bio

I could barely breathe, my head bowed as I fought for oxygen. “You okay?” she asked. I nodded. She looked at me and said, “Wanna do it again?” I looked up at her, the instructor, and mumbled, “Oh, yeah!”

So, I did it again: directed my first on-camera shoot. And my life changed right there, in that moment, in that classroom.

I had to be part of this industry.

So, I quit the actor’s life (I was tired of waiting tables, anyway), squeezed everything I owned into my oil-leaking ’86 Toyota, bid Chicago farewell and drove to LA.

Spent 20-some years in and around Hollywood, writing, producing and directing award-winning on-air promos, radio spots, interstitials, show segments and sales presentations for studios, networks and production companies, including Warner Bros, Sony, 20th Century Fox, ABC, NBC, and Disney, among others.

Speaking of the Mouse House, I landed at Disney for five years as a director of video production, marketing their syndicated shows. While there, I also helped develop the ABC medical-reality show “Vital Signs.”

Eventually, however, I left to go freelance and field-direct 100 segments of a reality show, followed a million other gigs with some really nice and really talented folks all over that town of tinsel and fallen angels.

And now, I’ve circled back to live once again in Chicago, where that long-ago passionate discovery first took my breath away.

Still does.