Having excelled in the arts from an early age, John was awarded many honors throughout his scholastic career for his accomplishments in the fine arts and in writing. Upon entering high school, John became active in theater and spent both his Junior and Senior year attending high school for half a day and college for the other half, focusing nearly all of his studies on illustration, writing and theater performance. Upon graduating, John was accepted into a graphic design program that accepted only 35 people per year before moving on to pursue his BA in theater performance at Huntington University.
During his time at Huntington, John was introduced to the art of improvisation and took a film production class that began his love affair with film production and led him to work on many low budget commercials, industrials, regional television shows and indie films. His experience in improv eventually led him to the become the Artistic and Administrative Director of the national touring theater troupe, THE SMARTY PANTS THEATER CO. that focused on the integration of the art of improvisation into corporate and educational systems. Clients included (but were not limited to) fortune 500 companies, IAMS, PROCTOR & GAMBLE, LEXUS NEXUS, and HARLEY DAVIDSON.
It wasn't long after this before John re-located to NYC, where he became the Educational Programs Director of COMEDY SPORTZ NEW YORK, worked internationally as a model and continued his pursuit of film opportunities, working on the Indie feature EMPTY with ASHLEY WILLIAMS (HUMAN CENTIPEDE) and PATRICK STEELE's multi award winning film TRUE NATURE with CAROLYN MCCORMICK of LAW & ORDER.
While in New York, John wrote, produced and directed his first two short films, the award-winning short, REFLECTIONS starring international modeling phenom EDIELY SCAPINELLO and the short film WITHIN starring UFC legend DON FRYE (MIAMI VICE, PUBLIC ENEMIES). It was his work on these two films that gained the attention of former studio head of UNIVERSAL PICTURES, THOM MOUNT (BULL DURHAM, NATURAL BORN KILLERS, TEQUILA SUNRISE) who offered John the opportunity to relocate to LA in order to assist Mr. Mount with the start-up of the most recent incarnation of his production company.
Since making the transition to LA, John has worked on the development of several features, countless music videos, completed his most recent award nominated short film LOCKBOX and has had the fortune to continue his pursuit of acting by being brought on by Casting Director GAIL LEVIN (VANILLA SKY, ALMOST FAMOUS, JERRY MAQUIRE) as a client for her personal management company LEVIN/BROWN MANAGEMENT.
ANIMAL AMONG US written by Jonathan Murphy, is his directorial debut on a feature length film. A throwback in homage to the classic thrillers with a modern twist sure to stand as a point of evolution within the genre, the film stars CHRISTIAN OLIVER (The Good German, Speed Racer), LARISA OLEYNIK (10 Things I Hate About You), former M.M.A / U.F.C World Champion and Hall of Famer DON FRYE, ERIN DANIELS (One Hour Photo, House of 1000 Corpses) and five time Daytime Emmy Award Winner HEATHER TOM (Young & The Restless).