About
GRANT, THE CREATIVE MARKETING and PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE
The current founder and creative director of 59 James Street Productions LLC, a successful television production company specializing in creative marketing ideation and production, plus branding and writing for all media platforms, Grant brings his collaborative, high-spirited, team-player mentality to projects of all scales.
Most recently, Grant wrote and produced a two-minute hype video for the U.S. Olympic Committee, showcasing TEAM USA for a Pre-Games Olympic Event which in part announced the Winter Olympic Games being awarded to Salt Lake City in 2034. The video plays throughout TEAM USA venues in Paris during the Olympics including at the new “Olympic House” that welcomes people from all over the world! This video can be seen by selecting the EVENTS tab on the homepage.
From 2019 through 2024, among other projects, Grant is also proud of his creative direction and production of Fuse Network’s Upfront and Affiliate Meeting visuals, and Fuse’s 15-year channel retrospective video, which can be seen on this website’s splash page. Fuse super-serves the LatinX community, and its programs showcase the lives of a truly Blended America. Grant has found his passion in shining a light upon and celebrating marginalized individuals and communities whose voices have not traditionally been heard. Enjoying a very successful, innovative, award-winning creative marketing career in the TV industry, Grant rose through the ranks to VP / Creative Director while at ABC, Paramount/MTV Networks, and NBC, all in leadership positions where he worked closely with and successfully pitched external agencies while being renowned by internal partners for his can-do attitude! Grant’s homepage features various work produced for E!, VH1 and other MTV Networks partners like Logo, the LGBTQ channel Grant was instrumental to launching.
Starting out as a writers' assistant in New York City upon graduation from Loyola University Chicago, Grant moved through the ranks of ABC Television Primetime Marketing and Promotions, onto Viacom and MTV Networks—where he was promoted three times for his Creative Marketing and Branding expertise—and then was recruited by NBCUniversal in 2016, when the network moved Grant to Los Angeles, California. Upon fulfillment of his NBC contract, Grant made the decision to follow a longtime dream to start his own business, leaning into his many industry experiences to create a full-service video production company.
An expert storyteller, Grant is also a buzzworthy 2023 “Recommended” Television Drama Writer by the Austin Film Festival for his script submission last year. He began teaching students how to write their original TV dramas this past summer, and the first video testimonials are posted here, accessible by clicking on the site logo. Grant has also placed in the finals of the Sundance Film Festival’s Episodic Writers Lab, scored an “8” on The Black List, and made the Launch Pad Top 100 for his screenwriting prowess!
Detailed description of corporate creative marketing roles, and educational background:
Formerly the Vice President of Creative Development and Integrated Marketing for E! Entertainment/Esquire/Bravo, part of the Lifestyle Group of cable channels in the NBC television universe, Grant worked closely and tirelessly with internal partners to develop custom long-form and short-form content for advertisers; he became an expert at the creative storytelling and packaging of the three main pillars of E! content: 1) the year-long Live From the Red Carpet franchise covering events from the Golden Globes to The GRAMMYs to the Academy Awards to the Emmys and New York Fashion Weeks, to, 2) the E! News ecosystem, with its diverse offerings from a Facebook Live daily morning show, to a live daytime talk show, to E! News evening pop culture broadcasts to the many robust digital, editorial, and social offerings such as custom content series like Facebook's freeSTYLE covering the fashion and beauty space, to The Rundown, a twice weekly recap on Snapchat's Discover platform of the best stories in pop culture, to, 3) E! reality and scripted content, and the many levers in which to activate an advertising partner into hit shows from The Kardashians to Hollywood Medium to The Royals.
Prior to NBC moving Grant to Los Angeles, he was the Vice President of Creative Content Solutions at Viacom Velocity, a collaborative creative and marketing team built to super-serve Viacom’s advertising partners. There, he oversaw creative strategy and execution between VH1, Logo, MTV and its branded integrations, plus was regularly sought out to ideate upon, pitch, and produce initiatives for other VIACOM channels, including being a creative force instrumental to the launch of the LGBTQ network Logo in 2005; for which Grant wrote and produced the channel’s first on-air visuals, a media-driven and historical journey through time of LGBTQ characters from The Stonewall Riots in 1969 to Will and Jack’s first-ever gay on-screen kiss in 2005. A multiple PROMAX Award-winner, Grant has managed and directed large and small-scale campaigns for clients like Burger King, Toyota, Warner Bros. Pictures, Old Navy, and the NFL and NBA to name a few.
