My favorite question to be asked these days is, “What’s your dream?” It makes me crack a smile every time, because the answer is I’m living it. Those three words hold significant weight and are only honest after a decade of relentless work to earn the position that Valnet has trusted me with. To understand “I’m living it” is to understand my story, which began in 2011.
Marvel Madness Ignites Film Fandom
I first fell in love with entertainment media the summer before I started middle school. These months saw the theatrical debuts of Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, both of which I saw opening weekend. I was obsessed. I showed up to the first day of sixth grade with a Captain America notebook and folder, despite superheroes being labelled as “uncool” after elementary school. I was teased for “still being into comics” in the ever-mature land of 11-13 year-olds, but my fandom remained unapologetic and only grew exponentially.
I went to the Thursday preview of The Avengers on April 30, 2012. This was before you could pre-book tickets online, and our intended 8pmET showing was sold out, so we had to wait outside the theater until the 10 o’clock slot, and boy was it worth it. For my dad and younger brother, it was just another fun trip to the movies, but for me, it was the genesis of what would become my career.
Finding My Virtual Tribe & Expanding My Horizon
I couldn’t just sit back and wait for the next Marvel movie. I needed to know every casting announcement, production update, and plot rumor. I booted up my family’s desktop, which would take a full five minutes to log in, every day to search for any articles or YouTube videos I could find explaining what was next for the MCU. This led me to finding YouTube film channels like Jeremy Jahns, Schmoes Know, and AMC Movie Talk.
These guys discussed Marvel, yes, but their channels were centered around film as a whole. I started watching reviews of Martin Scorsese movies, breakdowns of Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm, and preview specials of the Academy Awards. These YouTube channels became my afternoon SportsCenter. I’d race off the bus and put my algebra homework on the backburner – Gravity: Ending Explained was a higher priority.
I began dragging my friends to my local AMC every Friday night. I rounded up anyone I could convince to see that weekend’s hottest release with me. World War Z, The Martian, White House Down. I distinctly remember walking to the theater by myself to see Interstellar on opening night, which I only attended because it was a Christopher Nolan film, and if I wanted to be like my movie reviewer heroes, I should be watching Christopher Nolan films (I didn’t understand any of it at 13, but I sure acted like I did). I kept all my ticket stubs, which I still carry with me in a shoebox to this day. Shoutout to Kevin McCarthy for the inspiration.
The theater also came home with me. I began a blu-ray collection in 2015 and hosted movie nights with my friends. Notable screenings included Mad Max: Fury Road, Nightcrawler, and The Babadook.
Pursuing Broadcast Journalism At Syracuse University
We’ve now reached high school, and while university was still in the distance, conversations about future plans began to murmur. Mine required no thought. I was going to become… a sports broadcaster.
Film was my true passion, but there existed no linear path to a career in entertainment media. I pride myself on being a dreamer today, but the reality is that I come from a town that doesn’t acknowledge anything outside of the status quo. Everyone goes to the same handful of colleges and pursues the same handful of traditional jobs. Pursuing broadcast was rattling the cage enough, and I only had the confidence to walk down an avenue within it that had a concrete blueprint for success.
By some stroke of luck, I was accepted to Syracuse University’s SI Newhouse School of Public Communications, the most prestigious journalism program in the country. I had the dead average GPA and SAT score and a resume that only included four years of high school theater. At that time, the only evidence I had that I’d become a successful alumni one day was the broadcast ambition I outlined in my 650-word essay.
I immediately felt in over my head, both academically and financially. My freshman peers on campus had already completed summer internships with the New York Mets. I once did the morning announcements in 8th grade. On the money side of things, tuition was far outside of my family’s budget. I cried to my mom, panicking at what I just signed up for. “It’s your dream. We’ll make it work,” she said without hesitation. I owe her everything.
That first semester had some growing pains for a multitude of reasons, but it all boiled down to the fact that I was living a lie. I liked sports, but I loved film. Trying to put that passion I have for entertainment media into sports broadcasting felt inauthentic, but I thought it was the only path.
