I am Jesse Larios.

I create comedic social media content, films, comedic sketches, and brand advertisements. I've learned about the algorithms of different social media platforms. I have managed to garner over 4.4 million views, 40 thousand shares, and thousands of comments on social media. I am currently finishing my Master of Fine Arts in Cinema and Television Creative Producing at Columbia College Chicago. I am also a student of the comedic arts. I have studied at some of the most iconic comedy institutions, like The Second City and iO Theater Chicago, and I have a background in sports marketing.

 

Through creating short films, I learned how to sell an idea through pitching, hiring the right crew, creating and managing a budget, marketing a project, finding the target audience, funding a project, and communicating effectively with different departments. Also, taking editing courses at Columbia College has made me comfortable using Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro to edit content.

 

Tina Fey once asked Phoebe Waller-Bridge, "Doesn't everyone start off wanting to be an actor?" Well, that is precisely how my desire for storytelling started. After realizing I wanted to do that at the age of seven, I made the tough decision to pursue my calling. After telling my cousins my future goals, a beautiful two-week pursuit ended with my dreams being murdered by their laughter, the cause of death being "shame." Grieving my goals' death was tough, but I did my best to move on, and sports helped me for a long time. My new dream was to run onto an NBA basketball court one day, having the audience chant to me "MVP" while escorting an injured NBA player off the court. People will argue that the person being cheered is the NBA player, but I beg to differ. So, I ended up pursuing a degree in Exercise Science at DePaul University with the hopes of one day becoming an Athletic Trainer in the NBA.

 

I believed that if I had a successful career in sports, my desire to tell stories would disappear, but working in sports is what led me back to storytelling. While working with the WNBA Chicago Sky Marketing Partnership Department, I created and pitched ideas for video board features to our potential clients. I played a role in the stories told in video board features and social media campaigns, leading to increased sales of our partners' products and reaching their desired audience. It reinvigorated my desire for storytelling through marketing and showed me how powerful stories are.