Biography

Juan Martinez Vera grew up in a remote town in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. At the age of eleven, he immigrated to the U.S. with his family to pursue a better life. Soon after moving to his new home in the central coast town of Santa Maria, California, movies became Juan's main source of entertainment and soon he learned to use films as a tool to understand and connect with the American society.

In 2010, Juan graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Film, Television and Digital Media. While at UCLA, Juan directed, wrote, and produced over 35 projects that included soap operas and the college's award-winning News show. Immediately after graduating from UCLA, Juan attended the USC School of Cinematic Arts where Juan received the honor to be one of three directors selected to direct an advanced project funded by the university. On his last year at USC, Juan received the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant to write and direct the project, SPARK. This film went on to receive a US Student BAFTA Award nomination, an award for Best Student Latino Director from the Director's Guild of America, and a national distribution deal from HBO. Most recently, Juan produced the feature film, Cabarete at the Dominican Republic, worked at Starz as a showrunner assistant and directed the independent feature film, SPIKED. This film was acquired for national distribution by Gravitas Ventures and was later acquired by international distributors at the European Film Market for international release.

Juan's goal as a filmmaker is to inspire people to use their imagination to transform their reality.
- IMDb mini biography by: Unknown