Buzz Editor

It was a series of events over a long period of time for me to conclude I wanted to go into coffee. I was a former CEO and Vice Chairman of South East Asia’s largest shopping mall owner and analyzed a lot of tenants/retailers’ businesses during my 14 years tenure. I learned a lot about coffee just being in the mall business. Secondly, my distant cousin back in college pitched me the idea to open a coffee shop on our campus in 2001 but never made it because he passed away inside the plane crash WTC Tower 2 during 9/11. Third, my family is one of the largest coffee owners in Indonesia and we have very deep relations in the country, so I had somewhere to start with. I spend a lot of time over the years going to coffee plantations and learned about the whole vertical supply chain whenever I could. Fourth, I went to Scotland one day and saw how the Scottish was great at promoting the best Scotch Whisky from all parts of the country. And in the whisky industry, it was like Scotch, vs. Japanese vs. American whisky specialists. Same in wine, it goes by country of origin first. And I was like, why don’t they do this in coffee industry? The coffee industry needs to go through a massive turnaround and I believe serious coffee lovers wants the best coffee and it can only be delivered if someone is specialized in a specific region and keeps its authenticity. And for me, it was like Why go all over the world to source coffee, when I’m five-generation Indonesian, and I already come from the world’s most diversified and 4th largest coffee producer since the Dutch brought Indonesian coffee to Europe many centuries ago? Lastly, I love coffee myself. It’s a passion. I love Indonesian coffee, and I wanted to share with the world about Indonesian coffee in an official way and give Indonesian farmers a chance to share their story to the world. People already knew Sumatra, Java and Bali but people do not realize those islands are part of the 13,000 tropical islands of Indonesia. Money was not the primary reason but giving back and helping to advance Indonesia is more important to me and I wanted American consumers to taste Indonesian coffee directly without middle men. So finally, in 2017, I moved back permanently to the US after spending many years in Indonesia and started officially the new venture, and I sold all my Ferraris and invested in a coffee roaster. In fact, I purchased the industry’s state of the art roaster brand Loring because I believe in consistency quality for my customers and helping the planet due to its lowest carbon emission. In just less than two years, we have completed our roasting facility, build a team, launch our online business, secured many restaurant clients, and now on the shelves of natural grocery chain like Bristol Farms, Farm Shop in Brentwood, Vicente Foods, Pinks Dot, Jensens San Diego among others. I got to where I am today just by executing what I have been dreaming since 2001 and that means taking concrete steps, and don’t let anyone stop you. Anything is possible if you want it badly, and I quit my CEO job, moved to America, sold my cars and start putting the pieces together.

I grew up as a missionary kid in the country of Albania. My parents moved our family over there shortly after communism fell, in 1993. I pretty much lived solely there until I graduated high school in 2005. I loved every minute of it and it really shaped my view of how music is perceived around the world and much a song can cross all kinds of barriers. It doesn’t matter what race, creed, or background you come from, people can unite around good music and that’s what drove me to pursue songwriting and the performance arts. I studied music in university and released some music during that time and shortly after graduating, but I never really felt content with where I was with my music progression. I settled down and got married like all good people in the South do and more or less put my passion for music aside, all while trying to save a failing relationship. We got divorced in 2017 and I decided that I needed to “risk it all” and make the jump to Los Angeles as a last ditch effort to take music seriously. I had tried my hand at recording in Nashville in the past, but it never really set well with me. So, in the summer of 2017 I packed up my life and moved to LA with my ex-friend (another story for another time) without a place to live or a solid job. Luckily my ex-roommate and I found work in the Brand Ambassador world and I soon grew my network of side hustles until I was able to fully support myself and live fairly comfortably. It took us about a week to find an apartment, but we finally found the perfect one in the knick of time! That roommate would end up screwing me out of a bunch of money and a long friendship, but I feel like we all have to a crazy roommate story whilst living in LA haha! That tragedy did lead to better life situations though, so I’m thankful it happened. I started putting feelers out for music and for people to collaborate with and soon found a wonderful community of creatives, all on this same path of creating honest music and supporting each other. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my music career in LA and it’s pushed me to grind and hustle for something I really love. The venues are great out here and the opportunities are endless! Moving to the West Coast has been the best decision I’ve made in a very long time.

