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

Toron, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

My most meaningful project was the completion of the stageplay, “GUARDIAN ANGELS” that I wrote and directed. I worked on several projects before but this was the first venture that I was able to present to my hometown where my family was able to be in the audience. I’m from a small town, Williamston, North Carolina where things on the artistic level have to be seen to be understood. After the play was over, my family and friends acknowledged they had more respect to the plays and films that I produced.

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

I grew up in a small town called Williamston located in the Eastern part of North Carolina. My graduating class of 1993 only held 30 students. I was always fascinated by things that weren’t ordinary, I always thought bigger than my environment. Basketball, drawing and creating writing occupied my time, although after high school, I had no direction on how to capitalize on those talents. I attended Pitt Community College, majored in Business Computer Programming but life threw itself at me and I withdrew from school and worked full-time with Rodgers Construction, own by my uncle. I found myself taking small samples of life, not really sure with what I wanted to do. I saw no future with basketball or my other artistic skills. I bounced around from Greenville to Raleigh and in 2001 I made a huge leap and moved to Omaha, Nebraska and this is where things started to take shape. I started playing more basketball and made contact with the front office of the Minnesota Timberwolves and spoke with Mr. Robert Babcott after he received a highlight reel that I sent to the organization. He prompted me to tryout for a semi-pro team and I’d if I make it, call him and he would scout me throughout the season, to see if I’d be worthy of an official tryout with the Timberwolves. I found a team starting up in the USBL called the St. Joseph Express, in Missouri, I paid my fees and was all set to go, Two months before the tryouts, I had the misfortune of partially tearing my ACL. Without surgery, I still went to the tryouts and after going for a rebound, I completely tore my ACL so at this point at 27 years old, I knew basketball was not going to be in my future on the professional level. I was working at Old Navy and on the slow days I started jotting down ideas for stories that turn into scripts. 2003 I moved back to Raleigh, North Carolina where I continued writing and up to this point had about 40 original concepts for film, television and stage. It still took a few years before my first project came to life. In 2008 I shot my first short film titled, “HOW WE ROLL”, a motorcycle world lead drama. I was bitten. I started shooting music videos and was able to have the rapper from Philadelphia, Freeway in my first video, “ALL I KNOW” as he was a feature with North Carolina rapper, D-Boy Stackalini. More things started to happen for me. I started creating shows for the web. We had our hip hop show called, “SPIT YA GAME” where we interviewed up and coming rappers and they collaborated at the end of the show to showcase their lyrical skills. We had our singing competition called, “THA CYPH@”, where singers would compete by singing a 30 second piece and the audience judged the winners. 2018 came and I had been studying stand-up comedy for a couple of years and decided that I was going to give it a serious try. After 4 tries I was finally selected to perform at Goodnights Comedy Club open mic, November 28, 2018. Nervous does not describe what I felt but I had a good 2 and a half minute set. Once again, I was bitten. I worked on my craft and got on stage as much as I could building really good friendships along the way. In 2020, a group of comedians and I got together and we shot the comedy film, “HARD TIMEZ”. We had an incredible time filming. The entire project was ablibbed. The story came from a script I had written several years previously.. I gave a description of what we needed to get across in each scene and everyone worked their magic. No one knew the entire story so the cast didn’t know what was going to happen until they saw the film themselves. It was a success for us. As time moved forward, I was able to get on stage with my comedy more often and also in different states, Viginia, South Carolina and Georgia. I’m frequently involved with Goodnights Comedy Club, The Raleigh Improv, Comedy Zone of Charlotte and the legendary Blue Note Grill. Things are looking great. I published my first children’s book, “Daniel” written by my self and illustrated by Mr. Jospeh Crippen which is available on Amazon. I’m regularly getting booked on weekends and I’m working on several scripts that I’m in the process of shopping. The future is looking great with my wife LaTonya and my son Jaiden being two of my biggest supports. Stay tuned.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I want to get to a position where I’m able to help people and communities. I’ve had a couple of people that has shown me support and it helped me in ways that they had no idea. I want to give that feeling to others. We all need each other.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Do as much as you can yourself. I’ve learn that my passion is my passion and as much as I would want people to feel my passion, it may not happen. So I know now that I have to stand firm in every decision that I make.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @toronrodgers
• Facebook: @toronrodgers
• Youtube: Toron Rodgers / NINE25 PRODUCTIONS