PAST
It was January 2001. I was 19 years old with ambitions of being a famous Hollywood Director. I knew I needed to go to film school but that required a decent sum of money, money that I didn’t have. So I did the only “rational” thing an artistic and creative person could do to get money for school. I joined the United States Army Reserve. I graduated basic training and A.I.T. on September 9 2001. I had no idea that two days later life, as we all knew it, would drastically change. A little over a year after 9/11 I was deployed to Iraq. My dreams of becoming a Hollywood Director were put on hold while I served my country. Eight months later I was back in America with a new sense of pride and dedication. I started film school and got to work on accomplishing my dreams. Two semesters later I was on my way back to Iraq. Apparently this country needed a lot of my help. When I got back to America the first thing I did was begin my production search while trying to pick up the pieces of an unfinished degree. I got an internship at the number one production studio in Houston Texas. I was an unpaid intern for six months until a sweet little lady by the name of Oprah Winfrey came into town. She rented out the whole studio for a few weeks and wouldn’t let any of the interns go unpaid. At the time you couldn’t tell me it would get any better than this, but it did. Thanks to Harpo’s name being on my resume I landed an Associate Producer position with Animal Planet’s hit show, “Animal Cops." The next season I was promoted to Field Producer. While producing the show I learned how much Camera Operators made a day. I wanted that, so I listened, researched, and learned everything I could from the shooters on the show.
Vegas baby! After wrapping up two seasons on “Animal Cops” I got a job as an Assistant Camera Operator for Criss Angel’s “Mindfreak” show on A&E. I packed up everything I owned and moved to Vegas to work as a local. It was a risky move but as they say in the city, “I was all in.” The risk paid off. By day three on the show I was shooting. Over the course of eight months, thanks to my DP, I learned how to properly operate a camera. From there on it was a series of shooter gigs followed by a series of producer gigs. I was back and fourth between the two and loving every moment.
Around 2009, I settled into my role as a producer. I had learned enough about all the positions in production that I felt confident to take on larger roles as a producer. My hopes of becoming a Hollywood director had completely changed, because I was living my dream. I was officially a reality television Producer.
In late 2010, I had an idea for a show. My Executive Producer, at the time, agreed that it had potential. He gave me the go ahead to create a sizzle reel. Five months later the President of the company was pitching my sizzle reel to different networks. TRUtv came in a bought six episodes straight to series from my 7-minute reel. No words could express the awe and amazement I was in at this moment. It wasn’t about money or titles. It was about the fact that I was doing what I love and I was successful at it. Before production I was just a bartender bouncing from bar to bar with a pocket full of lost potential and ambition. Now I was a 27-year-old producer who had just sold a show to a major network. My dreams had just become a reality….show.
PRESENT
I have continued in my humble success as a producer. It hasn’t always been easy. Dealing with cancelations, budget cutbacks, unemployment, egos, and the typical day to day stress are just a part of the job description. Production is hard, unstable, stressful, and chaotic. But it’s in this chaos that I have found my way, my niche, and my home.
I’ve worked on a wide variety of shows and networks, from law enforcement to real estate, from ABC to TLC, and everything in between. It’s this diversity that has helped me grow as a producer, but it is my military background that my work ethic stems from.
There is not a single characteristic that defines my success. Just like there’s not a single description that defines a producer’s job. If I had to highlight one of my strengths as a producer it would be my ability to convince people to do what I need them to do without them knowing it. You can’t just tell a person to say a line and expect it to be natural. It takes a bit of finesse, the same way it takes finesse to convince the network of an idea. Their idea, of course!
My father always said to me, “Begin with the end in mind.” Those words have been one of the most important things I’ve learned. For every project and show I begin, my first thought is always, “How do I need this to end?” As a human being , conceiving, creating, and completing are all basic parts of life. It’s also the most basic description of a producer.
FUTURE
My future is always open for a new chapter, a new story, a new show. I’ve had an awesome time in my journey as a producer thus far and I'm just getting warmed up.