About me
Me (right) and my wife (left) in our handmade traditional garb
Photo by Inta Krukle of IMK Studio
Me (center) I’ve worn many hats.
I grew up in a small farm town in southwest Minnesota, where I ran around with friends and made movies, from childhood through high school. Then, after a series of events involving the premiere of Ken Burns’s “The War” in my hometown, (which I still have not seen) I was encouraged to enroll in the cinema program at the Minneapolis Community and Technical College. (Now “Minneapolis College?”) I majored in Editing & Post-Production and went back an extra year to major in Directing & Producing.
During my college years, I began an internship at a boutique creative agency, Mojo Solo, which turned into a full-time job. In my time there, I shot, edited, and animated B2B videos for Fortune 500 companies, like U.S. Bank and Thomson Reuters. After five years of more learning than I can describe, I decided to leave the Minneapple (no one calls it that), and head to the Big Apple (Los Angeles, California.)
I had no prospects and just wanted to work from the bottom up. For six months - PAing and 2nd 2nd ADing web series and student films, editing music videos, - whatever.
Until I got the call to help out on a few videos for Netflix.
I’ve been with Netflix Creative Studio, as a video editor and creative producer, for 6+ years. Whether it’s AV for marketing or product strategy, I focus on the biggest challenge of the streaming boom…
I approach this by
Finding the niche. Always striving to authentically represent the content and bring in the audience who will love it.
Collaborating. Whether it’s with fellow artists within Creative Studio or bringing a taskforce of cross-functional teams together, communication and collaboration create compelling campaigns.
Being a fan. Bringing fandom and passion to every title to ignite excitement.
Making lists.
To attract the most passionate audience to content, it’s one thing to aspire to create something “COOL” or “WEIRD” or “MEME.” It’s another to be informed by a strategy while taking a big swing. And it’s ANOTHER thing to get everyone to agree on great ideas. I balance the perspectives of every stakeholder to align on a holistic vision, and I’ve become known for getting out-of-the-box ideas swiftly approved.
Stand-up comedy promotion is another speciality of mine - Seth Meyers, Fortune Feimster, Jim Jeffries, and Eric Andre, to name a few.
Whether someone is staring up at the Mega Screen in Times Square or down at their phone while sitting on the toilet, connecting to the right audience must be approached with thoughtful strategy.
