Phil Thornton is a music industry executive and television producer. Graduating from Norfolk State in 2003 with a degree in marketing and business.

Thornton knew that he wanted to be part of the entertainment business at age 10. At age 15, he became an intern and rising star at Arista Records, working with Notorious BIG, Whitney Houston, and Aretha Franklin to name a few.

After graduating from NSU, Thornton started Bright Star Entertainment, an artist management/consulting firm, where he represented artists including Bad Boy Records’ Grammy award-winning group, 112. In 2006, along with partners, he formed the successful Ten2One Entertainment, a multimedia, television production and artist management conglomerate. Other accomplishments included managing the careers of Michael B. Jordan, Faith Evans, Kenny Lattimore and Mack Wilds. He launched TV One hits including the R&B Divas franchise and I Married a Baller.

He was executive producer on the hit show, It’s a Mann’s World, starring David and Tamela Mann. Thornton and his team won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Reality Series for the show in 2018. Thornton became Senior Vice President and general manager of RCA Inspiration, a division of Sony Music Entertainment in 2012, where he works with a wide range of inspirational artists including Kirk Franklin, Marvin Sapp and more.

He then became senior vice president at Capitol Records in 2022. He executive produces and sometimes directs the TV show, Uncensored, for TV One.

At Norfolk State, Thornton funds a scholarship, the Jessie & James Lilly Jr. Endowment, for Virginia natives with 2.5 GPA or higher and business or mass communications majors. The scholarship is named for his grandparents, who always encouraged him to go to college.

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