Erik Lokkesmoe

Erik is the owner of Aspiration Entertainment, a Nashville-based film marketing and distribution company, and has helped support critically-acclaimed films including: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Selma, Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life, Lion, Amazing Grace, and Martin Scorcese’s Silence.  He began his career in Washington, D.C. politics where he served as a congressional press secretary, U.S. Senate campaign communications director, political communications advisor at the National Association of Broadcasters, speechwriter in the George W. Bush Administration, and head of communications for the National Endowment for the Humanities.  In 2006, the Anschutz Film Group & Walden Media tapped Erik to be the project manager for the movie Amazing Grace, a political thriller chronicling the heroic story of 18th-century abolitionist William Wilberforce. Expanding into distribution and executive producing, Erik and four investors created Aspiration Entertainment in 2014. In addition to the films mentioned above, Erik has had a hand in marketing Beasts of the Southern Wild, Secretariat, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, and Fury. Erik is the author and co-author of three books, including his most recent, Different Drummer: Bold Thinking for the Rebellious Creative.