News & Updates
Soon
My first two films in the horror genre have been making a name for themselves in the genre festivals, and if the spirits are willing, a third is coming to life just in time for the spooky-scary season! Even more ghastly, soon I'll be taking part in two more abhorrent transmutations of the horror genre: mockumentary and bromantic comedy.
2022
Spring
Over the quarantine I was inducted into the rapidly expanding world of tabletop roleplaying games. With my background in interactive story-telling, and experience hosting live programming, I pitched a new live- play streaming show to my good friends at Broad Strokes Productions. Together with Broad Strokes, I wrote, hosted, and co-produced our experiment with livestream programming.
2021
Winter
My good friends at Broad Strokes Productions invited me for their next horror short, Ouija Bro. An uncommon story of friendship, as the lead role I befriend a lost soul who can only communicate through the popular occult-themed board game. My arc throughout the story is surprisingly similar to my lead role in Daeva, where I also unknowingly make a pact with the supernatural and turn from victim to monster.
Autumn
I recently was invited on set to usher 'Phase II' of Intel's campaign to change the way we think about our personal computers, and what they are capable of. I got to do what I do best, which is have nice conversations with strangers while moderating our discussions toward key topics and a fun revelation. What's greater, after speaking with some of Intel's higher-ups in preparation for this ambitious undertaking, I have to say that I learned a lot myself.
I also learned how to ride a segway!
Quarantine
A colleague presented me with a challenge to help make the plays of Shakespeare more accessible by translating select scenes into a modern vernacular. I've always had big ideas for adapting Hamlet for a contemporary audience, and frankly... this was not one of them. But I did it anyway! Recasting the wealthy family as Beverly Hills entrepreneurs, I directed a handful of talented actors to finish the Breaking Bard project on Twitch and update Shakespeare in a brand new way.
With our newly ample free time, we have all become very familiar with Zoom meetings and the insatiable need for new streaming content. When colleagues became comfortable enough with conference calling, I was brought on board with other filmmakers and designers, working as a story developer and script doctor. It took a year of planning, but we are ready to put together the most technologically complicated project any of us have worked on.
2020
Not a lot of production was taking place in the latter part of 2020.
But you knew that already.
Quarantine
With this little pandemic happening, a lot of film festival plans were thrown out of the window. Thankfully, some are moving their event online and staving off a grim fate. The Last Leaf encapsulates the spirit of resisting against a relentless illness, so it's a welcome joy that it has been embraced by these film festivals! Also, Director Sia Aleskovskaya's adaptation of O. Henry's story is richly layered in dramatic content and Victorian realism, so this wonderful team of visionary talents deserve all the accolades that have been coming there way.
I'm an admitted workaholic, so even when forced into a weeks long 'staycation,' I'll manage to fill my time working. Thank goodness for AfterBuzz TV giving me plenty to do in quarantine! I was moderating two aftershows when the lockdown order happened upon us, with more on the way. So I put together a home studio or two to keep up quality programming in the new conference call format. I'm proud to say my aftershows still maintain expert analysis, celebrity interviews, accompanying articles, and our trademark title card monitor backgrounds so long as my TV doesn't revert to sleep mode.
Winter
I have joined the AfterBuzz TV network! Founded by Maria Menounos and producer Keven Undergaro, AfterBuzz TV is an online broadcast network bringing "post-game" coverage to your favorite TV shows. There are so many reasons I am thrilled to be a new part of this team: I love their philosophy of working hard to help each other and create quality content, I get to talk shop about exciting television, and I hit the ground running with three brand new aftershows!
Even more exciting, after only a month I was moderating panels for AfterBuzz TV. And my first could not have been a more perfect fit! Each week, right after Dispatches From Elsewhere aired on AMC, I broke down episodes with my panel of fellow non-chalants. The series follows four individuals attempting to make sense of life and an ARG (alternate reality game) happening throughout their city. My lengthy history planning ARGs helped guide my teammates into unraveling the series.
You can learn about my favorite "simulated life" experience, ThE-Voice, in the Highlights page.
2019
Autumn
Considering how many friends play table top role playing games, and a large number of them do it professionally, it's kind of crazy it took until recently to finally get swept into one myself. But I wouldn't have had my introduction happen any other way: for all the world to hear!
One of those professional role players and a fellow filmmaker invited me to the party to help conclude his epic quest. Dungeons and Dragon Wagon presents the final chapters of a cinematic saga which I found inventively entertaining and lots of fun to behold.
Summer
Once again, the summer months are all about pop-culture nerdom! And in a big way, as I returned to San Diego Comic-Con International for it's 50th year! Though I'm always excited to attend the event in any capacity, this time I was a panelist for the "Psychology of Harry Potter." Saturday night the room was packed with Potter fans as we mused the significance of the wizarding world and explored what it means to be a member of that community with actual psychologists and PhD holders.
And it seems that pop culture analysis is my thing now as I was invited to NerdBot Studios to speak on behalf of
Cowboy Bebop for their live
What's Better?
program. The episode put the existential nihilism of the revolutionary series against the cult sensation
Firefly's lawless morality, heralded by another superfan. But only one has the killer soundtrack!
Spring
This season marked my return to theatre, and doing so with new plays. New discoveries are always nice, and the first of these plays, Michael Hollinger's Hope and Gravity was full of discovery. Each time our cast came together to rehearse, we found a new and brilliant connection between its nine intersecting characters. Whether a clever turn of phrase, a hilarious circumstance, or a bittersweet realization that things are out of order, it surprised us with revelation and poignancy. I've never read a play before which warrants a second viewing to better catch details one likely missed the first time. Luckily, we had packed houses the entirety of the show's run, and I believe a good portion of the audience were repeat viewers.
