In grade school, Chad wrote a sequel to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Subsequently, he received detention for trying to see The Princess Bride without a permission slip. In his late teens, he cooked at the Academy Awards with chef Wolfgang Puck. Then and there, amongst the Oscar winners, nominees, and chefs, he realized he wanted to make movies. Since he always had a habit of writing creatively in his spare time, he tried his hand at spec screenwriting, later optioning an animation screenplay to Bollywood. After attending film school at Woodbury University in Burbank and Long Beach City College he directed and produced several projects including the Steven King Dollar Baby Beachworld, The Envelope, which was made under the Dogma95 rules, and the effects-heavy Control C.E.