Gala celebrates emerging leaders

Artists, innovators, politicians and athletes gathered at a gala in Manhattan on October 29 to celebrate the 2026 TIME100 Next list of emerging leaders.

Raye performs at the gala

Grammy-nominated singer Raye performed at the evening, bringing her recent hit singles including Where Is My Husband to the celebration of emerging talent.

Maxey toasts fellow honorees

Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey gave the evening's first toast, saying what motivates him is the other honorees in the room.

“What motivates me, honestly, is y'all.”

Maxey's motto: one percent better

Maxey shared a motto he has followed since childhood: to get one percent better every single day, encouraged by his father that the sky's the limit.

Maxey uses platform for good

The NBA All-Star highlighted how his platform enabled him to launch a nonprofit foundation to give back to the community.

Patel on power and influence

Actor Himesh Patel spoke about how many in the room hold power and influence, saying it is imperative to think about how to use it to do good.

“In these precarious times, I believe it's imperative for each of us to think about where we hold it, and how we use it to do good in the world.”

Patel's unlikely journey from England

Patel grew up in a village in Cambridgeshire, England, where his parents ran a corner shop and he delivered newspapers before landing his first acting role at sixteen.

Hope as an act of defiance

Patel called hope an act of defiance, noting that when TIME was founded in nineteen twenty-three, his ancestors were subjects of colonialism in Gujarat, India.

“Because they resisted their oppressors, they fought for their independence. In the face of fear, they chose to hope.”

Warren's father and the fall

Singer-songwriter Alex Warren shared a childhood story: at age seven, he asked his father what if he fell from a tree. His father replied, what if you fly.

“What if I fall? Without hesitation, he responds, 'What if you fly?'”

Warren's loss and music's comfort

Warren's father died when he was nine years old. Music brought him comfort as he grew, and he found people who listened to and appreciated his work.

Njiru on investing in people

Wawira Njiru, co-founder and CEO of Kenya-based nonprofit Food4Education, said the world's largest reserve of valuable resources sits in African classrooms.

“The most valuable resource on this planet has never been the things we extract, oil, or gold, or data. It's the things we grow. The things we nurture.”

Food4Education's scale and ambition

Food4Education delivers over six hundred thousand meals each day to children across more than one thousand five hundred schools across Africa, aiming to feed one million children daily by twenty twenty-seven.

Padilla on perseverance and doubt

Saturday Night Live star Ashley Padilla shared that she tried to quit comedy and quit on herself many times, but a voice inside kept telling her to keep going.

“There were so many chances to mess up my life along the way. I tried to quit comedy. I tried to quit on myself an embarrassing amount of times.”