CitrusTV
That was until I found CitrusTV. I had been coming down to Syracuse’s student-run campus television station all semester, helping with the production side of their sports shows in hopes of bettering my chances to land an on-air role when auditions came around that December. Days before my audition, one of the directors at the station forwarded me an email to audition for Syracuse Unpeeled, CitrusTV’s entertainment news studio show, a program I didn’t even know existed. I was so blinded by the “linear sports broadcast path” that I failed to see the hidden avenues towards my true dream.
Unpeeled’s audition script revolved around Disney+’s Loki spin-off series. The creative juices I first ignited in 2011 came flowing back. While I didn’t land the movie reporter spot that I auditioned for, I was asked to join the program as the music reporter. I poured everything into the role, pitching multiple stories per week and getting regular airtime on the broadcast. My efforts were recognized at the station’s banquet that spring, as I was awarded CitrusTV Entertainment Rookie of the Year. That accolade meant the world to me.
Spring 2019 told me that I was right where I was supposed to be. My confidence on air grew exponentially. I shifted from music reporting to industry reporting, a beat that was tailor-made for my brain. I hosted three-minute monologues on the timeline of MoviePass and Q&As about the launch of Disney+. The station’s executive staff encouraged me to apply to be CitrusTV Entertainment Director, and I was elected into the role that winter. I maintained my on-air positions, which now included hosting Unpeeled and anchoring News Live at 6, while also overseeing all programs within the entertainment division.
Much of my Entertainment Director tenure came during the global pandemic. This stretch put me in consistent fight or flight situations, and those moments helped me evolve tenfold as a leader and professional. While challenging for my on-campus career, the lockdown is largely responsible for the true start of my professional career.
Freelancing & Mingling With The Larger Entertainment Media World
Outside of the classroom and CitrusTV, I began freelancing for a start-up website called The Direct. I was hired to be part of the site’s launch team of writers, penning Marvel news articles whenever I could find a free moment in my academic day. When the lockdown sent classes virtual and effectively indefinitely paused everyone’s social lives, I kept myself entertained and busy by writing for The Direct. I’d pull all-nighters to craft WandaVision episode analysis pieces and SuperBowl trailer predictions features. I co-created the brand’s flagship podcast which landed industry expert guests, many of which were my heroes growing up.
I worked my first press junket in February 2021, interviewing The Falcon and the Winter Soldier director Kari Skogland. For the kid with the Captain America folder and notebook ten years prior, this felt like my first “I made it” moment. I was so excited at just screening a Marvel project early that I took at least a dozen selfies with my desktop.
The momentum continued strongly from there. I attended my first in-person press screening that summer, driving four hours to New York City to see Black Widow with my childhood friend Luke, who was the one who sent me The Direct’s application in the first place. I don’t know where I’d be right now if he didn’t pass along that tweet that January 2020 afternoon.
My “love of the game” mentality carried me throughout Fall 2021. I regularly did round trip drives from Syracuse to NYC for press screenings, driving through upstate New York in the dead of night with the only passenger being a collection of empty Bang Energy cans.
It was also at this time that the larger entertainment media world began to recognize me. Two months into my senior year, the editor-in-chief of ComicBook at the time hit my DM with the magic question, “When do you graduate?”
Real World Beginnings
I graduated from Syracuse University in May 2022 and signed with ComicBook one month later. Things were happening. Despite my hesitations about the non-linear path years prior, I had successfully landed a full-time job in entertainment media.
As Denzel Washington told me during our Highest 2 Lowest interview, there are 10-15 more mountains to climb after successfully scaling the first, and I was beginning the hike up my second. The same “in over my head” woes I felt when I started university came flooding back.
