We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Harold Foxx a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Harold thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Since around 2013, I have been doing all my work on social media platforms which I produced The Harold Foxx Show, Foxx that Shit, and Foxx News along with my training at The Groundlings improv and sketch school based in Los Angeles where all the legends came from such as Will Ferrell, Melissa McCarthy, Lisa Kudrow, Conan O’Brien, and Jimmy Fallon etc. I am also a stand up comedian and writer. Of course, as a stand up comedian, you have to write your own material and produce the comedy show. I have been getting more variety opportunities in the entertainment industry as RespectAbility’s entertainment lab fellow such as being an associate producer for a feature documentary film, Being Michelle. I also was a post production intern for a comedy romantic film, Something from Tiffany’s, and several stage productions with Deaf West Theatre and Off Broadway production.

All of these works that I had done the last several years really do change my creative and arts mindset to more of creating my own work such as as a writer, producer, and director. I continue to do acting and stand up comedy when the right opportunities come up. I have been getting opportunities in writing rooms but some don’t go through and some does go through. Sometimes, I felt like my writing structure is somewhat pretty good however not strong as top writers in the industry because when you wanted to show your writing work and it can be overlooked due to it’s being not what the Industry is looking for or they might think it’s not good enough for the industry. Also, there is only maybe a few top Deaf screenwriters in the industry. I believe we do have more talented Deaf screenwriters out there. Sometimes understanding English’s grammar structure can one of the barriers for Deaf artists. That’s the reason why we are so comfortable with telling our stories in ASL (American Sign Language) which is like writing by using our hands and body language on screen. Sometimes, the artists will have someone translate what they say in ASL and write it down for them.

That’s when I realized that I wanted to be a writer in both worlds. I want to expand my skills to be the best artist as I can be to be able to tell my own story at the top level in the industry. That’s the main reason why I decided to attend graduate school for MFA in screenwriting at California State University in Northridge this upcoming fall. The Hollywood Reporter ranked CSUN as one of the top 25 best film schools in United States. I know this program will provide the right resources and tools to help me to be the best writer as I can be. I will be able to show my ability to write and produce the best arts from my perspective as Black and Deaf person in comedy and more. Also, it will help open up more opportunities in writing rooms and to produce and direct. Without writing, you wouldn’t have anything to produce and that’s where I want to be best at it.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Harold Catron Jr, known as my professional stage name Harold Foxx. I am Deaf, originally from Memphis, Tennessee. I have been Deaf since I was around 4 – 5 years old when I was sick with meningitis. All of my life in Memphis, I was heavily involved in sports such as football, basketball and I was part of the theater community.

I went to Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, a private university for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students. I was on the football team then graduated from Gallaudet University in December 2004 with a bachelor of science degree in Physical Education. While I was at Gallaudet, I also took several theater courses.
After I graduated, I wasn’t sure if I should consider graduate studies in Deaf Education, Sport Education or Theatre/Film which I have a strong passion for. Then I decided to work and see where it leads me to. I was a personal trainer, football assistant coach, strength & conditioning coach, and a substitute P.E. teacher for high school and college. I did these jobs over around 6 years. Then I decided to take a break to figure out what I really wanted to do.

Then suddenly life hit me in a hard way, I hit a rock bottom and I lost everything. I was homeless sleeping in my car on and off for like 2 years. At one point, I felt like I was ready to give up and ready to go back home to Memphis, Tennessee. I was on the phone talking to my mother one evening when I was sleeping in my car and I told her I am ready to come home. She told me that I can come home but I would have to live from paycheck to paycheck for life and find my own place to live or get it together and tough it up. That was when I realized I wanted to stay in the area in my car and try to work my way up. Then I started doing comedy skits on Vine apps, a 6 seconds clip that was owned by Twitter. Once I did all of the comedy skits and I gained a huge fan base to the point where I knew that’s something I wanted to make into a career. I decided to have a stage name. At first it was Dat Deaf Entertainer that was recommended by friends, then after a while, I decided to come up with Harold Foxx because of my childhood favorite comedian and actor that I looked up to which was Redd Foxx and currently Jamie Foxx. Both of their last names were not their legal name and since both of them are my favorites and it gave me an idea of the name, Harold Foxx.

I created the brand ‘The Harold Foxx Show”, an online series of comedic video sketches which is currently available on various social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. While I was homeless and did all of these things that I was in my happy place of creating art. Then I started working odd jobs to bring in some money to support myself in Washington, D.C. I knew that if I kept doing all of the creative work, it would take me somewhere. It also opened up opportunities for me in doing stand up comedy.
I got an offer to do an internship at Deaf Professional Arts Network TV, a studio in Detroit, Michigan founded by Sean Forbes. They taught me so much about writing, producing, editing, filming, and directing that helped me become a better filmmaker. It helped to expand my brand and the fan base became bigger. Then a friend suggested that I audition for a role for Deaf West Theatre’s Our Town Production with Pasadena Playhouse. It was my dream to move and live in LA and I told myself it will happen when the time is right then all of sudden, I got the role which I didn’t expect to.

