I’ve always been a storyteller. As a kid I was invited to parties just to tell ghost stories -- sometimes I didn’t even know the birthday boy. I shot my first movie at age seven. The camera broke a few years later only exposing one frame at a time, so I taught myself animation, which ended up being the only film business in my hometown of Winnipeg.

As a teen I hung out at the National Film Board of Canada (an animation Mecca). I was teaching animation by the age of 20, opened my own studio by 21, mainly producing segments for Sesame Street. Eventually I became a live-action Sesame producer as well.

Sesame paid my way through film school where I focused on cinematography. After graduation I quickly worked my way up through the camera department, serving as the Director of Photography on several shows. I was also in demand as a storyboard artist, particularly for designing stunt and & visual effect sequences. Both positions allowed me to learn alongside dozens of directors.

I met my wife Catherine in a bar – actually I met her making a movie that was set in a bar. I was the DP and she was the Boom Op. She kept dropping the mic in the frame to get my attention (that’s how I remember it). Check out our personal website (click here) or read how I proposed to her in a packed theater with a homemade movie trailer (click here).

Catherine’s goal was always to work in postproduction, and she was able to work her way up through the editor’s union quickly. She’s now the best editor I’ve ever worked with (a sentiment echoed by other producers who aren’t married to her).

In 2000, a degenerative condition in my right eye destroyed my camera career. It should have been devastating, but even at the time we saw it as divine intervention challenging me to pursue my true dream since childhood – to direct. I also think I’d look good in an eyepatch.

I was soon hired to produce and direct for the series IT’S A LIVING on the CBC. Those were exciting years, travelling North America in pursuit of adventure and stories. The show taught me the importance of both meticulous planning and brilliant improvisation. It trained me to stay calm in the midst of chaos. It gave me movie ideas to last a lifetime.

After several years of IT’S A LIVING and now legally blind in one eye, I felt ready to pursue my feature directing career. I was having a tough time launching a movie career in Canada, but contacts in Los Angeles encouraged me to move south. In 2005, my wife and I gave up our cushy Vancouver lifestyle and moved to Hollywood to start over.

In Los Angeles, we’ve been blessed with incredible friends and contacts in the industry. With their help, I’ve already completed four screenplays, directed my first feature, and written and directed my own web series for NBC Universal.

Oh, and a couple years ago I underwent a new surgical procedure on my right eye – and my vision has been fully restored.