I think I decided to work in the industry because I felt compelled to. My background is Computer Engineering and Literature, and I worked in the I.T. industry for a few years. I felt very much like I didn’t belong in corporate American (a conversation for another day), and so I had to find my way around the world somehow. I began by taking acting classes while working at my dad’s machine shop in the Bronx; becoming a theater actor in New York led me to screenwriting, which in turn led me to filmmaking. It felt like a natural progression of sorts and it stemmed from me truly wanting to see stories on screen that reflected our collective humanity, period.