Athena Demos is the co-founder and CEO of Big Rock Creative (BRC), an award-winning XR studio known for pioneering immersive experiences for global audiences. Under her leadership, BRC has earned top industry honors, including the Producer’s Guild Award for Innovation, multiple Auggie Awards, the Aurea Award, No Proscenium’s Best VR Experience, Hermes Platinum, the Global LiveWire Creative Innovators of the Year, the XR Women Trailblazer Award, a Gold Telly for Branded Immersive Content, and recognition as one of Adello Magazine’s Top 50 Business & Marketing Visionaries.

With more than 20 years of producing iconic live events—such as the LA Burning Man Decompression and the Art of Change Inaugural Ball for President Obama—Athena transitioned her expertise into immersive technology to co-create BRCvr presents BurnerSphere, the official virtual Burning Man experience. This next-generation platform blends fully realized 3D worlds with documentary-style 360° and 180° content to create a participatory “immersive documentary,” unprecedented in scale.

Athena has produced internationally recognized social-impact projects including Breonna’s Garden (SXSW 2022 premiere) and Pride Has No Borders (VR Awards finalist). Her thought leadership on creative collaboration, community-driven metaverse design, and accessible XR has been featured in books, articles, keynotes, and talks across universities and major industry events worldwide.

From 2022–2025, Athena and the BRCvr team captured Burning Man on the playa using state-of-the-art immersive formats, now in post-production for integration into BurnerSphere. This project aims to define a new storytelling medium by uniting documentary footage, social VR, and interactive worldbuilding.

She previously served more than eight years as PM for Moriah Films, a two-time Academy Award–winning documentary film company.