As I get ready for Comic Con Cape Town, I can’t help but think back on why I love doing my work so much.
What I do comes up a lot in conversations, because it seems like most people still don’t fully understand it. The simple answer is that I’m a journalist who writes about movies, TV, and pop culture. The real answer is much more nuanced, and it takes some time to explain.
To fully understand what I do, you need to understand why I do it. It all started with my love for movies and TV. I wasn’t really an outdoor kid, so I spent a lot of time in front of the TV. Some might even say an unhealthy amount. The TV basically helped shape who I became.
Movies like Jurassic Park, Ghostbusters, The Lion King, and Spider-Man still inspire me to this day. They made me realise that being an outsider isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, my love for movies eventually helped me make new friends. I thought about becoming an actor for a long time, but I eventually realised that being the one who creates the stories seemed a lot more fun.
I’ve told this story many times, but I wrote my first story when I was nine, and I loved it so much that it still drives me today. Another thing that inspired my writing was music. I’m not very musical, but music is essentially storytelling with notes. Since I couldn’t write music, I turned to poetry.
I even spoke about my poetry with Misha Collins last year. Looking back, I think writing poetry unofficially started my journey toward journalism. I applied to work at Die Republikein because I wanted to improve my writing skills and become better at telling stories. Poetry was one thing, but being able to write long-form content was the dream.
I didn’t just love being a journalist, the experience and the stories I encountered helped me grow as a writer. I got to interview and work with some amazing people during my time at the newspaper. I also learned a few hard lessons along the way, which later helped shape my film scripts.
Life took some unexpected turns, and I stopped writing for a while, but that also helped me in the long run. I was unemployed and isolated, and eventually the only things that kept me sane were writing and watching films. This set me on two different paths: fully embracing writing about pop culture, and trying to write a film.
Long story short, what I do is tell stories. It doesn’t matter if it’s videos, columns, or a podcast, I tell stories. And it doesn’t stop there. I get to share the things I love with people, and at the same time invite them to the movies or to spend an evening relaxing on the couch. It’s about helping people forget about the bad in the world for a while and finding time to enjoy life.
So yes, I’m a journalist who also does content creation, which is really just another form of journalism. I took a simple answer and turned it into something bigger, but that’s what a storyteller does. And I still love that I get to do it in so many different ways.
