-I started being entrepreneurial at six years old—I operated a lemonade stand franchise, shoveled snow, traded baseball cards, and more.
-Check out his website! It’s worth it! https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/
– As a serial entrepreneur, I own multiple media and lifestyle companies but I am also a speaker, author, and vlogger / podcaster for the #Dailyvee and #AskGaryVee shows.
by: Katelynn Burnett
Keith Stegall is an accomplished country singer/songwriter/producer who got his foot in the door in the music industry volunteering to help part-time at a production studio in Nashville.
Keith went to college with the intentions of obtaining a phd in philosophy. After a conversation with an advisor who leveled with Keith about the job market of philosophy, Keith decided to pursue his true passion of songwriting. Having never considered this a professional option due to its recreational nature in his home, Keith says that had it not been for his advisor telling him to “drop out tomorrow and go write songs” that he would “probably be pretty miserable today.”
Mauricio Abril gave up on art when he was young because he thought he couldn’t make it as an artist.
He originally went to school for molecular biology and even got a job in a biotech company but was very bored.
He started drawing again in his free time and began thinking about going back to school.
He quite his job and moved in with his parents to work on his portfolio.
Ended up going to the Art Center College of Design and got a degree in entertainment design.
He now works for Walt Disney Imagineering doing concept art.
-By Jazlin Sobel
I decided to do my research on people within the 3D animation industry because I am pretty dead set on working in it for my career. Of the few interviews on the topic that Roadtrip Nation has, the interview of Akira Thompson was the most interesting to me because he works in an area of 3d animation that I’m familiar with. Akira is a 3D animator and designer who makes cgi for movies and ads at the company Framestore.
John Legend’s videos really inspired me when I looked into them. He talks about struggling being a first generation college student. Growing up with a mom who was struggling through drug addiction problems, and his parents divorce, he didn’t really have that same support system that he used to and so that definitely didn’t help the college process. It’s not like he could’ve asked one of his parents for help. I related to the fact that he also knew what he loved to do but also knew that there were going to be hardships along the way. He talks about how he’s always loved music from a very young age, around the age of 4. I found it inspiring how he talked about optimism when fighting failures in your life for the things you love.
Rex Grignon, head of character animation at DreamWorks.
Initially set on engineering, he decided instead to go to study film and animation before finally learning computer animation. He got a job at a studio named PDI, which would later be renamed DreamWorks, before briefly joining Pixar to work on Toy Story. After Toy Story, he returned to DreamWorks and has been there over 10 years, working on films such as Antz, Shrek, and Madagascar.
by: Jennifer Howard
Craig Brewer- Film Director/ Screenwriter
Craig Brewer’s career took off after he made his film “The Poor and Hungry” which made it’s way into a film festival and he was noticed by some bigger names that took him up. He’s credited with ‘reviving’ Eddie Murphy after some more recent films that were released and started with nothing but a camera, a boom pole, and some cheap lights. His story is one of the greatest examples of from rags to riches that I’ve ever heard making him quite the admirable director.
Danielle Feinberg is a woman who works for Pixar Animation Studios. She studied computer science at Harvard University, and found interest in computer animation. After this realization, she decided to pursue her new interest, and landed an entry-level technical position working on A Bug’s Life. As she got deeper and deeper into the studio’s works, and found that lighting was where all the magic was for her. She fought for a specific scene in Finding Nemo involving a cluster of jellyfish, wanting to work with the lighting of the sea creatures, and amazed her peers with her work. She encourages young women to use STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) to change social issues they care about.
Quote: “You can get a lot of things by working hard…You don’t have to have some sort of genius; you just have to work hard.”
• When he was 12, he saw a skateboarding demo at the park, and gained interest in skateboarding
• Skateboarding turned into snowboarding, which became a big turning point in his career later on.
• High school drop out and ran away from home at the age of 17 to discover his passions.
• Got a job in the mountains as a lift operator. Things went south along the way and lost the job, and lived in a tent in the snowy mountains for a while.
• His hard work was recognized and was offered job at Volcom, and was paid to snowboard and build snowboards, and took on painting as a hobby when he was out due to injury. Was offered to do some painting designs for snowboards by Volcom.
• He decided to no longer do painting for other people and do it for himself as a personal hobby, and traveled to Europe to expand his studies.
– By Kristin Frost
Quotations
“Give respect to your struggles and mistakes. Use those experiences to learn and grow”.
“Go to college. It doesn’t matter what you study, but it is such an important part of being a well-rounded person”.
Biography:
Born and raised in Brownsville, NY. She caught the acting bug after being cast as Sandy in a high school production of “Grease”. She studied acting with Wynn Handman, a legend in the theater world. Her autobiographical one-woman play, “Brownsville Bread,” has sold out shows, won multiple festival prizes, and had a very successful run at the prestigious off-Broadway Theatre. She is now an award-winning producer, actress, casting director, writer, and director with the mission of increasing diversity in the entertainment industry. Her work combines: acting and theater, Entrepreneurship, communicating/sharing stories.
by: Maria Pedraza
