I was born in a small town in Northern California. While my Muir-inspired father John D. Olmsted was off stopping bulldozers and saving state parks - like Jug Handle State Natural Reserve in Mendocino, and building wheelchair trails out of old mining ditches - like the Independence Trail in Nevada City - my history-major mother was teaching my brother and I about California history and driving the neighborhood after dark.. looking for her youngest son.

I made it one and a half semesters through college, dropping out to start a bmx bicycle company at age 19. Summer camp employment in the Santa Cruz Mountains, mission trips to Mexicali, screen printing classes and a different car nearly every year, my twenties were a wide mix of almost-successes and lots of lessons learned.

In 1999 I made a simple but important journey - saving up and flying to Indiana to purchase a 1966 Chrysler convertible. I knew I needed to buckle down and get my life together, but I also realized I needed to enjoy the present, and the convertible was the perfect choice. It's since been featured in films like Catch Me If You Can, Bottle Shock, and TV shows like Cold Case Files, and every time the top goes down is a reminder to me to slow down and enjoy the ride.

In 2001 I would return to college, working full time and taking night classes to finally graduate in 2003 from Biola University with a bachelor's degree in business and organizational leadership.

Until 2008 I had a mostly normal life, enjoying the fruits of a good job, summer house parties, traveling abroad, buying a new car, and even filming my first movie, Dill, California. I knew however, that if I really wanted to write and direct films the clock was ticking so I left my stable but predictable life and headed back to Hollywood - for the third time for those keeping count.

After writing three screenplays and going to lots of networking mixers and events, I was wondering if I'd made the right choice. That was when I got the phone call that would change the next decade of my life - my father had six months to live.

A hurried trailer and a whirlwind experience of becoming my father's caregiver resulted in my first feature-length documentary My Father, Who Art in Nature (2012), which showed at Nevada City's Wild and Scenic Film Festival, and to my dad, five days before he died.

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Life is still different since I accepted that call to care for dad but I'm finally convinced of my path - to explore human nature and our choices, to share what I find in an artistic and vulnerable way, and to give my gift back to the world.

~ March 2020

Freedom's Road