The second was the Los Angeles debut Elizabeth Suzanne's award-winning After Her. Inspired by Elizabeth's family, After Her is a personal discussion of responsibility, endurance, and the merit of care-taking. This is my second production exploring these themes for Alzheimer's caregivers, a cause which I support wholeheartedly.
I was blessed to perform the show before members of Elizabeth's family, including her mother, whose own father I was portraying in scenes with her, so to speak. My co-stars and I met her after the show and were moved by her praise for this particular staging of the play. Her compliments in how believably I played her father is the highest honor I have yet to receive in my career.
As fulfilling as it was to reconnect with theatre again, admittedly, this started because of a TV pilot.
The creators of The New Adventures of Pink Girl and the Scone are at it again. As are the titular characters. They're embarking on a new journey and have asked me to tag along one more time. The three of us will join a new cast for a new table reading of their new adventure, Pink Girl and the Scone. That's the new title, by the way. It now exists as a half-hour TV pilot like no other. Fittingly, the staged reading was like no other. Just as James would say about his superfriend subjects, it was completely ridiculous but more epic than I could have hoped.
2018
Winter
I was chomping at the bit to share the news, straight from the horse's mouth, that I'd been invited to return to
Henry Danger months ago! But I always respect the wishes of the production to refrain whispering. Not to mention, I certainly don't want to put the cart before the horse.
My girl Winnie has been invited back for
Henry Danger's 100th episode! It was an honor to be on this set again, working with the always wonderful and fun team behind Nickelodeon's now longest-running sitcom. Even more so to be part of their milestone episode. I'd say more, but I wouldn't dare spoil any of Team Danger's secrets.
The Great Wizarding War has begun! Episodes have dropped and I am honored to have the very first line in this new story, which picks up right where the film left off. What's better, despite this
not being a film, the reviews tell us fans are very happy with the new format.
Meanwhile, the core cast had one last panel at a recent convention to attempt the grand experiment of a live table read, timed to a fixed audio track of the first episode's music and sound design. Also I got to fill in for Voldemort, which is fun. Following the presentation, as always, was a discussion about our characters, questions from the audience, and photos with fans.
Autumn
Autumn is Harry Potter season and there is a lot of magic in the air...
Showrunners and co-writers Justin Zagri and Garrett Schweighauser of
The Great Wizarding War invited me to chat on the radio drama's official aftershow podcast,
Wizarding War Talks Back. They asked to share my perspective on the series and Sirius, then got into a great discussion on the relationships of the Marauders, James' upbringing, losing a piece of one's identity, and the Beatles!
Not long after, I also recorded a bonus introductory scene for the YouTube audience of the main series. It's a small moment with a humble set up, but done in a single shot. As an former theatre actor, I reveled in getting the whole performance in one take.
GeekFest Film Fests was proud to host two concurrent festivals in two different parts of the country, each screening the same films for their respective audiences. Broad Strokes shared in their historic moment by winning both "Best Fan Film" and "Best of Fest" at each leg of the festival! We won two sets of matching awards
simultaneously!!
We followed GeekFest to their final screenings and awards ceremony at L.A. Comic Con. This marked our third appearance at the convention, but our first big prize in a competition;
Severus Snape and the Marauders was named "Best Fan Film" as well as "Best of Fest" for the entire year-long competition. We even got a trophy!
We thank GeekFest Film Fests, Legion M, and L.A. Comic Con for the longstanding support they have shown our little movie.
Summer
I always make room for friends when they need me, especially when it's on set. A few asked me to try on an Iron Man suit for their sequel to the viral video, Deadpool: The Musical. The shoot happened to fall on the 10th anniversary of Iron Man's release! I thought there could be no better way to celebrate Marvel Studios' saga than suiting up to answer the call of duty. And that's how I ended up with Wade Wilson clinging to my body in an absurdly well-made fan-film parody.
In an unexpected turn of events, I helped host one! Summer is convention season, and I'm always itching to attend as many as I can.
This year, my Spike Speigel hair and I were brought on to be a master of ceremonies for the 2018 Anime Expo. It was a blast! I introduced and conversed with artists, creators, musicians, fans, cosplayers, and the president of the expo himself. The ceremonies showcased some of the brightest talent from the annual expo, and it was an honor to be among it all.
Spring
For the second anniversary of Severus Snape and the Marauders, the team gathered to reminisce about the past year, including our recent and unexpected admittance to a traveling pop-culture film festival. We also shared what was in store for us next; specifically the movie's highly-requested follow-up, The Great Wizarding War.
The band got back together to record the first episodes of the new series at Sphere Studios, the coolest recording studio I've ever been in. I felt like a rock star hanging out and performing with an expanded cast of fantastically talented people.
If spring is all about new growth, then Daeva is really starting to branch out. The horror short has just picked up more selections for film festivals!
These latest festivals have our producer very excited, as he was hoping for the films admittance to follow the legacies of former attendees John Landis and Robert Edlund. I've also been told one will be attended by representatives from The Terminator and American Horror Story, which has the rest of our production team on pins and needles.
These festivals will take place later this spring, so while we wait, a big congratulations to the entire Daeva team on all their success!