About

Krishna is an award-winning audience engagement editor at The Baltimore Banner. He creates social media videos that regularly reach millions of people each year.

Since The Baltimore Banner’s launch in 2022, he’s helped grow their TikTok to over 90,000 followers and their Instagram to over 200,000 followers. He has been recognized for advancing the form of creator-model journalism. His accolades also include:

Livingston Award finalist (2026)
Award of Excellence for Video | Society for News Design (2023, 2025, 2026)
Best News Video / Social Media News | MDDC Press (2023, 2024, 2025, 2026)
Best TikTok Explainer | NYU American Journalism Online (2023)
Best Environmental Reporting Finalist | Southern Environmental Law Center (2022)

His video work has contributed to:

A Pulitzer finalist package about the failures of school transit in Baltimore (2026)
A Pulitzer-prize winning package about Baltimore’s overdose crisis (2025)
An IRE award winning package about the Key Bridge collapse (2025)
An award for Best Social Media Portfolio from the Society for Features Journalism (2025)

Krishna has given lectures at UC Berkeley, Boston University, the University of Maryland, the Video Consortium, Greater Public Media and more.

Before becoming a journalist, he earned a graduate degree in ecology. He’s also a published poet and photographer.

video HIGHLIGHTS

South Indian Restaurant

In this video, I turned a local story into a larger piece about Indian cuisine in America. This became one of The Banner’s most viral videos, reaching over 1 million views on Instagram alone. It even earned an international audience, with around 35,000 people watching from India.

@baltimorebanner We checked out Unavu, Baltimore's only South Indian restaurant. It is a takeout-only joint located at Charm City Food Company (right across from Peabody Heights Brewery). The charm of Unavu, which opened just a few months ago, lies in its unique and seemingly untranslated offerings. Owner Dev Stephen prides himself on making everything from scratch, presenting a handful of cardamom pods and cinnamon sticks as evidence that he and Unavu’s chefs grind all their own spices. The idea for the business came about as Stephen traveled the world for his job as an IT consultant. Everywhere he looked, he tried to find food that reminded him of his home in Southern India — the kind of simple and nourishing meals he had prepared with his grandma and his mom. He always came up short. Link in bio to read more. Video by Krishna Sharma. Article by Christina Tkacik. #maryland #baltimore #food #southindia #tamilnadu ♬ original sound - The Baltimore Banner

BABY SHARK SPEAKER

This video, which I published just a couple months after the Banner’s launch, quickly went viral and earned “Best TikTok Explainer” from NYU’s American Journalism Online awards.

@baltimorebanner Using music to deter homeless people from sleeping? It’s happened before. But this might be the first time #babyshark has been weaponized in #baltimore. #homelessrights #homelessnessinamerica ♬ Chopin Nocturne No. 2 Piano Mono - moshimo sound design

natty boh competition

While many videos I produce are breakdowns of serious news, more lighthearted pieces like this also resonate with our audience. This video earned over 200,000 views on Instagram.

DSCR Loans

I collaborated with a Banner reporter to produce this video, which quickly gained almost 1 million views across social media channels. Hundreds of people clicked the link in bio for this video, making it one of the highest subscription converters of any article the Banner published that week,