Today we’d like to introduce you to John Varkados
Hi John, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was born in a mental institution in Seoul, South Korea.
My biological mother was in a catatonic state and she could very well be alive to this day. The biological father could have been one of the doctors or someone my biological mother encountered where they found her in the streets – homeless.
I know there are adoptive kids in the U.S. who ends up looking for their biological parents but I never had that desire mostly because the people who adopted me and whom I call my parents have definitely proven to be fantastic individuals.
With my biological mother being plugged up with who knows what in terms of drugs – I was born.
I was thrown in an orphanage with 2-3 kids that my adoptive parents noted that because we were poorly taken care of, some of those kids weren’t alive. Sorry for not really putting South Korea in a good light but it’s because of the societal norms of what was acceptable in terms of family and children in the early 90s that you can see photos of me with rashes and clear red flags that I had no chance in hell of reaching my second birthday if that small family in the Poconos didn’t adopt me.
I get the occasional “why don’t you speak Korean” or “be more in touch with my culture”, but a bad taste swells up in my gut cuz I know full well Korea wouldn’t touch me with a ten-foot pole in my first months of existence. Being an American is a big deal for me and that was one of the factors why I decided to enlist in the Marine Corps.
Going back to that small family in the Poconos, Kathy and Nick actually were looking to adopt another kid from the same orphanage. That kid had a cleft foot infection and I was basically runner up once the adoption agency told my family that “John the first” passed and that they “had another kid in the back”.
Talk about a life-changing callback. With a year of going back and forth processing my naturalization and paying the adoption fees and the wild card of not knowing what emotional damage I would bring, I arrived in the U.S. August 31, 1991 – Kathy’s Birthday.
Because they didn’t know my actual date of birth, Kathy and Nick thought it would only make sense to make my “official” DOB September 1.
“Doesn’t matter what you look like”, Kathy would tell me as a kid, “Just don’t grow up to be an ass or I’ll stand on this chair and beat the crap outta ya with a broom – I don’t care how much taller you get!”
My mom would make sure she didn’t hide any of this from me (but if you were the only Asian in the family, what could you really hide?) and we functioned like any functional, dysfunctional family on the verge of WW3 because of good ol’ sibling rivalry. We still have the home videos of my sisters running me over with their Mattel Barbie convertible power wheels cars.
My childhood was filled with speech therapists, psychologists, and the whole nine yards. I hated myself for a time because I wasn’t as “developed” and always being the token Asian in the predominantly Italian-Catholic elementary school didn’t help either.
Senior year of high school was approaching and knowing my options was either working at the Blockbuster the next town over or go to the closest community college, I had to do something drastic.
December 2009 I busted my ass for 3 months at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, SC and left with my Eagle, Globe, and Anchor.
The last thing I would find was a career in music and entertainment. I mean singing cadence during platoon runs and weekends at the on-base karaoke nights with the guys segueing into me singing the National Anthem for professional sports games and an audition in Los Angeles that led to my acceptance to Berklee College of Music.
Fast forward graduating Berklee in 2017 to now…what a journey.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Something I was not prepared for in terms of pursuing a career in film and entertainment was the nepotism, egos, and paranoia I would discover from collaborators.
Thinking I wrapped two thesis films at Boston University, I received a random call from a detective from BU that I stole thousands of dollars from a crowdfunding in my name as I was the producer with the incentive of getting a MFA (full ride by the way). Come to find both directors accused me of larceny that had me cough up +/- $2K to the detective that ended up in one director’s pocket and then the other thinking I stole money for his “passion project”/thesis which halted my graduation and a “Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Varkados” court case that was immediately dismissed.
The case was dropped and BU was still not satisfied so I had to participate in an academic hearing which I won – these guys thought I didn’t have binders and copies showing every receipt and transaction ran for their films. I think the faculty was doing this because of the thorough survey response I wrote addressing the immediate faults of the current MFA program but that’s another story. All I can say currently is that the MFA program is discontinued.
Still $100K in the hole from the first film I ever made and then having to dissolve the LLC I founded, I decided to move to Atlanta and that was the best decision I made. I was a Line Producer and UPM for a full length feature that successfully wrapped the day of the national lockdown due to COVID and then was a 1st AD for another full length.
My interests in film shifted to the actual storytelling and after writing some scripts, I got accepted to SCAD in the Dramatic Writing MFA program and my most recent script has been awarded 3 accolades so far in 2024 and is the top 15% of projects on Coverfly. I also won the 2023 Webbys and 2023 Telly Awards for one of the shorts I wrote, directed, and produced while enrolled in SCAD.
The karmic payoff looking back was worth it.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
After immersing myself as an SAG-E actor from 2015 – 2019, a filmmaker and consistent SAG-Signatory for the last 6 years, and now a writer for narrative fiction – I have only implemented a “give your whole self to your craft/discipline for 5 years and see what happens” approach.
I believe writing screenplays has been successful only because of my experience acting and making films so as an artist/creative, everything has been a “full-circle”, fully encompassing journey.
I’m most proud of this fantasy/adventure novel I will be working on this fall taking all my life’s experience and the tv shows and films I love.
I mean my story from how I got here is a total stand-out path but the moment I look and compare myself to others is the moment I will lose my race.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
Atlanta allowed me to collaborate with countless locals that even to this day are my people.
My upbringing and what I learned while in the Marines allowed me to look at people as stories waiting to be discovered and not look at others for their race, tax bracket, and/or ideologies.
If it weren’t for the humidity, Atlanta would definitely be a contender for best city in the U.S.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://johnvarkados.substack.com/
- Instagram: @johnvarkados
- Twitter: @johnvarkados
