Thomas was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. Studied Marketing for 3 years before running out of luck and becoming UNEMPLOYED. Worked several restaurant jobs until one day, he finally tapped on the door of his childhood dream, to be an Actor.
He subsequently went out to look for places to study Acting but understanding the reality of being Chinese in Canada, the opportunities to obtain and sustain an acting career was slim to none, so he decided to learn what goes on behind the camera.
Not knowing how to even work a home video camera, he enrolled into the Toronto Film School - an accelerated program - for Film Production. But nothing in-class taught him more than volunteering on-set.
Working up the ladder of film, he volunteered from being a PA all the way up to a Production Manager, putting his time in at festivals to learn more on that end. His love and passion allowed him to persevere through the months of learning and improving, with no income.
While studying and volunteering, he worked on the reality show Canadian Idol for 2 seasons as the Judges' Assistant, taking care of the judges pre, during, and post-show. This menial position allowed him to learn the hardships and realities of showbiz in Canada but it only strengthened his passion for the industry.
By the time he graduated from the 15-month program, he had worked on over 20 short films in several capacities, mostly as an Assistant Director. Over that span, he opened his own production company, i-Kandy Productions, and he also found time to act in several productions, gaining more experience and training than he could ever imagine.
One year after graduating and struggling through the year, he Produced and starred in his first feature-length film, Buck Wild, which he co-wrote with good friend, Ace McCallum, who doubled as Director. Thomas was able to convince the judges on Canadian Idol to help fund the project as well as gaining the support of Ryouko Enterprises founder James Mark.
The experience he gained from Producing a feature by himself allowed him to learn about every aspect of filmmaking from script to screen. Due in large to the minimal budget, he did not hire any help for production managing, location scouting, art direction, assistant directing, or production coordination, he had to pick up the slack for all departments. Buck Wild was shot on Super 16mm and was "in-the-can" for $10,000. Thomas is now looking around the globe for distribution.
Over the past year, he made his TV acting debut in a docu-drama, was Production Manager for a feature shot in Toronto, got into the Director's Guild of Canada, directed several commercials and a short film, and continually supervised post-production on Buck Wild.
He is currently working as a Writer in Hong Kong but will be going back home to Toronto in mid-October, 2008 to start pre-production on his next project with Ace. He will be simultaneously writing his own feature script that is currently in development stages.
He is always looking for opportunities to collaborate with artists and filmmakers around the world, in hopes that one day he can bring world cinema onto one screen, at one time.
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Pictures I'm tagged in
Junk Trip Pictures
Buck Wild Posters
Head and Screen shots
jus some pics...