Well, it started when I was living in Hawaii with my family. At the time, my mom and dad were both in the military and my mom was deployed to Afghanistan for a year. During that time period, I was in the car when I heard a commercial on the radio about being an actor. That piqued my interest, so I told my dad. He said to remember that for when my mom came back. Time goes by and she came back, and I heard the same commercial. “Calling all actors!” I told my dad again and he took me to the hotel where the event was. Then, we went to California for The Celebrity Experience with Adrian R’Mante. A few months later, the military moved us from Hawaii to Alabama. Within the first year, I began training and got my first agent in Kentucky with V and C Talent Agency. Things went upward from there. I starred in “Fatal Attraction”, got picked up by a larger agency in Atlanta (Evolution Talent Agency), starred in an Alabama Civil Rights commercial, ABC’s “What Would You Do?” I also filmed a commercial for Home Depot’s College GameDay, and many more projects. It was at this time that Real People Models & Talent Agency. Later in 2019, I signed with CMA Entertainment. In February of this year (before the Coronavirus shutdown the US), my mom and I went to LA for pilot season where I auditioned, trained, and took dance lessons. Thanks to my PR Talent Rep, GTK PR Talent, I attended several public events. Once we returned to Alabama, the auditions and training continued. The most recent event I participated in was “GENZ 20”. It was so cool to hear other actors and learn from the influencers.

I starting acting at the age of 7, I was scouted by Heidi Klum’s production team for Seriously Funny Kids at an open call at the school I attended at the time. Acting was never a thought until that day. After the call back and being on the set of lifetime TV I was really intrigued by the industry and decided to take acting classes. I acquired my firs agent at 8 years old and booked my first National Commercial and Film.

Well… from what I understand my Mom was approached by my first Manager when I was 4 years old. She hooked me up with an Agent and I started out modeling. Hanna Anderson, Billabong, Toys R Us and various other companies. My Agent then asked if she could submit me for Commercial work and I started doing that. It was around that time that I booked my first movie SEXPOT with Eric Foresberg. I remember that I had a super fun time on set. I also started doing theatrical background around this time. They apparently liked me and I found myself featured many, many times. This is actually how I landed the role of Young Jeff on Community. They bumped me and then I was called back a year later for another episode. I didn’t start taking acting classes until I was around 8 years old. My first coach was Alex Feldman. We are still friends. I’ve worked with many great trainers- Ivana Chubbuck Studios, Groundlings, Second City, Helen Gordon and most recently Sal Landi. What I’ve learned is that it is important to have a great team that works together and is supportive. I’m super excited to have my team in place and am hoping to land some awesome roles once this virus is under control.

This journey started long before I consciously knew I was on it. Between the ages of 3 and 6, my step brother at the time would film home videos for his high school class. Some of these included short films of me dressed up as a ghost, fading from one side of the door to the other, and dancing to Britney Spears “Oops I did it again” during the end credits.

Around the age of 12, I began writing short stories on my families first laptop computer. Microsoft Word was my go-to. Those written stories turned into scripts. I would manually set margins in Microsoft Word to match the script format, so you can imagine how excited I was to learn about Final Draft. I actually wrote an entire feature length script in 3 weeks after downloading it. Of course, my scripts then was just the imagination of a child spewed into text on pages. I knew the beginning and end of my stories but I let the “body” create itself.

When I started high school is when I “graduated” from just writing scripts to actually filming something. I filmed my first documentary called “Homeless in Hanford”. The film followed and highlighted the perspective of a homeless individual living in our small town.

My next film was Embrace. A feature-length found footage horror film I shot in Cambria with a few friends of mine. The idea behind this film was inspired by a mini series I wrote titled Our Little Eden, a sci-fi post apocalyptic show about the sun “going out” and the worlds inhabitants living in and with darkness.

The film that really started this journey, however, was Drug of Choice. This was my first film in a festival and is still one of my personal favorites to this day. The film focuses on the brutality of addition, and the affects abuse has on a family. After completion, I sent Drug of Choice to rehabilitation centers all across America in the hopes that if there was someone who needed to see it, they would.

I’m a musician. My wife and I have 2 small children (ages 3 and 1) and I’ve been playing music for them to go to sleep. Since Covid-19, I’ve been recording Quarantine Lullabies (solo instrumental guitar pieces) and posting them online to help other parents get their kids to relax.