Growing up, I was constantly around art. I was born and raised in New York City, and every weekend activity involved creating or observing artwork. My parents are both actors and encouraged me to engage my imagination in every shape and form. Mostly, this involved performance through elaborate games I would invent with my older brother based on our favorite movies and television shows. We mimicked Sherlock Holmes and Watson, cracking artificial mysteries while sucking on cigars (boba straws my mother cut in half). We raced around the house in boots and capes like Batman and Robin. We even clashed using the force (of plastic light sabers) as Luke Skywalker and Mace Windu. This constant state of pretend instilled a mechanism of creativity and innovation that I carry with me today.
Once I grew older and theater acting replaced play pretend, I deepened my passion for storytelling and began understanding the significance of collaboration. By the time I entered high school, I had lived in Los Angeles, California for four years. Though we theater kids were inherently obsessed with Broadway, we could not deny our proximity to Hollywood and the impact that had on our artistic perspectives. I had certainly been exposed to film via my parents, both cinephiles in their own right, but with this new social sphere, it became an exciting urgency to learn the language of film, wanting nothing more than to understand every reference and conversational nod. When I was unsure what someone was talking about, that meant I had homework. At this point, it was clear that acting did not need to be my only creative avenue. I was falling in love with filmmaking, and I was ignited by the desire to be a part of it all.
With this, I find myself a writer, director, editor, and actor with a fierce passion for invention. My films span genres, yet are all anchored on themes of curiosity and discovery, particularly concerning human relationships. My creative upbringing has led me to incorporate and celebrate many artistic modes in my work, allowing each film to be an amorphous representation of music, dance, photography, and theater. I am unafraid of marrying mediums and breaking structures in favor of the emotional journeys at the heart of my films. I am most interested in making narrative character-based films or direct cinema documentary films. To this point, my background as an actor has brought me to prioritize performance above all else, and I direct with actors at the forefront of my consideration. That being said, my time in film school has provided a keen awareness of the artistry involved in every department of filmmaking, and I approach this with a collaborative and flexible attitude. My concept of the theater ensemble, meaning the cooperation and commitment needed from each and every person involved in a show, carries directly over to my filmmaking style. I am eager to listen to each of my collaborators, constantly unfolding and reshaping ideas at every stage to ultimately produce the best work. My sincere goal is to imbue all of my creative endeavors with the imagination and exploration I lived for as a child.