Prior to his tenure at VIACOM, Grant moved through the ranks at ABC Television after Disney purchased ABC. Grant became a producer of cross platform co-branded content for advertisers while a member of the award-winning ABC Primetime Marketing group, where he also helped shape the network’s elite image campaigns, including the memorable “TV is Good." Grant transitioned into Primetime after a brief, eventful experience at ABC’s “One Life To Live,” where Grant served as a writers’ assistant on the writing staff that won the Daytime Emmy!
Grant is also passionate about Pro Social causes, and has a history of leading efforts to raise awareness for music education in public schools via the VH1 Save the Music Foundation, getting out the message for HIV awareness and prevention via the Elton John AIDS Foundation and The Kaiser Foundation’s Greater Than AIDS campaign, and producing fundraising content for The TJ Martell Foundation, the music industry’s leading cancer, leukemia and AIDS research organization. Grant has also donated his time and talents to helping at-risk and disadvantaged young people via New York City’s Adolescent Health Center, Covenant House, and the New York Institute for Special Education.
As a double major graduate of Loyola University Chicago’s Communications (television/film emphasis) and Theater departments, Grant has transitioned from being on-stage to behind-the-scenes to becoming a creative marketing executive who seamlessly mashes-up the brand messaging objectives of both the network and its advertisers. As his career has progressed, Grant has excelled at acting (accepted by audition to the DePaul Theatre School), directing, television writing, production, and collaborating with interdisciplinary teams across media platforms with the result of pitching and executing industry-leading transmedia custom content for advertising clients.
Grant believes all of his unique experiences have helped shape his career as a storyteller. Grant continues to demonstrate excellent management skills, constantly providing inspiration to and developing and mentoring others, many of whom he hired upon completion of an internship under his tutelage.
Grant’s lovable Wheaten Terrier, Bandit, who is always at his side, is named after a Scottish chocolate bar Grant devoured as a kid!
GRANT, THE BUZZWORTHY TV AND FILM WRITER
Grant is a recent 2023 Austin Film Festival “Recommended” Writer (Recommend/Consider/Pass are the categories) which is a rare accolade given by the organization, which holds its annual writers festival at the end of October. Also a 2022 Finalist in the Sundance Institute Episodic Lab for Writers, Grant was a Semifinalist for the London-Based Outstanding Screenplays Drama Pilot Competition, the Stage 32 Dramatic Writing Competition, and a Top 100 Finalist and double-nominee with the Launch Pad Pilot Writing Competition for two TV pilots, a Coming-Of-Age drama titled “BOYSTOWN” and a family murder mystery titled “WILLOW SWIM CLUB.” The latter tale finds an investigative reporter returning to his idyllic yet deeply conservative and secretive suburban hometown following the mysterious drowning of his father at the family-run Swim Club. A former high school champion swimmer himself, the reporter comes to believe his swim coach father’s death wasn’t an accident when he discovers a conspiracy festering below the surface.
Grant received an “8” on the prestigious Black List for “BOYSTOWN,” where his topical Coming-Of-Age drama is compared as “…a cross between Larry Kramer’s THE NORMAL HEART and HBO’s VINYL.” Set in a city jacked on House Music and rocked by social upheaval amidst a global epidemic, “BOYSTOWN” is the story of four young, diverse roommates — driven by the loss of a close friend — who band together to pursue their artistic and activist passions to create change and save lives. Additional accolades for “BOYSTOWN” include excellent judges’ reviews such as:
“The premise is conceptually strong enough to carry a compelling narrative, the story engine is propulsive, and the complexity of characters and their experiences make the script feel marketable to an HBO, Showtime, perhaps even Netflix.” —LAUNCH PAD
“There’s a good amount of interpersonal character conflict that keeps the pace up while still highlighting the underlying goal (think the ensemble character drama of THE L WORD), and the activist angle and tension of the devastating AIDS crisis provide a continually propulsive story engine.” —LAUNCH PAD
“Gage (protagonist) feels well-rounded and three dimensional. We immediately get a sense of what his motivations are and his personality as a playboy with an activist cause. The don’t-give-a-fuck attitude is one he exudes through his actions, and thus his personality feels authentic to his choices throughout the script…He works as a strong protagonist with a good voice a viewer would want to root for.” —SLAMDANCE
“Secondary characters are equally strong in this script, with good motivations, unique personalities, and driving characteristics that come through in dialogue and add nuance. Each secondary character acts with good agency and builds the ensemble case; particularly enjoyable is Kordell as a spoken word artist turned DJ, and Javy, navigating his own HIV struggle. You do a good job defying stereotypes and building a diverse, believable group with both shared and vastly different backgrounds coming together to fight a singular cause.” —SLAMDANCE