Conversations with John Romanski

Today we’d like to introduce you to John Romanski.

Hi John, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My path as an artist started before I even knew it had began. I was born in New York to two young parents who instilled in me, from an early age, to go for my dreams. Do the thing that makes you happy. After all, isn’t that the whole point? It was beautiful, looking back on it, how supportive they were in that regard. When myself and my sister were born, it propelled them into a life of working jobs to pay the bills and provide us a decent life – but they didn’t necessarily like what they were doing for a living. They wanted to set me up for that joy in your soul when your purpose aligns so strongly with what you do on a daily basis – a feeling that unfortunately so many don’t get the chance to experience.
So when we moved down to Fort Mill, South Carolina when I was 8 or 9 years old, I remember my parents being so supportive when I expressed an interest in taking piano lessons. It was as if they saw the joy it would bring me to tap into my creative side, a side they didn’t have the most time to explore themselves. But after eight years of piano and a strong foundation in music, I wanted to switch things up. I was just finishing middle school with no real inkling as to what I wanted to do with my life. I had taken my parent’s advice to heart: find something that brings you real joy. But how could I do that for a living if I didn’t know what that thing was? Until one day. 8th grade. I had just finished trying and failing summer camp for the varsity football team (I wasn’t the best athlete in my younger days). I wanted to be an anchor on ESPN. I was Danny Rojas before he was even a figment in Jason Sudeikis’ imagination – “football is life.”
Fast forward to high school – that dream expanded from sports to journalism. I wanted to make a difference in the world. Hold truth to power. Give a voice to people from all walks of life. I started learning how to write, shoot, edit – all things I would later use in film, but I just didn’t know it yet. I won an Emmy award in high school for my work in my TV class. And while all that was happening, I had to take an art credit – one class in my high school years that would satisfy the learning requirement. For some reason, one that’s mysterious to me to this day, I chose to take a Theater class.
It was scary at first. Walking into a room of strangers and then performing improv completely blind in front of them. That was all that first class basically was – a bunch of improv games aimed at opening your personality and your ability to roll with wherever the other performers took you. But it was so much more valuable than that. I learned trust and saying yes and most importantly, I learned my desire to make people laugh, cry, FEEL. I remember the first time I auditioned for a theater show – The Outsiders. The first time I stepped out on stage in front of a live audience. All of it awakened this desire in me to be an actor. A storyteller. But really, all of it – journalism, acting, film – all of it was a desire to make a positive impact to the world. I just wanted to make a difference in people’s lives – even if that was just for an hour on stage playing make believe.
All in all – I performed in 5-6 shows in high school before graduating and attending the University of South Carolina, where I performed in another 15 more. Acting, theater, performing – it was now so closely aligned to my joy in life. Despite that, I still did the thing that most in society would say was the “smart” decision. I majored in Broadcast Journalism and minored in theater – because that was the practical thing to do. I don’t regret that decision. I graduated college and immediately started a job in Columbia, South Carolina as a TV news producer for WIS-TV. I progressed fast – going from newscast to newscast – until I was producing the 5 o’clock news every day. And then… the pandemic hit.
I can’t really put into words the impact this time had on me. I think, deep down, that’s the case for many to this day. But as the youngest person in the TV station, I was one of the few remaining who worked in-person every day. And as a result, I spent almost 8 months working multiple newscasts a day without much in-person support inside the TV station. Getting thrown into the fire like that brought some benefits – at the age of 24, I became a supervising producer (a manager), overseeing a team of producers. But it also took its toll on my mental health, working like that, covering historical event after historical event in 2020 and 2021, especially at a time when so many seeds of distrust started to be planted against the work that I was doing as a journalist. The writing was on the wall.
Just before I turned 25 years old, I decided to quit it all and take the leap. I was listening to my soul – it was time to try to make it as an artist. While I was still young. While there was still time.
My best friend, Will Hollerung and I, packed everything up and moved to Atlanta in 2021, looking to join the many who were pursuing a film career in the city. This was a great time. I explored myself as an artist. Will and I, along with a few other creatives, founded a production group called “Famously Hot Films.” We had all come to Atlanta by way of Columbia, hence the name. And we started to find our voice through our projects. Eight short films and one feature-length documentary later, Will and I are still at it under the Famously Hot Films name. In 2025, we won the Atlanta 48 Hour Film project, taking our short “Will to Live” to Portugal this year. We’ve been accepted to several film festivals for our work and have been featured in multiple projects, winning awards along the way. I’ve landed a wonderful agent (The Resolute Artist Agency) and manager (East West Management) who form the bulk of my incredible acting team. I’ve had the pleasure of working multiple feature films in New York, North Carolina and a few right here in Atlanta, including “Meta Take One,” which just landed on Amazon Prime.
