Growing up, theater everything for Spencer Griffin. As a student at Valley High School in West Des Moines, he wrote plays and directed in the school’s mime and comedy group, The Baker’s Dozen.
Today, Griffin, founded in Los Angeles, is guilty of the television progression of Just for Laughs, a comedy distribution company, and is guilty of locating or presenting scripted and un scripted comedy projects that can turn into shows. He has sold and developed projects for HBO, Amazon, Hulu and others.
Griffin focuses on streaming and classic television. But the theater says so, especially his behind-the-scenes paintings about productions, which prepare him to bring projects to the screen.
Griffin entered the University of Iowa on a theater scholarship. He immersed himself in theatrical reporting on campus, with the Ten Minute Game Festival.
In his first year, Paul Rust, Griffin’s classmate, actor, editor, and executive maker of netflix’s “Love,” wrote a play Griffin sought to direct. But, as was the case, the number of exhibition applications submitted through academics exceeded the time and area available for university productions.
Then they looked for ways to level it elsewhere, in order to other artistic projects.
Griffin and Eric Burchett, a graduate of theatrical arts in 2004, approached the owner of Deadwood, a downtown bar, about using the upstairs space and Public Space One. The organization is still up and running today and is now a two-place arts center with two locations on North Gilbert Street.
“Thanks to several managers who have succeeded me and the whole team, I’m proud to say it still exists,” Griffin says. “It all started when I knew how talented there is in Iowa City.”
Griffin spent the rest of his educational career sharing his time between classes, being a member of community building organization The James Gang and being at Public Space One, where he worked on almost every facet of the backstage, adding the direction of six of Rust’s. plays.
“At the age of 20, I was helping to manage volunteer staff, organize systems, and I was focused on generating other people’s work,” Griffin says.
“My purpose is to be known as a guy who, whatever you want, I can help you do that.”
After graduating, Griffin moved to Los Angeles and was assigned a task as an assistant at Miramax. After several circular trips from Iowa City to Los Angeles and New York, he won the recommendation of a Hawkeye colleague. His roommate, David Fishel, a 2003 graduate in communication, art and film who worked at the CollegeHumor comedy site, told Griffin that the company needed a post-production coordinator. Later, Griffin hired some extensive courses on video editing.
While working on commercials, Internet series and television shows, he rose through the ranks of executive manufacturer and, despite everything, senior vice president, and worked with stars such as Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Sarah Silverman and “Weird Al” Yankovic.
Although Griffin may not be the star of those productions, he thrives on bringing to life the artistic visions of actors and actors.
“What I have to do is provide other people’s systems that are the only ones that can provide this component TV show, other people who have the ultimate point of view uniquely,” he says. “A great component of what I do is pay attention to the actors’ concepts, then make paintings of concepts for television, and then produce, write the script and execute the project.”
One of the most successful examples of such an association is TruTV’s “Adam Ruins Everything”, created through the Adam Conover comic book and starring him, which investigates and eliminates misconceptions. Griffin one of the show’s executive makers, which lasted three seasons.
“This screen is completely Adam’s voice,” he says. “I love running skillfully and helping others achieve their dreams, helping such skillful actors say what they mean. When other people are artistic and wonderful in what they do, it’s exciting to be there.”
In 2015, when CollegeHumor had controlled the creation of a video on a fun topic, sexual assault on school campuses, the company was tasked with writing a message about the importance of going to school, and with none other than the first girl as a rap star. . Training
“It’s 30 surreal minutes, maybe 25,” he said. “They gave us everything in two takes. She’s perfect. It’s unbelievable.”
But an even more surreal moment happened in a small organizational assembly with President Obama. When Griffin ran for CollegeHumor, the president joked, “CollegeHumor, huh? Tell me something funny,” Griffin said. “Then, when I fell silent for a while, he said temporarily, “Yes, that’s what I was thinking.” The president of the United States roasted me. He made the whole room laugh.
After nine years at CollegeHumor, Griffin moved to Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, an animation studio directed by actor Seth Green, for which he sold a game screen and a live action screen to HBO. A year and a part later, Just For Laughs, a Montreal-based company known for hosting the world’s largest annual comedy festival, asked him to oversee the progression of television to expand into the American market. Griffin says his theatrical arts degree is not only ready to face the demanding situations he faces every day in a competitive market, but is “the title that everyone gets.”
“A theater degree teaches you to see obstacles when others see the walls,” he says. “That’s what a manufacturer is.”
This is a point Griffin likes to highlight when he returns to campus to communicate with acting and artistic writing classes, while offering practical recommendations on how to run in the company.
“Most of the time, I give them a Hollywood 101, talking about what it does here, the managers, the agents and what “development” means, all the sort of things I’ve learned on the clock,” he says. “I do it because I hope to show Iowa academics that they can do it too. Something like what Peter Hedges did for me.