I’m a New Yorker with an art & writing background who worked all over NYC in some of the best ad agencies there are. I have a family, and I live in Brooklyn. That’s the short version.

If you want the long version, this is it:

I was born and raised in DUMBO Brooklyn, of two sculptor parents. One from Japan, another from Panama by way of Jamaica, England, Scotland, and I think Minnesota. The image behind this spiel is a picture of the building I grew up in, which is now perhaps the most instagrammed place in Brooklyn. It was a loft, the kind that doesn’t really exist anymore, and while I was there we filled it with foreign artists of mostly German or Japanese heritage, a husky, probably around 15 cats of varying styles, 3 Geckos (loose), around 30 Hamsters, about 30 Gerbils, and close to 30 Lovebirds. There were also a bunch of finches, a Garter Snake, a tree frog, 3 turtles in a bathtub, a bunch of fish and at one point an innumerable amount of snails, as they happen to be asexual. There’s no stopping them. Like, imagine if masturbating got you pregnant. It’s like that.

Like any New York kid I spent a lot of time around all sorts of people, many of them weirdos. I cut school to play basketball and watch girls smoke/write poetry/ pretend to be homeless. I politicked with uptown drug dealers and downtown blue bloods. I was raised by writers, photographers, and people who couldn’t tell me what they did for a living. And through it all, I was the kid that could draw.

From the age of two I spent almost every day scribbling something. By middle school I was in the Chelsea DIA, and by high school I had work in the Brooklyn and Corcoran Museums. In college, my senior thesis was stolen out of its exhibit by teenagers. I was the artist David Ellis' personal assistant for 3 years, and with him I met some of “street” art’s most important artists, with whom I painted walls, gigantic prop bottles, a public bus, and 3 whole blocks in Philly.

After receiving a BFA in Industrial Design I took jobs designing footwear at companies like Reebok, Phat Farm, and Carter's. I also painted sneakers, printed tees, and designed fitteds.

I started the out in the Ad game at Wieden + Kennedy New York, where I was the model for “822”, a program designed to deploy multidisciplinary creatives within a more traditional creative department. Subsequently, I was the first member of Wieden + Kennedy New York's creative super group Attack: a small creative team designed to be stronger, better, faster, and most importantly, self-contained and self-directed. I led the group for 2 years, and played essentially every role that exists in the classic ad model. Basically, we were a startup.

Following Attack I worked at Anomaly New York, where I was used as a jack-of-all-trades with a design bent. From there I ended up freelancing for the New York Times for a bit, which being a New Yorker, was pretty dreamy for me. I saw Mark Bittman so much he thought I was stalking him. Bill Cunningham held the door for me with one hand while holding Halal in the other.

After the Times I took a quick trip across the country in a 1970 Buick GS and returned to SoHo, taking on a job at Saatchi & Saatchi New York. There I made my first Super Bowl ad, a buncha stuff for Miller Lite, and was a creative director for Progresso, the famous soup company. Following Saatchi I returned to Anomaly NY, where I oversaw the creation of Budweiser's first financially successful social campaign ever and was the creative director on Panera Bread for their re-launch.

Since then I’ve been freelancing for whoever and whatever. Despite my cynicism towards the game, I’ve found that I really enjoy the actual work involved. While freelancing I’ve done all kinds of things, like writing pilots, running agencies, and directing commercials. But mostly, I do advertising, and at this point I like to think that my curiosity about every little thing has made me into a kinda advertising Kung-Fu master: someone who’s familiar with most of the Kung-Fu styles and is still curious to learn more of them.

When I'm not working on advertising things, I'm grustling it out on some side shit, cooking for my friends, or throwing parties, or both. I also play Dungeons & Dragons.

I still live in Brooklyn, but have given up leaky lofts for a leaky townhome in Flatbush in order to better accommodate the eccentric needs of my elderly father, my wife, and our 3 cats. It’s nice here. The peppers and sorrel are cheap and plentiful, and the Q is easily the best train line in the city.