We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mike Millerus. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mike below.
Mike, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you wish you had started sooner?
I am one to admit that I wish I had been able to pursue my goals a lot sooner as I do have many regrets of it. Upon first pursuing my dreams and career, I never thought nor planned for things to be nearly as long and complicated. I am 48 years old and originally from upstate New York. I first came to Los Angeles in 1994 to pursue an entertainment career which I had a desire to accomplish for some time before moving to L.A.. I had at first an interest in acting as well as writing and somehow came up with what seemed like a great storyline for what at the time would have been a TV series when I was 15 years old. I started out with a lot of ambition and hopes and dreams. Unfortunately, there were circumstances which had delayed my plans for my entertainment career at the time. Upon finally arriving in L.A. in 1994, at the time there were many obstacles that I had to face including personal things that unfortunately set me back much further which I had not planned. Though I was following up on putting together my first script with help from different people who I met over the years and following every lead that I could, it became difficult as I was struggling with my housing situation in a lot of ways over the years which I moved around quite a lot. Then there were other obligations that I ended up getting sidetracked with as well including getting involved as a community activist working with different groups in the city of Los Angeles advocating for different important issues affecting the community including housing and homelessness and cival rights among other things. Upon deciding to leave my community work back in 2013 months after my father passed away which much helped influence my decision at the time, I then was able to return to pursuing my entertainment career. I decided at that point to create my own production company which I decided to call “Family Horizons Entertainment” which produces different projects including short films, documentaries as well as eventually television and theatrical films dedicated to family programming and important issues affecting our world. I think a couple of things that sets me apart from others in the business is between the fact that the path that I have chosen with the goals that I hope to accomplish which is very difficult to accomplish in times like this when family programming is needed the most and yet has it’s great obstacles which make it difficult. I also know that I am also one unlike many others who have been fortunate to accomplish their goals much sooner and much easier, who has had to go through quite a lot over the years to get to even where I am now. Many people have no idea of how long this road has been for me and how much I have had to go through and sacrifices I have had to make to accomplish my goals and dreams. It has been like a big mountain that I have had to climb with many many obstacles and I still have yet to finally make it to the top which can be scary and certainly stressful especially at my age now. I also know that there are others who have had to face difficult challenges of their own to try to accomplish simular goals and dreams which is never a good thing for anyone to have to face. Though I haven’t much to be proud of yet, I guess I would have to say that I am proud of my company’s first project being a documentary about the homelessness as homelessness has become possibly the most critical and important issues in our country today and certain in Los Angeles which now has I understand one of the biggest homeless populations in the United States today. There are a lot of people in the entertainment industry today who wouldn’t even have the courage to accomplish an important film project like that as there seem to be other things that many in the business today seem to be interested in which is sad.
Mike, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am 48 years old and originally from upstate New York. I first came to Los Angeles in 1994 to pursue an entertainment career which I had a desire to accomplish for some time before moving to L.A.. I had at first an interest in acting as well as writing and somehow came up with what seemed like a great storyline for what at the time would have been a TV series when I was 15 years old. I started out with a lot of ambition and hopes and dreams. Unfortunately, there were circumstances which had delayed my plans for my entertainment career at the time. Upon finally arriving in L.A. at the time, there were many obstacles that I had to face including personal things that unfortunately set me back much further which I had not planned including other obligations that I ended up getting sidetracked with as well including getting involved as a community activist working with different groups in the city of Los Angeles advocating for different important issues affecting the community. Upon leaving my community work back in 2013, I then was able to return to pursuing my entertainment career. I decided at that point to create my own production company which I decided to call “Family Horizons Entertainment” which produces different projects including short films, documentaries as well as eventually television and theatrical films dedicated to family programming and important issues affecting our world. I think a couple of things that sets me apart from others in the business is between the fact that the path that I have chosen with the goals that I hope to accomplish which is very difficult to accomplish in times like this when family programming is needed the most and yet has it’s great obstacles which make it difficult. I also know that I am also one unlike many others who have been fortunate to accomplish their goals much sooner and much easier, who has had to go through quite a lot over the years to get to even where I am now. Many people have no idea of how long this road has been for me and how much I have had to go through and sacrifices I have had to make to accomplish my goals and dreams. It has been like a big mountain that I have had to climb with many many obstacles and I still have yet to finally make it to the top which can be scary and certainly stressful especially at my age now. I also know that there are others who have had to face difficult challenges of their own to try to accomplish simular goals and dreams which is never a good thing for anyone to have to face. Though I haven’t much to be proud of yet, I guess I would have to say that I am proud of my company’s first project being a documentary about the homelessness as homelessness has become possibly the most critical and important issues in our country today and certain in Los Angeles which now has I understand one of the biggest homeless populations in the United States today. There are a lot of people in the entertainment industry today who wouldn’t even have the courage to accomplish an important film project like that as there seem to be other things that many in the business today seem to be interested in which is sad.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
my current goal as well as mission in the future is to be able to accomplish different projects that will help restore a lot of the innocence that has been lost in recent years and to help restore family programming much that existed in the entertainment industry when I was growing up and to be able to draw audiences and people who all share the same beliefs and interest. When I was growing up, things were a lot different than they are now when it comes to the entertainment industry and tv and the media. There was a lot of educational and family related programming as well as other things. Is Is sad that much of that has for the wrong reasons changed. In you notice when you turn on the tv today, many agree that much of it is no longer suitable especially for younger audiences which should be provided a better example than that. I am one who still cares and wants to be that example if I can. We are in a time now where there have been so many things happening in our world and certainly our country that are not good and should not be happening. I feel that the entertainment industry is a big influence on a lot of it and especially on our children who deserve better. While there is a great deal of negative things being produced in the business even today with a great deal of violence and other things that have gotten way out of control and give the wrong kind of example I am one of those people in the industry who believe in the importance of accomplishing programming in the right direction by producing things that have a positive influence on those in our society today. For example, Disney up until now has always been one of the most special and biggest companies in the industry for many years. As someone who also grew up on Disney films and such as well, it used to be much more innocent and it is sad to see what has somehow even become of Disney today which again is very sad.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
I feel that our society can help in many ways by continuing to support family programming and projects relating to important issues as it helps to educate people on much of the wrong and negative things that happen in our world today and why those things happen and how we can improve them. Whether it is by watching family and issue related programming projects or even joining the cause by wanting to take part in any way possible by contacting different sources in the media encouraging more family programming, or even helping with funding for different family relating and faith based film projects and such or taking part in discussions on social media pages. The point is, if my current mission is to be accomplished in the future along with others pursuing the same goals, the more people who are involved especially in times like this, the better as we all need to unite together to fight for a cause that is so important to our futures in order to preserve family programming and innocence in our entertainment industry and the society that we live in. Nevertheless, like any other person with the same goals and dreams, the more encouragement and support I get from people the better my chances to be successful in this long and very complicated journey.
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