar sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and Institute of International Education studying "How to establish cross-cultural empathy through Big Talk." With a degree in Broadcast Journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School, she has worked on documentary films in Ecuador and Germany on education and the Holocaust. In 2012, Kalina founded MIXED, Northwestern’s first-ever Mixed Race Student Coalition.

Kalina is passionate about projects that help bridge cultures and communities through education and the arts. She is also passionate about fighting modern-day loneliness and disconnection. For fun, she stays active (surfing, hiking, tennis, Taekwondo, and dancing), adventurous, and creative (painting, songwriting, and playing the piano and guitar). 

POSITIONS

2024 (US) Big Talk Instagram videos creator (@makebigtalk with 250k followers), Fulbright Ambassador leading Big Talk workshops for 1500 PhD and Masters students from around the world, and recipient of the City of Santa Monica Art of Recovery Grant. Model.

2023/’22/’21 (US) BIG TALK educational program development and video content creator. Public Speaker. Model for Minelli Management.

2020 (US/Australia) BIG TALK public speaking engagements (including WeWork, Elite SEM, Adobe, and Google).

2019 (US/Kazakhstan) BIG TALK educational program development, and documentary filmmaking for the “New Silk Road’s” entrepreneur showcase project with Narxoz Business School. U.S. Fulbright Alumni Ambassador presenting on Capitol Hill. Speaker at IIE and Microsoft Chicago.

2017/2018 (Singapore)  U.S. Fulbright Research Scholar in Singapore, model with Basic Model Management (Singapore), Artist in Residence at Vagabond Hotel with Un-canned Art.

2017 (Los Angeles)  Creative Resident at 72andSunny. 

2016 (San Francisco) Facebook Stories intern.

2015 (Los Angeles)  Model, TEDx Speaker for BIG TALK. 

2014 (Chicago) Broadcast Journalism student at Northwestern University. NU in Qatar Ambassador. Founder and president of MIXED.

IN THE NEWS

• Big Talk in Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper

• Los Angeles Times

• Quora Sessions Host featured on Forbes

• Huffington Post

• USA Today College

• Right this Minute

• Business Insider Germany

• Lifehacker

• BIG TALK Featured in TARA, Norwegian Magazine

• Kalina Silverman for Icebreaker Southern Chronicles

• NBC News Asia America

• A Sharks Perspective Podcast Interview

• Big Ten Network

• The Mixed Show

• Northwestern Sophomores form group for Mixed Race Students

• TEDx with over 6.5M YouTube views

• Washington Post Article on the Big Talk Question Card Game

AWARDS

• Commendation - Big Talk for the Community from the Santa Monica Mayor

• Grantee - Fulbright Research Scholarship & Alumni Ambassadorship

• Winner - Ozy Genius Awards

• Semifinalist - McKinsey Women’s Impact Awards

• Winner - Northwestern Creative Arts Festival

• Semifinalist - Adobe Design Achievement Awards for Social Impact Design

CLIENTS / PARTNERSHIPS

• Interstellar Foundation / UNESCO

• Chai Ventures

• City of Santa Monica Art of Recovery

• U.S. State Department

• Foundation for Social Connection

• California Marital and Family Therapist Association

• Healthcare Management Administrators

• Santa Monica Civic Well-Being Partners

• Institute of International Education, USA

• WeWork/ Academy Xi, Melbourne, Australia (Interactive Big Talk Speaking Event)

• Acelero Learning, Wisconsin (Keynote speech and workshop)

• US Embassy Tashkent, Uzbekistan (Interactive Big Talk Speaking Event)

• Smile Train, NYC (Video)

• USC Trojan Support, LA (Big Talk Mental Health Event)

• Narxoz University in Almaty, Kazakhstan (Video Director and Presenter)

• Adobe Women, SF (Keynote speaker)

• "Take a Northwestern Direction" - Northwestern Global Outreach Video Campaign (Hero Student)

• Elite SEM, NYC (Keynote Speaker)

• Fulbright / US Embassy, Singapore (Big Talk Ice-Breaker Event Host)

• Edovo Jail Educations Solutions (Big Talk partnership)

• USC Annenberg Innovation Lab, LA (Big Talk Staff Video Director)