We asked some of the most creative folks we know to open up to us about why they chose a creative career path. Check out their responses below.

DJ Wonder

I was basically raised by the Entertainment Industry. It’s all I’ve ever known, just from watching TV and movies every day as a kid until now. It’s all I ever wanted to be immersed in. But now, I’m not sure if that was a good choice. Read More>>

Scottt Raven

I’ve oscillated between the arts and athletics from the time I could walk run and pun, rhyme and climb. My dad was a physical education teacher and my mother taught ELL and English. I found myself dancing down a b-ball court, cartwheeling across home plate, mugging to an invisible camera after a goal. After an injury to my left knee dunking a basketball (it went in), I realized my body might not always be there for me, so I started to drift more towards reading, writing and building the muscles of my mind. I somehow convinced my soccer team to try out for the Shakespeare play at my high-school. Read More>>

Rudy Paganini

It’s been part of me forever. Art is fundamental in my life, it’s a space for boundless freedom and exploration, without rules or preconceptions.
I began as a musician (I still am), playing in cellars and riding that raw energy, before gradually moving to computer music. Then, just as I turned 30, I had a huge crisis, I started feeling the limitations of art—how it’s so tangled up in subjectivity and the artist’s personality, this drove me to learn coding, chasing a creative outlet that felt more structured, more objective, yet limitless in its possible outputs. I threw myself into it, but in the end, my attention threshold is low, and I need to be constantly entertained. Read More>>

Pedro

In my country, Peru, I studied law, and one of the reasons I left 23 years ago was because it was clear to me that my true calling was literature. Despite the stability and prestige that a legal career might offer, I felt a deep, undeniable pull toward storytelling, language, and the world of books. That’s how I ended up studying Literature here in Miami, at Florida International University. Read More>>

Mikailo Kasha

The story I often tell is that, as a kid, I asked my mom for a Nintendo so I could play Pokémon. Instead, she got me a piano. And, well, here we are.

Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I grew up surrounded by it—listening to Lou Rawls, learning piano, cello, and alto sax in elementary school, and composing from a young age. In fact, I’ve kept every idea or piece I’ve ever written since 5th grade, all stored on a hard drive. Read More>>