User:Coachpriest

PRODUCTION BIOGRAPHY

A native of East Los Angeles, Henry is graduate of East Los Angeles Community College (‘95) and Whittier College (’98). Henry brings his experience growing up in the urban barrios and academic knowledge to the development of projects that represent the urban American Latino experience, to promote diversity in filmmaking and to create resources to improve opportunities for underrepresented ethnic groups in the film community. Henry has established himself as a resourceful asset to the entertainment community by serving the industry as a film, TV, special event producer, film festival director, casting director and stunt coordinator.

Henry began his career in the film industry in 1989 when he was featured as an actor in Walt Disney’s feature film titled Spooner, starring Robert Urich and Jane Kazmarik. Henry played Tim Braden, the lightweight wrestler with a heavy weight heart. The film called upon Henry’s knowledge of collegiate wrestling as he choreographed wrestling scenes for the production team. Since then he has established himself as the “go-to” person to produce scenes that require Collegiate, Greco-Roman, or Freestyle wrestling. He has written, directed, choreographed, and cast wrestling scenes in international and national commercials for companies like Nike, Adidas, SBC Global and others. Henry soon developed his knowledge of the filmmaking process and began producing independent films. He produced I Came Here for Love, a short film that is currently airing nationally on television as part of the American Latino Filmmakers Showcase. Henry went on to produce an award winning short film titled UnderDog a film that has been featured in the prestigious AFI Fest and in many festivals across the country including Robert Dineros’ Tribeca Film Festival in New York. “You should be given an award for the things you do to represent our sport in Hollywood” said legendary wrestling coach and US Olympian, Dan Gable. With the success of UnderDog, Henry received an award as an Outstanding Producer during the 2004 National Association of Latino Independent Producers Conference in February 2004. As a producer on the Boricua Films production team, Henry produced a feature film titled El Matadero which was the closing night film at the American Latino Film Festival. The film can now be rented at your local Blockbuster Video. The team also produced Urban Graffiti, an acting and spoken word poetry television show, live at the historic Warner Hollywood Studios “the lot.” Their latest film Sunday Evening Haircut was written by and stars Reginald VelJohnson (Die Hard, Family Matters) and co-stars KiKi Shepard (Showtime at the Apollo). With an Emmy winning cinematographer on the creative team, Mark Woods, the film premiered at the prestigious Pan African Film Festival in February, 2005. The film won an award at the 2005 National Association of Latino Independent Producers Conference, making it the second year in a row for Henry to receive an award at the conference sponsored by HBO and Time Warner! Henry is also a producer on the Fleetline Media production team. As part of the Universal family, their current project titled Cruzin TV was the #1 TV show on KJLA / LATV in Fall 2004. In 2006, Henry produced an educational DVD titled Teachers Discovery: Cinco De Mayo. The DVD was the first of two projects produced by Henry and directed by Luis Barreto, director of Americas Next Top Model, MTV's The Real World and FEAR. Henry’s latest project titled American Identity, is also produced by and starring Jesse Garcia (star of the 2006 Sundance winning film Quinceanera). The film had it’s world premiere at Festival De Cannes in France, in May 2007 where it received a standing ovation on closing night. Henry is also a producer on the feature documentary film titled Veritas. The film received a standing ovation when it screened at the NCAA Division I National Wrestling Championships in March. Henrys short film titled A Stain on the Sidewalk was produced for Steven Spielberg’s television show “On the Lot.” Directed by Adam Schlachter, the film held it’s sold out world premiere and the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival and is also an official selection of the South By Southwest Film Festival, considered by many to be a top tier film festival. Henry recently produced Beyond the Mat, a feature film shot in High Definition on the RED camera. The film is an official selection of the Tribeca Film Festival and slated as the next high school wrestling epic. Coach Priest has recently been appointed as Executive Producer of the National High School Coaches Associations Productions. As a casting director, Henry cast international commercials for Nike, California Produce, Adidas and America Online. Most recently he cast an all Latino cast for a feature film starring the legendary rapper Melow Man Ace and upcoming Latino superstar Jesse Garcia titled Rhythm and Honey by Lions Gate Entertainment. Henry continually reaches out to serve his community and to provide resources for others to prosper and learn. As an avid member of Nosotros, an non-profit organization founded by Ricardo Montalban “to improve the image of Latinos through the entertainment industry”, he is the original chair of the Nosotros Latin Talent Directory, the director of the Nosotros American Latino Film Festival, and produced the Future Estrellas Young Latino Performers Conference, a free event presented by The Walt Disney Company to help Latino children and their parents by allocating resources needed to succeed in Hollywood. He also serves on the board of the Silver Lake Film Festival. Henry serves on the Screen Actors Guilds Ethnic Employment Opportunities Committee and is also a member the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP). Currently Henry has many projects in development including writing a feature film about his life growing up in the urban barrio of East Los Angeles to becoming an All American athlete. In August 2008 Henry was the Co-creator and Festival Director of the Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles. In its first year the festival brought in over 30,000 film goers to view over 200 films in the classic theatres in the downtown Los Angeles in the historic district. Due to the success of the film festival Mr. Priest received the prestigious Downtowners of Distinction Award by the city of Los Angeles for the Best Event in 2008! Through his association as a film festival director he has longstanding relationships with distributors, investors, major film festival around the world and many entertainment industry executives.