Introduce Yourself : Hello everyone! by Gary Hershberger

I'm Gary, and I’m a professional actor, writer and director, and have been working in the entertainment industry for over thirty years. Major credits include Twin Peaks (yes, the original one!), and the Showtime reboot currently playing, Six Feet Under, Sneakers, etc. I’ve also been writing professionally for the last ten years, and am an award-winning writer, having placed as a Top Ten Finalist four times for The Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Awards, and the PAGE Awards.

I am in pre-production for my feature directorial debut, for the inspirational sports drama, Late in the Season, producing with Gabrielle Evans-Fields (Aja, Take 2 for Faith), Jim Schmidt (Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius), and the Battery Park Entertainment team.

I love working with writers to get their script into top form before it goes out to the masses, as you only have one time to make that great first impression. I have been working with my friends and colleagues for several years now, and have had quite good fortune in moving them into production or option agreements. If you’re interested in elevating your script into greenlight form, please give me a shout.

I teach a class with my teaching partner, the wonderful Sheryl Lee (Twin Peaks), called The Actor’s Director Workshop. It's for directors, actors, writers, and D.P’s and how they can collaborate together to experience how to create the best performances for all involved. We’ve taught this Two Day Workshop at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and Pepperdine University several times, and are now bringing it privately to the LA area, as well as different cities outside of LA. www.theactorsdirectorworkshop.com

Funny story -- way back when, I'm standing in line at a writers pitch conference, getting ready for my 2-minute pitch, and I strike up a friendly conversation with a very athletic young man, who is getting ready for his pitch. The line was quite long, and so we had about twenty minutes to get to know each other. I shared what I was doing, and he starts telling me about this fabulous idea he has - to create a start-up social media site for creatives like Facebook. Yep. It turns out that this young man is none other than RB!! I was there in the pre-beginning :) Well, it's taken me a bit longer to actually introduce myself (as I'm not really a social media animal, but I'm trying!) The day has come. I'm here, and I'm excited to meet you, work with you, and hopefully work together on great projects in the future. I'm here to offer my assistance in any capacity -- whether it be guiding a young actor, shaping a script, teaching the young directors out there -- or even directing some of your projects.

This is a wonderful community of artists, and we need to support one another. Thanks RB for starting it all.

With gratitude,

Gary