That changed after a virtual interview I conducted with pro wrestler Matt Cardona in August 2022, where he imparted the invaluable life wisdom of “control the controllable.” Rather than focus on the million things that weren’t going in my favor, I honed in on the five or so things that I had total autonomy over. My article thumbnails. My social media presence. My attitude. One month into adopting this mindset, ComicBook brought me to New York Comic-Con and allowed me to host two media suite interviews. Four months from there, I worked my first red carpet, interviewing Dave Bautista at the premiere of Knock at the Cabin. Six months after that, I worked my first in-person press junket, interviewing Scarlett Johansson, Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright and more for Asteroid City.
I established myself as a reliable third string at ComicBook. When our lead reporter had a scheduling conflict, I was on an Amtrak to NYC to tag in at the Transformers: Rise of the Beasts red carpet. I had earned the brand’s trust, and I cashed in that good faith when a certain childhood passion made its way back to Hollywood in Winter 2023.
Percy Jackson
The Marvel Cinematic Universe was responsible for igniting my passion for cinema, but my love for franchises truly began with a book series. In elementary school, I was obsessed with Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Rick Riordan’s modern take on Greek mythology mesmerized me.
It was during that pivotal career year of 2020 that I rediscovered my love for Percy Jackson. My friends and I began a virtual book club where we re-read the original pentalogy and dove into the sequel series. During this time, Riordan announced that a serialized live-action adaptation of the series was in the works at Disney+. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.
I began to push out Percy Jackson content on my social media platforms. While the sites I worked for weren’t covering it at the time, I regularly tweeted my takes and made personal YouTube videos about the casting announcements. In January 2022, I called my shot, declaring that I would work the red carpet premiere of the series whenever Season 1 came around.
That manifestation came true even bigger than I could’ve anticipated in December 2023. I flew to LA on my own dime to interview the cast at the press junket, then flew back to the east coast and Amtrak’d to NYC to work the red carpet and attend the premiere. I went all in on Percy Jackson content, hosting an aftershow podcast with cast members guesting each week. This was, up to this point, the most creatively fulfilling stretch of my career.
Joining ScreenRant
I say “up to this point,” because I am actively in the most creatively fulfilling stretch of my career right now. ComicBook gave me so many opportunities, many of which were unheard of for a 22-year-old in the industry, but I knew I was quickly hitting my ceiling with the circumstances I had at the time. The junkets and carpets were a taste of my dream, but they were sporadic. I was grateful to be trusted as a third string, but it was time to be a QB1.
In Summer 2024, I began flirting with change. I initiated a move to NYC, one that I definitely could not afford but knew I needed to do to take my career to the next level. And if you’ve recognized a pattern in my story, then you know what immediately follows change.
Fall 2024 began my third season of growing pains. The NYC move was rough. I was going through some personal issues at the time, and my creative fulfillment within my career was hitting an all-time low. And as much as I’d love to sugarcoat this next part, the raw reality of it is crucial to my story. I was laid off on October 23, 2024 at 5:07pmET.
Two hours after receiving that email, I posted a statement on my social media with my updated demo reel. ScreenRant’s Rob Keyes DM’d me within minutes, we got on a Zoom call the next morning, and two weeks later I signed with Valnet to be ScreenRant’s lead reporter out of NYC. I am genuinely emotionally typing this paragraph. Rob not only saved my career, but he gave me everything I’ve ever asked for as an entertainment reporter. I owe Rob everything.
Ten Months Later
And so here we are. In these first ten months with ScreenRant, that 11-year-kid with the Captain America notebook now interviews Captain America himself on a Las Vegas airforce base in February. That 13-year-old kid completely confused by Interstellar now shows Matthew McConnaughey his original 2014 ticket stub after interviewing him at SXSW in March. That 19-year-old kid giving a speech to his CitrusTV peers now hosts a live Q&A with the cast of 28 Years Later in front of a sold out New York City crowd in June.
There’s quite a magic to walking down my own memory lane. Writing this gets me a bit misty-eyed. And we didn’t even talk about Coffee Chats! Another great origin story, for another time.
So again, if you were to ask me, “What’s your dream?” I’d point you to the 2500 words above, all of which can be condensed into three.
I’m living it.
