Today we’d like to introduce you to Keithian D. Sammons.
Keithian, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up as a musician and was in a boy band at 13. We used to do mall tours, shows and spent a lot of time recording in the studio which exposed me to the entertainment business. I loved being a recording artist and was successful, but was intrigued with film & cinematography…
So in high school, I signed up for a Film & Television class that gave me the opportunity to work and learn production with hands of experience. While in that class I auditioned for “Channel One News” who wanted me to be a regional teen anchor and correspondent while developing content for their network. To my surprise I got the gig, they loved my ideas and allowed me to shoot, produce, and anchor my own segments which were aired on my local station and the “Channel One” network.
After a few years, I started taking projects as a freelance producer, which gave me a chance to experience producing in many platforms including, Web Series, Branded Content, Commercials, Unscripted TV, and most recent feature films.
In 2016, my father who has worked in the industry for years, encouraged me to market my experience, brand myself, and open my own production company, WorKs Entertainment Group.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Honestly, as a producer, it has been a pretty smooth ride and although there have been many struggles, I feel like I’ve been able to navigate through the challenges by not being “in a hurry”…. but if I was to speak overall … i struggle with being a recording artist and a producer, not so much doing the work, but balancing the work currently.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
My company is WorKs Entertainment Group… I started behind the camera in high school, but most of my time was spent as a recording artist/musician, writing, producing music, and touring. I spent my spare time producing music videos and content for other artist early on until I was introduced to a creative director at 72 & Sunny who wanted me to freelance on a project, so I took that opportunity.
I later started doing Web Series and Branded content until I was approached by the Trendy Channel that wanted me to help them build their programming and content for the US launch. I jumped on that opportunity and things started to go from there. I soon got the opportunity to produce several unscripted pilots, develop scripted series, and then most recently feature films.
My company was established out of the want to own my brand and work… So I feel like what sets me apart from others is that, I am a creative who understands business! I really believe that you can do anything you want and even though I had to learn the business the hard way, I did everything I could do to gain as much knowledge as possible. I was mostly focused on making music, and through that process, I realized that a lot of the contracts, practices, and conversations were really similar, so I started to apply that to building and marketing my company.
What were you like growing up?
I was a really different kid but was cool with it. I was very ambitious and my parents gave me the opportunity to try and do anything that I wanted. I played sports, instruments, was in dance, tae kwon do, was an actor, and even did commercial modeling. What stuck with me the most was music which enabled me to be extremely creative.
I was taught that you should seek understanding for everything that you can control, so I was pretty bold when wanting to learn and experience new things… but wasn’t what you would call an “ideal” student because learning to me was personal and not supposed to be “standardized.”
Contact Info:
- Website: www.WorKsEntertainmentGroup.com
- Email: info@worksentertainmentgroup.com
- Instagram: worksentgroup
Image Credit:
Miguel Barillas @ Full Riot Production
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Sheryl Gregg
April 6, 2019 at 12:11 am
I thoroughly enjoyed reading “accomplishing my dreams.” I love it. There are more people who never reach their dream. You have told and given hope to those with dreams to keep going toward the goal. You had good parentage. They supported you. Keep up the good work so we may hear more of your successes in life.