But throughout the years, I’ve learned that success and fulfillment aren’t necessarily the same thing. There’s this duality at play in life almost constantly – being raised to follow your dreams versus the pressures of life having an impact on being able to achieve my goals. Most people are raised to “do the right thing”; study hard, buy a good education, be a good son, friend, husband and get into a career that aligns with the investment you’ve been making all your life. The one path you’ve known since you were young. But many of those people find out, too late, that path doesn’t bring them that joy.
I’ve hopped from career path to path – taking on new jobs with a hungry desire to absorb all the knowledge I can. But the one career that stays constant is my work as an artist. And though there’s still plenty of work to go to one day do that full-time – as a working artist – I’m happy with the path that’s led me to the man I am today, surrounded by my wonderful family, my incredible girlfriend Carrie and all of my friends. I only hope that I can continue to keep that joy in my calling, and make this world a better place.
Do what brings you joy. The success will come. My family is living proof of that.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Absolutely not. As I mentioned before, it took me a long time to even figure out what brought me joy. I think, in some ways, I’m still figuring that out to this day. I’ve changed careers more times than I (and my past, present and future employers) would like. I’ve struggled with self-worth and my place in the world and in society. I’ve been frustrated by the lack of respect journalists get these days – while simultaneously hating the way some journalism has turned to attention-grabbing headlines instead of a pursuit for the truth.
And when it comes to my career as an artist, it’s been less a smooth road and more of a cobblestone highway. But that’s also kind of the whole point, right? Trying new things, figuring out your voice, working to learn yourself and the life you want? There’s a constant battle between my soul yearning to do this thing full time and my brain telling me that isn’t the smart way to go about starting a family and building a house.
I just try my best to trust in the process. The day-to-day wins and the project-to-project successes. To use the football analogy, each day is an opportunity to move the chains. Stack up enough of those and you’re going to score a touchdown. It’s inevitable. So just keep going, make sure you’re becoming a better person and artist, keep your eyes on the goal and one day, you’ll make it. If you don’t quit, there will always be a chance. This is, of course, all easier said than done. But it’s worth remembering and it’s worth hearing, even for myself right now.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am an actor, director, writer, sound designer, composer, editor and production manager. A multi-hyphenate… we all are now, aren’t we? But I’ve been so lucky to find so many things I’m passionate about.
Technically, with the exception of my theater minor, I’m self-taught in all of these areas. I think you’ll find, in my acting, that earnestness is my speciality, ranging the gambit of love to anger. I love taking complicated characters and situations and making you empathize with them. That’s probably the remnants of my journalism career talking.
As a filmmaker with Famously Hot Films, we specialize in character-driven, innovative stories. Recently, those films have had some social commentary to them or explore the existential question of what is the meaning and purpose of our lives. You can find our work on our YouTube channel, where we continue to make and post our work.
In the future, we’re looking to start diving into feature films and expanding our work. I’ve been having a lot of fun working as a writer for our projects, my own personal projects, and some joint work with a few other creators I’ve worked with (shoutout Scott Peterson and Broken Leg). My goal is to create a space where collaboration elevates the work of the whole group. So when I meet someone I think is a great creator/artist, it’s important to me to stay in touch and build those relationships. Together, we are always stronger. And I want my continued work, as well as our continued work with Famously Hot Films, to elevate everyone around us in the Atlanta market. Because there are some very talented people here who just need that one chance to show up and do the work.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Whew, what a complicated question in this day and age. We’re facing so many daunting challenges in the film world – AI, the migration of productions going overseas, the oversaturation of streamers and social media influencers, and a tendency, before films like Obsession broke the mold, for the big companies avoiding new IP and stories. Social media spaces also can sometimes create this pressure to be full time content creators 24/7, which isn’t always the best thing. Not everyone needs access to everyone at every waking moment of every day.
But there’s also hope too. New filmmakers with new IP who are actually creating incredible stories worth telling and watching. New standards in the industry – both in the way we treat crews as well as increases in pay. Higher standards for the quality of our work. It’s also never been easier for someone with a dream to pick up a camera or their phone and shoot a film.
So in the next 5-10 years? I don’t know what it’s all going to look like. It feels like it changes so significantly every year. But the thing I’m sure of is humanity – the human touch – becomes more and more important as time goes on. So the work that demonstrates that and keeps the beauty (and inherent ugliness) of humanity at it’s core will rise to the top.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/john_romanski/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/john.romanski.9
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-romanski/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@famouslyhotfilms8823

Image Credits
Darrell Snedeger (Collective Energy Photography), Javier Rivera (Jarvisuals_), Adria Bloom, @FamouslyHotFilms, @john_romanski