Entertaining people seemed like the greatest way to make a living. I let her know that was the path I wanted for myself, and my folks were always encouraging.
Please introduce yourself, what you do, why you do it, and what you want people to know about you.
Hello content absorbers, Eric Rudnick here. I started in NYC as an actor, then began writing, and I’ve added producing and directing to the mix. I’ve always wanted to make things that are compelling but also fun.
I’ve been lucky to be able to create some things – plays, a web series, short films – and have had some super-talented people collaborate with me.
Sometimes I get to work on other people’s projects, and I love jumping in and contributing however I can. The latest thing I’m doing is co-hosting a podcast for an inclusive group of writers that I’m a member of called The Playwrights Union.
What qualities make you different and unique from everyone else in the industry?
I’ve had a million jobs, and that experience comes in handy when unexpected things happen, which they do at every phase of most projects. To be as useful as possible, I’ll never stop learning how things work. I’ve tried to share the knowledge I’ve picked up by volunteering with 826LA and Young Storytellers.
I’m also an instructor at a TV and film writing school, Script Anatomy. Everyone, from elementary school students on up, has amazing ideas. I’ve learned a fresh perspective or save-the-day solution can come from anyone, so I always want to make space for people to be able to toss out a free-range idea, without a super formal process.
Describe THAT moment when you realized you wanted to do what you do now. Who did you tell first? What has it been like since that moment?
I grew up on Long Island, and I’d go see Broadway shows with my mom. Entertaining people seemed like the greatest way to make a living. I let her know that was the path I wanted for myself, and my folks were always encouraging.
I played drums in bands, did standup, and wrote and performed my own stage shows. Everything I do grows out of that same place. Once that magic worked its charms on me, I was sort of in it for life.
What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to face and how did you overcome it?
I worked for years writing scripts and got a glimpse of the promised land when a TV project I wrote was sold but didn’t get made. This happens all the time, but it still knocked me a little sideways.
I regrouped and wrote a screenplay in about a month. I’m now in pre-production on that film as writer and director, a feature that I might not have written if things had worked out differently.
If you had to pick the TOP 3 people you’d want to meet that could take your career (or business) to the next level…who would those 3 people be?
Stefanie Azpiazu, Nina Yang Bongiovi, Taika Waititi.
