I deeply hate writing bios, but despise even more encountering a website without a bio or bios about living writers written in the third person, alas…

I’m a Pasadena native, born in Huntington Hospital in 1981.  I received an undergraduate degree in English from USC in 2004.

In February 2006, I placed my first narrative nonfiction piece with a local paper, the Pasadena Weekly.  That first story allowed me to draw upon a handful of A-list sources generated during my post-college jobs in the film and television business.  The easy access to intriguing people and interesting stories set in me a hook that has yet to be removed.

During 2007 my publication credits included the Los Angeles Daily News, Parade.com, and Dogmatika.  In 2008 I placed a short story, Innocents Lost, with the literary journal Talking River, edited by Kevin Goodan.

For almost all of 2009, I lived and worked in New York City, calling Woodside, Queens home.  I enjoyed (more/less) every urban minute of it and cut together ten or so short films while there.  In January ‘09, I also attended the Inauguration of President Obama in Washington D.C.  Between 2009 and mid-2011, I published a blog called Irreducible Figure, which is officially abandoned, but still has a few rough gems to pick through, including this account of an extremely odd date I went on with internet personality Julia Allison.

Between 2010 and 2011 my narrative nonfiction found its way into a variety of publications including: The Awl, Epic Magazine, 944 San Francisco, Humanity+, and The Lifeboat Foundation.  My writing increasingly deals with science and the impact of technology on humanity, topics I find engaging, stimulating, and relatively easy.  Writing this bio, however, is another matter entirely.

Between 2009 and 2011, I placed my photography with BlackBook Magazine, LAist, and The New York Post.  Photography remains something of a semi-persistent, glorified hobby.

This is my personal tumblr.  I am far less active on other social networking media, but not entirely absent.  I am also an active member of the Hudson Union Society and the Lifeboat Foundation.  I attend MindshareLA as often as possible.

Meeting and getting to know interesting/ ambitious/ nutty/ clever/ terminally depressed/ fatally beautiful people is one of my great pursuits in life and I attend on average three events per week.  Add me on Facebook and invite me to something.  If I’m free, I’d love to show up and chat a bit.

I subscribe to the New Yorker, Harper’s, and Forbes, but I’m generally dreadfully behind in my reading.  I also keep up with 30 or so standalone blogs in addition to the 200ish I follow on tumblr.  If you find a good one, kindly send over a link.

This latest version of the Pasadena Pictures website was launched in May 2011 and reflects my sensibility of Web 2.0.  In late 2011, I began contributing to Los Angeles I’m Yours and gave two public talks. I remain mostly busy with business related whatnot.

Email me anytime: zack [at] pasadenapictures [dot] com

cheers,

Z

My brother Noah and I with the 2012 Tournament of Roses Royal Court.