Artist Roster

From his earliest days in local news across nearly twenty-years transforming MTV News, half-decade growing Facebook’s News Partnerships Team, two award-winning PBS documentaries and ten studio albums, Benjamin Wagner’s focus has been the essential nature of our shared human experience — how stories help us navigate adversity, foster connection, and cultivate resilience to find meaning, thrive, and flourish.

Born in Iowa, Wagner moved six times before his sixth birthday. He graduated Syracuse University with dual degrees in Communications and Creative Writing (with author Tobias Wolff), then cut his teeth reporting for local radio (WCZN, KOTO) and newspapers (Suburban & Wayne Times, The Saratogian).

After moving to New York, he penned dozens of features for Rolling Stone before landing at MTV News. Wagner launched and led the iconic brand's website, championed major digital initiatives like the Video Music Awards and Chose or Lose, and drove its transformation from linear to mobile and social. He left nearly two decades later as Senior Vice President to join Facebook’s News Partnerships Team.

At Facebook, he oversaw editorial strategy for editorial products, and designed and developed the organizations' first media partner center, Facebook Media Central. As Global Programs Lead, he helped launch and scale the Facebook Journalism Project.

Throughout his carrer, Wagner cultivated a meaningful sideline as a singer and songwriter with a dozen original albums (including his most recent, Constellations). Dubbed a “fuzz-guitar blast,” by Entertainment Weekly, “future superstar” by Michael Stipe, and “extraordinary” by legendary WFUV DJ Vin Scelsa, Wagner performed on legendary New York City stages like Mercury Lounge, Sin-é, CBGB’s, and Brownie’s for twenty-five years.

He is the writer, producer and director of the award-winning PBS Documentaries Mister Rogers & Me (2012) and Friends & Neighbors (2026), and a performing singer/songwriter.

He is also the author of a book on the men’s mental health crisis, set for publication in 2027 by Broadleaf Books, and is a sought-after speaker on cultivating resilience and breaking the kindness code.

Wagner is an alumnus of Columbia University’s Punch Sulzberger Fellowship and is the current Director of Engagement for the Media Transformation Challenge Fellowship at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

After twenty-five years in New York City, he now lives in Wilmington, Delaware, with his wife and two teenage daughters.