We were lucky to catch up with Brian Roberts recently and have shared our conversation below.

Brian, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

I’ve actually never worked on a film or streaming project where I didn’t learn SOMETHING. Working as a producer in the film and television industries is always about putting out unforeseen fires, whether technical, weather related, or simple human error. But maybe one of the most meaningful lessons that I learned was way back in the 1990’s. Fresh out of college and recently moved to Los Angeles, I was fortunate enough to land an internship in the writer’s room on the TV show Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Of course I was impressed with the professionalism of the producers and story editors in the room, but I wasn’t expecting the amount of love and care that each writer brought to the characters for whom they were writing. I had assumed that at their level of success it was just a “job” that they were doing. Instead, it taught me that to do a GOOD job, I needed to be committed and passionate about anything that I was doing. That same fire was important as the lead of my own production company. There have been lean months when growing what I know is a great idea, into something I can share with the world, seemed like an insurmountable hill to climb. But the drive and dedication to each project is what sustained me through the work.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a film producer and Casting Director for film and television. I grew up watching my mother and father who were both in theatre. My mother, Doris Galiber, was a singer and actress. My father was composer and broadway conductor Howard A. Roberts. My childhood was spent watching from the wings as my mom performed in various Rogers and Hammerstein musicals mounted at the Jones Beach Amphitheater in New York. I also spent years backstage as my father conducted the orchestras for Guys and Dolls, Raisin and The Wiz on Broadway as well as The Alvin Ailey Dance Company.
I started out wanting to be an actor and attended Howard University to study drama. It was at Howard that I learned that I was one of the WORST actors on the planet. Just THE WORST.
I knew that I wanted to be in the arts, I just needed to find my niche. After a brief flirtation with theatre directing and then film directing, I found my place on the producing side. Interestingly, producing and writing were the two things I avoided in school and here I am doing exactly that!
In addition to fundraising for a slate of films for my company, The Cre8ive Consortium, I have been developing a streaming project called TICKER, an anthology show in the vein of Twilight Zone about people who meet in a hospital waiting room. These strangers and/or family members have their own emotional crises separate from the outcome of patients… leading to a surprising life-altering twist. We are promoting the project by doing a series of live readings of episodes including the one that I wrote, called “Last, Do No Harm.”

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

My industry is built on networking as a way to gain knowledge and share opportunities. My time at Howard University helped build a network of folks that I work with to this day. As another example of the importance of networking, I work with several distinct production companies, including The Cre8ive Consortium/Cre8ive MediaWorks, as well as the company LLR Productions with my producing partner Jeff Lam and film director Frank Lin. Jeff and I originally met while working for a casting support/publishing company called Breakdown Services. Breakdown Services provides casting information from Casting Directors and publishes that information to theatrical agents/managers who can then submit their actor clients for jobs. Jeff was preparing to take a leap of faith into producing on a low budget film. He asked for my support and advice, which was ironic since I was weighing the same questions myself. Jeff and I both went to work on that film, as well as several more including “HOME” starring Heather Langenkamp. Fast forward a few years later and I was toiling away building my company, The Consortium. Jeff was a Casting Producer for the show The Family Business on BET+. He brought me on to handle the casting of the background actors for the episodes. As a “day job” this afforded me both a weekly salary as well as the opportunity to network with another group of talented producers and filmmakers. As often as my brother-in-arms thanks me for supporting his leap of faith, I owe him the same thanks in equal measure.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

If there is one thing that might be confusing for non-creatives it is the willingness that creatives have to sacrifice financial security to pursue a dream that may never make them rich. Sure, many in my industry lead a good life money-wise, but there are just as many, probably the majority, who struggle to pay the electric bill month to month. For creatives, the fuel is the need to express ourselves at any cost. If you believe in your vision, you have to follow it through to the end, no matter what it takes. As I said previously, from a young age, I knew I wanted to be in the arts; that’s the world in which I grew up and that’s the one that called to me. Building my company, The Cre8ive Consortium/Cre8ive MediaWorks has been a labor of love, but required my forgoing fixing that fender bender on my Toyota. I was more interested in using that money for ring lights and tripods to shoot more content.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://tickerseries.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brobsskills/
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/kWOT1E_3uOA?si=YgUSCwKRSWRkb_Oq