ADVERTISING / Justin graduated from Miami University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, concentrating in design and illustration. After starting as an intern, he spent two years at Leo Burnett (Chicago) as a writer/art director, before joining nearby rival, DDB (Chicago). Justin's advertising career climbed to unimaginable heights when he hit on a string of popular campaigns, the biggest one being the iconic Budweiser “Whassup?!” winning him the Cannes Grand Prix and later securing him a place in the CLIO HALL OF FAME.
In only 3 years, Justin had amassed every creative award in the industry, both in the U.S. and Internationally. At the height of his career, Justin left “agency life” and moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of being a film director.
DIRECTING / Justin broke onto the scene when he wrote, directed and edited a comedy reel that became one of the internet’s first and biggest viral sensations, drawing over 22 million hits within the first 4 months with traffic that constantly crashed the production company's website. This was before sharing sites like FACEBOOK or YOUTUBE even existed. Immediately, Justin’s work became an instant hit with people in the film industry and beyond. In fact, his NUTRIGRAIN "Feel Great" attracted a cult like following world wide and could be found as the topic of many chat rooms and at the center of many fan parodies; like one made entirely from stop-motion Legos.
After a big showing at Saatchi & Saatchi's prestigious New Director's Showcase, JustIn was soon recognized as one of the most sought after new directing talents in the world. Justin signed on with WME & Anonymous Content for commercials where he refined a signature comedic storytelling style, blending bold performances and well defined characters with a sweeping visual style.
SHORT FILM / Justin wrote and directed the short film, "Zoltan, the Hungarian Gangster of Love", a surreal, music fueled, cinematic tale that features a day in the life of the local Don Juan of a remote Hungarian village. The grainy 16mm black and white Hungarian language film was a finalist at London's Raindance Festival for best International Short and went on to win several American Film festivals, qualifying it for the Academy Awards.
FEATURE FILMS / In 2013, Justin finished shooting his first feature film, A Many Splintered Thing, starring Chris Evans, Michelle Monaghan, Topher Grace, Aubrey Plaza Phillip Baker Hall and Luke Wilson. Despite the director’s cut receiving positive reactions, a PRODUCER’S VERSION of the film, Playing It Cool, was released in May of 2015.
THE ROYAL BUDAPEST FILM CO. / In 2017 Justin and his wife Barbara launched The Royal Budapest Film Co. The company represents a select roster of international directors for commercials, and produces international entertainment for top brands such as : A24, NEON, FOCUS, NETFLIX, AMAZON, UNIVERSAL, BLUMHOUSE, TOPIC STUDIOS, LEYLINE and more. Justin is involved in developing original material for the company, and is presently prepping for two new off-beat indy films, CONVENTION and FUN IS GOOD.
Justin and his wife Barbara reside in Budapest, Hungary where they live with their two children, Lola and Leonardo.
