My elderly Chaucer professor told me to go into the entertainment business because, "TV is what most people now mistake as literature." I felt like he was looking right through me at the bad poetry I wrote late at night in the privacy of my dorm room. Shakespeare I was not, but I still wanted a job telling stories (and maybe compose the occasional Haiku on the side).
So, I did what every aspiring storyteller does...I got myself a job as a PA. Yes, I worked a million hours a week. Yes, it was for something like $1.79 an hour. Sure, I had some crazy bosses. Not to mention that I had to walk to work through snow drifts (without shoes!) and regularly fend off attacks by wolves, gnomes, and the occasional ninja. PA's have no idea how easy they have it nowadays.
It turned out to be worth it, though: For the past ten years I've produced all kinds of non-fiction TV all over the world: Survivor, Boot Camp, The Amazing Race, Project Greenlight, No Boundaries, Worst Case Scenario, The Surreal Life, The Mole, Next Action Star, American Candidate, Mr. Romance, Black. White...leading to the coolest job yet: Running Brand New Entertainment with Jude, creating original formats, and producing content that people will hopefully mistake as literature.
I married my high school sweetheart and live in Los Angeles with a menagerie of rescued animals.
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