Damon Lee - From unpaid assistant to Award Winning Producer & CEO of Deacon Media Mentors on the Mic: Your guide to pursuing a career in the Entertainment industry

Damon Lee is an Award-winning Producer and CEO of Deacon Media. Not only has he been the Executive Producer for two of the top five grossing African American themed films of the past decade, but he is responsible for the first and only cross-over from animated web series to live action feature film. His projects have included Beyonce, Idris Elba, Taraji P. Henson, Issa Rae, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, John Legend, Loretta Devine, Chris Brown, Regina King, and more. He won an NAACP award for Outstanding Television Movie, Sins of the Mother, the second most watched original film in Lifetime's history.

In this episode, we talk about:

• How he got his first job working for John Singleton, Director of Boyz in the Hood, Higher Learning, Poetic Justice, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Four Brothers

• Vice President of Production for Hollywood legend Joel Silver, Producer of The Matrix and Conspiracy Theory

• Becoming Vice President of Production at MGM after only 5 years of being in LA

• Fighting for his credit on Obsessed (starring Beyonce and Idris Elba)

• Diversity in Hollywood, pushing for people of color in front of and behind the camera

• Being Executive VP at Urban Entertainment and developing the animated web series Undercover Brother, grossing $100,000,000.

• Joel Silver and Amy Pascal fighting over him

• How he used to believe he had to 'Minimize self to Maximize opportunity'

• Getting an NAACP award for Sins of the Mother

• Executive producing 'This Christmas' starring Idris Elba, Loretta Devine, Chris Brown, Regina King, and Meki Pfiefer.

• Being an Executive Producer on Lifetime's  'Taken From Me,' garnering an Emmy nomination for lead actress performance by Taraji P. Henson

• Micro aggressions in Hollywood - defining the line that no one can cross

• Incredible story about how he was able to go to the Peter Stark Producing program

• Connection with Episode 1 Mentor, Stan Brooks - https://kite.link/stan

Resources:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/-damon-lee-/

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0497083/

Recommendation: If you like this episode, check out Episode 1.1 with Emmy winning Producer and Director Stan Brooks.

Host:

Instagram: @MentorsontheMic @MichelleSimoneMiller

Twitter: @MentorsontheMic @MichelleSimoneM

Mentors on the Mic Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mentorsonthemic

Website: www.michellesimonemiller.com

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/24mmichelle


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