As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be an archaeologist.

But if you’re looking for a copywriter, don’t let that deter you. It’s probably just because I loved Indiana Jones growing up. I also loved basically everything, like drawing, dancing, architecture, design, and, of course, movies. 

Another glowing passion of mine revealed itself when I acted in an elementary school play. I was Edmund Pevensie of C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia.

Afterwards, I tried to recruit my classmates into a theatrical troupe. I had never experienced such a rush, (I wouldn’t again until directing short films at SCAD years later) and wanted it to last forever. Unfortunately, it turned out that we were all children and had no means of sustaining our ambitions. The dream died, but the dreaming went on.

The youngest of four, I found myself in front of the camera often. It felt rather customary. But I also desperately wanted to be on the other side of it (see video).

I wouldn’t get much opportunity for that until I became a kind of only child when my siblings abandoned me for their own lives. I think that’s when a second me materialized inside myself to form the contradiction of science experiment and artist typing this now.

Somewhere in the midst of it all, the two of us—me and myself—began to tread in greater depths of cinema with movies like The Prestige and Prisoners. Eventually, I was drowning in existential quandaries on the moonlit porch all alone. The sense that I was meant to have some involvement in these kinds of creations fluttered.

That temptation was emboldened when I discovered catharsis in writing. In fourth grade, I was critiquing high school students’ essays (and I was rarely impressed). In high school, I was finally cultivating my own voice. Each writing assignment was an excuse to investigate ways to coerce the English language into new performances.

Catalysts occurred. Bad Guys Closed In. Many a Dark Night of the Soul later, and today I just want to make. I want to make you laugh, cry, question your convictions, and forget your worst nightmares.

From commercials to brand activations to writing and shooting movies, I’ll do it every chance I get, at all costs.

Doing anything else, I’ve realized once and for all, is pure torment.

PARTING THOUGHTS / TL;DR

• I’m a blend of youngest-child curiosity and only-child resourcefulness.

• I’m open-minded but opinionated. Collaborative but competitive. Dramatic with a punchline. Humble with quiet confidence. Creative with a love for logic. Introverted until I’m not.

• I feel the world like I’m in front of the camera and see the world like I’m behind it.

• I don’t believe in one right answer.

• But I do believe in brisket.