N LITE was born out of the word “enlightenment.” From the Buddhist traditional meanings of the “awakening” to the African meanings of becoming “united with the light,” N LITE recognizes the role of storytelling as a medium to depict the world as it is and as we wish to see it. Our motto is ignite the infinite possibilities of imagination.

The formation of N LITE began during the childhood of its Founder, Christiano Terry. As a young artist and writer, he carried a scrapbook of stories that held a fountain of dreams. On weekends away from school, he cherished moments with his Grandmother Nyana—meaning “the sunrise” in the African language of Swahili—who would listen to his tales of distant lands, magical worlds, and African fantasies that transported them outside the urban landscape of his Detroit birthplace. Today, N LITE honors this spirit of freedom and imagination by striving to tell stories that take audiences on journeys of emotional highs and lows, in new untapped worlds, with unforgettable characters and narratives can captivate viewers around the world.

N LITE now operates a growing multinational producing pipeline that includes our subsidiaries N LITE Japan in Tokyo and N LITE Africa in Lagos, Nigeria. N LITE is currently building an animation studio in Tokyo. With the help of our partners we aim to produce our slate of afro-anime films in timeless 2D hand drawn, hand painted animation techniques.