Kent Koren: A Brief History Part I

I was in an elevator in Century City up to my nose hairs in boxes of China for Jon Voight, to whom I was personal assistant in 1999 right out of college, when he says “Kid, you can barely seal an envelope. What do you really want to do with your life?” I told him I wanted to be the second coming of Bill Murray but would settle for being a successful comedy writer. The Midnight Cowboy looked me in the eye and said “then write every day for the rest of your life.” And with that, I spent my last day scouring Voight’s storage room for reel 2B of “Anaconda.”

I started by writing stand up material for myself and sketch at the Second City Theater in LA. Voight even showed up to my set at The Improv and gave me a fist pound as I took the stage. By 2002, I landed writing gigs at VH1, Cartoon Network, and the prestigious naked news for Playboy TV. While pitching an animated show based on my stand up, I was hired to write animated webisodes for MSN.com in New York City in 04’. This led to a serendipitous interview at Saatchi and Saatchi in 05’, which I was sure was a sushi bar. Since I lacked actual ads in my book, a creative showed me a plethora of work from Miami Ad School.

In Spring of 06’, I quit my day job as a page at David Letterman and headed due south to Miami Ad School. In 2007, I took home a One Show Gold, Silver Clio and graduated in Spring of 08’, portfolio in hand. Since then I’ve scripted lines at New York agencies (Y&R, JWT, Chiat) for the likes of Combos, Skittles, Snickers, NHL, and Klondike Bar. I’ve come along way from the days of shredding Voight’s fan mail. I’m still writing every day and hope to see my ideas grace screens of all sizes. In the meantime, it’s time to get my next script in the hands of Spike Jonez, “Being Jon Voight.”

www.kentkoren.blogspot.com

Recent posts by KentKoren

• Generation Bud Bowl - February 10th, 2010
• Give it a Ponder - January 27th, 2010
• Tastes Like Ideas - January 13th, 2010
• Life in Times in Movies: A Decade of Flicks - January 4th, 2010
• The Wes Anderson Style Guide - December 2nd, 2009
• Street Cred - November 18th, 2009