What was your course of study at Flagler and how did it equip you to enter your current professional industry?
Although I am not a journalist, my interviewing and writing skills come into play every day in both my professional work and my own projects. The Art Department was also kind enough to allow me to take art history and fine art classes, which nurtured my love of art and applies to my filmmaking today. I’m most grateful for that experience and the benefits of having attended a liberal arts college.
What was your first job after graduating from Flagler and how did you secure it?
My first steady job in film was working as a production assistant for a behind-the-scenes production company. It’s a much longer story, but I secured it when I met a unit publicist who invited me to come to set and I was thrown right into working with the crew. After I passed the test, I was invited back to be a paid production assistant with the behind-the-scenes team.
What role did this first job play in the course of your professional career?
It was everything…after making it through a season working with the behind-the-scenes crew, I had made a good impression and was recommended to fill in the opening position as an executive producer’s assistant. That opportunity changed the trajectory of my career.
Before graduating from Flagler, where could you see yourself living as a young professional and why?
I had grown up north of Atlanta and I certainly thought I would figure out how to move to L.A. or New York, but after I started working in Atlanta, I ended up staying and building my career here.
What were some of the factors that led you to move to Atlanta, professionally or otherwise?
My entire family lives in Atlanta so it’s always been home to me. After I graduated in 2013, I came back to the beginning of what would become a film production boom in Georgia. Once I obtained my first job on a television series, I was along for the ride and had steady film production work for now going on 10 years.
How common/ represented is your industry of work in Atlanta?
Due to the Georgia film tax incentive, Atlanta has become a film production hub in its own right. In the 2022 fiscal year, film and television productions spent an industry record of $4.4 billion in the state. It’s no longer uncommon to see a film crew shutting down streets or posted up outside a house or shop in our neighborhoods.
How would you describe Atlanta as a place to work?
I’ve worked with the kindest and hardest-working people I’ve ever met in Atlanta. Anyone who comes to work here from out of town will say the same. Although we are a metropolitan city, once you are in the film community, it becomes an extended family very quickly.
How would you describe Atlanta as a place to live?
It's an inside joke in Atlanta that we are known for 12 seasons known as winter, fool’s spring, second winder, spring of deception, third winter, the pollen season, actual spring, summer, Hell’s front porch, false fall, second summer, and actual fall. If you can make it through this, you can make it anywhere.
What are three things you love about living in Atlanta that you think would be hard to find somewhere else?
- It’s a place where you can start by admiring artists, musicians, or filmmakers from afar and then end up bumping into or getting to know them. We really are a big small town.
- Some of the best food that can battle New York or Los Angeles any day.
- Atlanta front porches and I love mine.