Cody Zervas
Creative Arts Professional
I work professionally as a writer and filmmaker in Hollywood. My films have won awards at festivals around the country. There are myriad divergent skills that go into filmmaking -- cinematography, sound design, music, animation, finance, and more. And being an independent filmmaker has meant that I have had to learn them all. My proven expertise in all the fields not only uniquely qualifies me to teach a wide variety of arts and arts-adjacent classes, it means that I can teach them from a holistic and comprehensive perspective that most teachers simply can't manage. When you also include the fact that I used to work professionally as a musician, I've been programming video games since I was a little kid, and I make part of my living now as a semi-professional options trader, it means that I will have something to teach every student I come across, and a plethora of life experience to make sure what they learn is practical, and not just arbitrary rote memorization.
Bio
As a kid, I had lots of wide-ranging interests, but ended up mostly teaching myself because, in the dark days before the internet, I wasn’t able to find teachers in my hometown that could capture my passions.
I found those teachers when I went to college, but an illness during my college career slowed me down. As I recovered, I was able to play in a professional band around the Chicago area. Upon graduation, I began making films and working as a writer and filmmaker in Hollywood.
Because of the pandemic and a pause in the film industry, I found an outlet of online teaching to share my skills and knowledge, while working from home. Students around the country and the world now have access to the kinds of instruction I could only dream of as a kid.