I was born just outside of Detroit in Royal Oak, Michigan and in a lot of ways I am very much a reflection of where I came from. At my best I carry Detroit's spirit with me: a world-weary optimist who's quick to a fight for a good cause, a quixotic dreamer, and a stalwart of a DIY ethic. I carry my birth-city with me too: a halcyon suburb whose downtown, as I grew up, was a crash box of erstwhile Americana and Gen X alternative culture. I see this juxtaposition play out over and over in the way both my values and aesthetics skew: a mix of F Scott Fitzgerald and underground techno parties, Casablanca and Blade Runner, Billie Holiday and David Bowie.

I studied theatre at Wayne State University. Within a few months of graduating I co-founded a theatre company, eager to inflict my particular brand of youthful hubris upon the stage. But that kind of naive, cocky energy seldom sits still for long. A half dozen productions in I left the company to produce a weird piece of German theatre, packaged in the trappings of Detroit's vibrant music scene at the city's most lauded nightclub. It was a pivotal moment, though I didn't realize it at first. It moved me away from producing plays and into running clubs and throwing parties with various international cohorts at home and abroad. Ten years passed. In that time I grew bored and restless. It felt like I’d missed my exit somewhere along the interstate. I didn't know exactly where I was going but I knew this wasn't the way. So I packed up and headed west, imagining I'd find my own version of Thoreau's Walden somewhere in the Russian River Valley. I came close. But there's this relentless drive I have to put it all on the line and be heard that no amount of bucolic quiet was going to calm. So I packed again and drove down to Los Angeles, understanding this was where I’d been heading the entire time. 

Sometimes the point of a long journey is to bring you back to where you started as an entirely different person. That's where I am now: living in the heart of Hollywood with my girlfriend and our calico cat. Like so many others, I'm fumbling in the dark in this business of moving pictures. Like so many others, I believe I can offer some light…