In the early 2000's while studying Directing & Story Telling at UCLA Extensions and interning for Dick Clark, J.R. was at the same time freelancing on commercials. It was a tough hustle but he gained a lot of experience. Shortly after that, he moved to Chicago and was hired as an in house Production Manager at D.Hudson Productions for commercials and local add campaigns.
In 2018 J.R. moved back to Los Angles. Now back in L.A. he began to notice that many things had drastically changed, many of which were in various communities and of a Socioeconomic and environmental nature. inspired and compelled, J.R. was moved to start directing short documentaries about these issues.