Biography

I lived in an apartment that my parents were renting in NJ until the age of 3. There we found a litter of kittens in my back yard and adopted two of them! We named them Tigger & Buttons, they were mother and son. Tiger the son is the gray one and buttons is black.

After a few years of school, it was apparent that I had a hard time focusing, especially when it came to reading. I was diagnosed with ADHD & Dyslexia which never really felt like a problem or bothered me. What frustrated me in school was that I was constantly forced to use my weaknesses rather than my strengths.

Since I can remember I’ve loved animals and have always felt a deep connection to them. I had many animals throughout my life. The first was my two cats, then Hoppy my Flemish Giant rabbit that I found and rescued in a park. When I say I rescued, I mean it. I saw him in the park and said “dad look at that rabbit! Can we take him home?” My dad was distracted talking to someone said “sure if you can catch him” thinking that I wouldn’t be able to. I walked right over to the rabbit, he didn’t move, I reached in the bushes and picked him right up. My dad who was preoccupied talking to someone in the park, was surprised when I came back with a giant rabbit in my arms and said, “let’s go.” Hoppy was someone’s house pet that was set free by a previous owner who didn’t want him anymore but would have died as winter was approaching. Lastly, my frog Robert, lots of fish, dogs, named Molly, Abby, Red, and Captain.

Something I was always captivated by from a young age was automobiles. I think they are so cool! They make noises and come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and colors. On top of that, you can get in and go for a ride or drive. Jay Leno said it best, “they are kinetic pieces of art.”

High school was a rough time. The majority of things I was doing, I wasn’t interested in or passionate about. I was doing them because that’s what I was told to do, including sports. I was a great athlete. I was a varsity wrestler and a district champion my freshmen year but hated the sport’s intensity. Sports are supposed to be fun, especially at that age. I quit wrestling after my sophomore year. If you don’t get some enjoyment out of what you’re doing, who cares if you’re good at it. I also ran track and field, doing a variety of races, relays, and events, including pole vault. I was actually one of a couple of pole vaulters at my school, by senior year I was the only one. Even though I was interested in acting, and loved watching tv and film, I never thought to pursue it during this time. My insecurities were too high. Worry always haunted me when it came time to making big decisions.

I got my first job as a Life Guard sophomore year of high school and ran with it. Once I got a taste of what it was like to earn money on a consistent basis, I was addicted and tried to figure out how I could maximize it. When I started, I was paid $8 an hour at my town pool just down the street. I started talking to parents at the pool, and ended up giving private swim lessons to their kids. We charged $20 for each half-hour lesson and before I knew it, I was making $40 an hour at age 16. I then moved on to a YMCA with indoor pools, keeping this going year-round. At the YMCA I created connections with private, residential pool owners and guarded private pool parties. I also did special needs swim lessons and had the idea to create my own pool product that helps physically challenged swimmers, as seen about. I called it the Pool Lane Gate, designed to help swimmers get in and out of lanes without having to go over or under the pool buoys/floats.

I was never interested in going to college but went because I was told I had to. In college, I majored in Psychology. I wanted to become a school psychologist and help kids with academic challenges that were in my same shoes, going full circle. But my core passion came from entrepreneurship, marketing, and business classes. I never felt so passionate about something academic before. The cool part about my entrepreneurship program was that the class actually paid us. It gave us our money back that we spent on the class to create startups. We pitched our ideas to judges for a chance to win further funding. It was a ton of fun and a great learning experience!

I currently reside in Brooklyn. I’m a working actor and previously helped launch a startup called Planet X. They have a green screen room, podcast rooms, a production team offering a wide variety of services, and more!. I also have my own services, so check out my services page! If you made it all the way to the end, thanks for taking the time to read about me!