My true passion growing up was baseball. I knew I wanted to be like Jose Canseco, Ricky Henderson, or Roberto Alomar, and get a big hit for my team and win the whole damn thing with people cheering. I played baseball at the highest level possible in Canada from 16-19 years old, and ended up getting a scholarship to Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa.
I majored in English and minored in Language for 4 years and finished my time there as an honour roll student.
My scholarship led me to be a part of the baseball team - the Graceland Yellowjackets. I played for 3 seasons while battling through a broken thumb and torn labrum and by my senior year, I was done. Both physically and mentally. So that ended my dream of becoming a professional baseball player. I lived out one dream as far as I could, it was time to live out my other dream.
I knew ever since I was a kid that I wanted to be involved in movies or TV in some capacity. I began making movies with my Dad's old camcorder when I was in grade 3 and I've never stopped. Any time a friend came over, they always knew I was going to throw them in a movie or we'd sit there and figure out some crappy horror movie idea.
I didn't realize that I was going to be an editor until I made a video in grade 11 called 'The Black Lotus Tournament'. It's a 40 min video with graphics, music, and interviews. I had no idea what an ambitious project it was until a couple years later, because to me, working on a film and editing was just plain fun. It wasn't work to me, and still to this day I don't treat my career like work; I genuinely enjoy making movies and television.
Alex Liu was filming a documentary on my brother's band - Moneen, in our basement and he happened to come into a room where I was watching 'The Black Lotus Tournament’ with my friends. He must have seen something in me, because he wanted to keep in touch. About a year later he got me an interview with CBC to edit the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I nailed the interview (Which I've come to realize is a rarity for me), and started my first real editing job. Unfortunately, I learned how to edit on Sony Vegas and this was with Avid. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I was terrified. I’m going to get fired from my first ever real job. Thankfully, there was a girl, Alicia Lee, who was super patient and taught me the controls and how to edit Avid over 2 days. I stumbled my way through the Olympics, and from there I worked in the tape room, I was an assistant editor on a ton of shows, and life was becoming pretty boring. I needed a challenge. I needed to create something. That's when I met a producer named Brad Brough.
In 2010, I had an interview with Brad and Judith Pyke for a Rodeo show they were making. Apparently, after talking with Brad about the interview, he asked me "If you don't get this job, what would you do for the summer?" to which I responded, "Probably just chill at home and play video games". So I suck at interviews, but I was damn good at my job. I started assistant editing for 'Rodeo: Life on the Circuit" and God, it was so awesome to be out of the tape rooms in CBC, and in some editing suites actually working on a show.
Brad's next show was 'Canada's Greatest Know-it-All' and I was an assistant editor on that show again. I found it too easy, and usually had tons of time on my hands, so I would try editing some scenes by myself. After an editor was let go, I finally had my chance to try and impress Tom Tobin and Brad. They saw the scenes I made, and took a chance on me. I got promoted from assistant editor to editor. So in 2011, I finally got my break.
One of the coolest jobs I ever had was working on a show called 'NHL Revealed: A Season like No Other' for CBC and NBC. We had 6 days to get a fine cut done, and 1 day to lock it. This was a hour long show, and trying to get one of these episodes done was just insanity. But I thrived on it. I learned that my biggest asset when editing is my speed, and I would blow through the episodes because 1) I love editing, and 2) I love hockey even more. So editing hockey was a dream come true for me. It also let me see how other editors work, how they stress, how they manage time crunches. It revealed a lot about myself and the industry.
A couple months later I got offered a supervising editor position for a show, and it was a really proud moment for me. I had finally made it! But just a day later my friend and co-worker Tom Tobin called me up and said "Do you want a job on Masterchef?" I had seen every US season, and loved the first Canadian season. The catch was I would be a junior editor and making much less that the other job was offering. I struggling for days trying to make up my mind. After editing the hockey show, I realized that what I edit is crucial to my happiness. So I turned down a huge job offer elsewhere and jumped on the Masterchef boat. 6 years later and I’m still working on it as a supervising editor. Good choice.
In 2017, I won a Canadian Screen Award (CSA) for best editor in a reality show for 'The Amazing Race Canada'. I've been nominated for 3 CSAs and 2 CCE awards - all for my work with 'The Amazing Race Canada' and 'Masterchef Canada'.