As soon as the internship at Deaf Professional Arts Network TV completed, I went back to Washington, DC. I got the Burstein Center for Excellence, Leadership, and Innovation Scholarship for Leadership Training in Theatre Arts for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People of Color founded by Fred Beam at Gallaudet University. After that, I moved to Pasadena, California to be part of Our Town production by Deaf West Theatre and Pasadena Playhouse. When the production ended, I got a diversity scholarship to The Groundlings, a improv and sketch school based in Los Angeles to continue my training in comedy. Within a year, I got the biggest opportunity to be in an Off Broadway production in New York City, I Was Most Alive With You production by Playwright Craig Lucas at Playwrights Horizons.

From these opportunities I had, it opened myself up to a different creative mindset as an artist. I continued my training at The Groundings, produced several stand up comedy shows, performed at iconic venues such as Crow Comedy Club, the Laugh Factory, and Flappers Comedy Club. I also was part of the National Theatre of the Deaf Playwrights Convening. I wrote, produced, directed, and acted in “Smell the Nature” for 2021 Easterseals Disability Film Challenge.

Most recently, I was selected for a competitive fellowship for the 2021 RespectAbility Lab for Entertainment Professionals with Disabilities. Also, I am proud to be serving as Associate Producer on Orange Kite Productions’ feature documentary film Being Michelle. I was an Art Education Teaching Artist for Deaf West Theatre and was Post Production intern for a comedy and romantic feature film Something from Tiffany’s by Amazon Studios.
All of the opportunities I got the last several years were because I decided to continue to work hard and did not give up on my passion, which is to be the best artist as I can be. I still have a long way to go and I am continuing to work on it and looking forward to my new journey this fall. I will be doing graduate studies for MFA in screenwriting at CSUN – California State University at Northridge. Looking forward to adding more tools and expanding my crafts.

These are my proud moments right there, coming from a long way.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I have been doing comedy skits on social media since 2013 and all of the tools that I have been developing over the years were more of film style. My vision changed a bit to bring my work on the big screen. When I was living in NYC for off broadway production, one of my friends brought me to one of the events where I met a HBO producer and she showed him all of my work on YouTube. He was very impressed and he told me that he thought I should start writing and make a film.

That changed my vision and I continued doing the work then of course, pandemic and BLM happened in 2020. I got invited to be on a virtual panel as Black Disabled in the entertainment industry. That’s when I first received an application to apply for a grant to get funds to support my artwork and I did get the grant. I used the funds to get the equipments that I needed to take my work to the next level and it did make the difference. It led to my first short film that I wrote, produced, directed and act in “Smell the Nature” for 2021 Easterseals Disability Film Challenge.

Through the network with grants and disability film challenge, I received more grants application to apply but didn’t get any, only one grant in 2020. It made me realize that I wish there are more resources and grants for someone like me being overlooked easily. If I knew about the grants and resources earlier in my creative journey, I probably would produced several films by now.

However, it’s not too late and I am still learning more about various resources during my creative journey and this fall, I will be attending California State University-Northridge for graduate studies for MFA in screenwriting which will expand my craft in screenwriting and I can produce more comedy films for the film festivals in the future. I am looking forward to continue this journey.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

To be honest, I think for a person like me always get overlooked as a part of a minority group in this society. Everybody is going to art galleries, film festivals, concerts, stand up comedy shows and Broadway shows to support their favorite artists where they have huge support system to continue their art works. The top artists that continue to get grants more than once or twice while an artist like me is struggling to have opportunities like this, but I am still doing this because it’s my passion.

Now I see more inclusion out here, for example Nicole Blaine who is a woman business owner at The Crow Comedy Club in Santa Monica, and this comedy club is very inclusive where she welcomes everyone who is disabled, women, and more. The top comedy clubs probably won’t give us a chance to show our work like she does. I performed at well known comedy clubs and sometimes they would still overlook me and expected me to use my voice instead of using American Sign Language with my voice interpreter. That’s why I am doing more appearances at Crow Comedy because she made a home for me where I can be myself. That’s why we need more people like her out there as part of our creative ecosystem. Well known film festivals should be able to provide inclusion for creatives like me with a better support system from them and elevate us to next level.

That applies to every creative ecosystem everywhere. So that’s how they always support their favorite creative artists and ensure that there are inclusion in all creative workspace while they can be recognized in the same level as others.    

Contact Info:

• Website: www.haroldfoxx.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/iamharoldfoxx
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/iamharoldfoxx
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/haroldfoxx
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/iamharoldfoxx
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/c/HaroldFoxxTV