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

Rohitash, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?

The first time I got paid to create anything was during my sophomore year in college. One of my professors saw some of my drawings in class and thought I might be able to sell some of them to her father who created coloring books. It was the strangest “interview” I ever went on because all I did was show him my sketchbook – which was filled with random black and white drawings. Turns out that’s exactly what he wanted – nice “clean” black outline drawings that would be easy to color. So boom – I made $100 for 4 drawings. That was the first time I saw myself as a possible “artist!”

Rohitash, 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’m sure like most creatives, I had no idea what TYPE of creative I wanted to be. As a kid I painted, made super-8 films, played music, wrote stories, basically anything and everything I could possibly create. It wasn’t until I got into the Art Center College of Design that I decided to go into Advertising because it was made clear to me that by learning the process of Advertising (and taking some fine arts classes), you could do pretty much anything. So I started working in advertising as an art director. I also was able – thanks to my copywriter partners – also contribute to the ad campaigns as a writer, too. I wrote the tagline for Playstation: “Live in your world. Play in ours.” I also wrote the tagline for the Hollywood Bowl: “Where Summer Plays.” I have created ads for Taco Bell, Energizer, Little Caesar’s, Staples and Toyota. I started to shift into directing commercials after about 5 years in the business. I became a creative director (one of 3) at the SciFi channel when it started its “IF” campaign (I didn’t write that tagline.) The main thing I focused on were the “bumpers” (station ID’s) – that were all about “what if,” i.e.: imagination. I got to write and direct a lot of those which were a mix of live action and cg. That got me into all kinds of animation, specifically stop motion animation. So, with my good buddy, Abe Spear, we started our own little stop motion production company, Ugly Pictures. After a couple years and a handful of really fun spots for Nickelodeon and Fuel TV, we joined Curious Pictures as a director duo. I remained there as a director for 7 years and then shifted into writing. My writing partner, Peter Nelson, and I sold an animated TV idea that was like an Indian “Simpsons” to Fox that was inspired by my childhood. Lorne Michaels executive produced it and starred Russell Peters and Mark Hamill. The show was not sadly not picked up. Around the same time my writing partner and I creating a series of chapter books (4th grade) published by Harper Collins. We created 2 book series, “Herbert’s Wormhole” and “Creature Keepers,” a total of 7 books. All of them were written by Peter and drawn by me. Doing all those drawings (roughly 1,000 total) aled me to paint more and eventually I started having solo art shows as a fine artist. I have had over 12 solo shows around the country, not only of my paintings, but also of a pop-up art installation called Rohit Records – which is a fake record store filled with album covers, concert posters and live music – yes, I am finally playing music again! And 4 years ago I joined UT Austin as a professor of advertising. I teach exactly how I was taught – learn the skills of advertising – concept and execution – and do whatever the hell you want with your creativeness! And I still direct, animate, write and paint. (I just get less sleep!)

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

This is probably the most profound moment of my creative journey (because it was my first BIG one.) I finally decided to build my spec reel as a director so I could show the world what kind of work I wanted to make. My first self-funded spec commercial required me to rent a location outside of LAX (Los Angeles Airport) where I could get two young actors on skateboards and a chimpanzee (yes, a real chimpanzee, with of course, a proper animal handler. Yeah, none of this was cheap.) The opening shot of the commercial required an airplane to fly by so I could boom down from the plane to the actors and chimpanzee. The morning of the shoot I was driving a van filled with a Panavision 35mm camera tons of gear and rushing to make it our location at LAX on time. And only about 10 minutes into my drive from Hollywood to the airport, I got a flat tire. Freaked out, I called AAA and they hurried as quickly as they could and had to tow my van – which was VERY HEAVY because camera gear is soooo heavy – to the nearest mechanic. The clock was ticking. The airplanes only fly OUT until about noon – and after that only planes land apparently, so I would miss my shot of getting one to fly directly over my chimpanzee. I told this to the mechanic who was frantically trying to change my tire but and he couldn’t stop laughing at my dilemma. I paced around anxiously and finally, at about 11:15, the tire was fixed. I raced down the 405, trying my best not to hurt the van anymore, and barely got to the airport by 11:45. I had 15 minutes left. We got the camera set up and there were 2 planes left to fly over. One was already heading directly over us but I failed to yell “action” on time (you don’t want to waste precious film stock!) One plane left. My DP yelled at me to FOCUS!!! I took in a deep breath, told myself to just concentrate. Just as the plane was in range I calmly yelled, “ACTION!” We got the shot. This moment taught me so much about filmmaking – things are going to go horribly wrong. Rise above them. Stay focused. And get the shot!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The only goal I have is to make whatever I want and not letting “not knowing how” get in my way. That said, my favorite thing to say is “I LOVE NOT KNOWING.” This one statement is what tricks my brain into thinking I’m still that 5-year old kid who just wants to make anything and everything. In today’s world of online tutorials and of course, old fashioned books, there is nothing you can’t figure out. Just put in the time and you’ll find a way to do it YOUR way.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://rohitash-rao.squarespace.com, rohitashraopaintsontrash.com
• Instagram: @rohit913, @rohitrecords
• Facebook: Rohitash Rao
• Linkedin: R0hitash Rao
• Youtube: Rohitash Rao