Meet Miguel Berg | 1st Gen Colombian Development Executive and Triathlete

We had the good fortune of connecting with Miguel Berg and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Miguel, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Having studied Mechanical Engineering, I was raised with a mindset that risk is a pathway to reward, even if that reward is a lesson from failure. We cannot be afraid to fail nor shy away from opportunities in our present simply because it’s too risky.

Risk is opportunity, whether it’s with a dream to send rockets to space, making a film, creating a new company, or taking that leap of faith with a new role. Risk is a compass sometimes, whether we realize it or not, guiding our values, talents, and ability to evolve. It can be an awesome tool for shaping our daily lives, if we’re open to the lesson(s) and knowledge we gain by fearlessly accepting the challenge, believing in ourselves, and ultimately being vulnerable, but wise to welcome the potential failure(s) that may come with it.

A short time after the Great Recession, I was told by an interim manager at the local NBC news affiliate in Myrtle Beach, to be “more mediocre with my work” after elevating the cinematic caliber of those all too often pesky, cliché local commercials and – to add insult to injury – on the same day I helped our sales team close a multi-thousand dollar deal for a major marketing campaign off my specific experience working for the Travel Channel, where I earned my first Telly awards. My confidence was shot because there I was trying to create the best product for our company and, yet, was being torn down by my supervisor. I didn’t know what to do, especially because they had also fired my hiring manager. My days at that company were marked and the stress / anxiety through the roof, especially as a soon-to-be father.

Despite that low, I revisited a plan I had for an international film festival. I did the Millennial thing and moved in with my parents, in deep Northwest of South Carolina, where you could hear the banjoes play, and took on a newspaper route. For over a year and a half, I delivered newspapers from midnight to 7:00am 6 days a week, streamlined my route and because I’m a nerd, ended up increasing my customer base by 40%. Once my route was done, I’d drive 1 hour each way to and from home to Greenville, SC to speak with vendors, businesses, city and community leaders, all with a vision to bring the cinematic art to a marginalized area at a time when the state (then under current Presidential Candidate Nikki Haley) wanted to sunset the state’s film incentives and reduce arts education to children.

I took a risk, an opportunity, to see a broader, bigger vision for my community and industry with an idea – no industry ties, no nepotistic connections, certainly no trust fund nor major backing. In fact, certain community business leaders commented to the effect that they couldn’t believe a Latino had come up with this idea – an idea, that ultimately united over 70+ countries across two editions, created learning opportunities and scholarships for high school students, and even with my signature, helped lobby successfully for saving union, IATSE, jobs in our industry.

This “risk” reaped many rewards through that journey that, while I didn’t fully realize it then, helped me gain a sense of my creative development abilities to identify great stories, inspiring diverse emerging talent globally, and ultimately become connected with my now alma mater, Chapman University, where I earned my MFA in Film & Television Producing and brought me closer to Hollywood, since I didn’t have the financial means at that time.

Often, risk is also a guide towards the unknown and that unknown challenges us at every level – physically, emotionally, spiritually. In 2019, on the sands of Zuma beach, I became a triathlete thanks to a very good friend who inspired me to conquer my doubts. I learned that year, as I have in years since, that my resilience is my ultimately superpower. When my resilience meets risk, I’m unstoppable. I had never done a triathlon before, but there I was as a new member of the Warner Bros. Triathlon and TriLife Team and became not only the 2nd highest fundraiser for WB, but eventually a 3x USA Triathlon National Championship Qualifier and 2x finisher. (Injury on the last one, unfortunately, but I’m swimming, cycling, and running again). When you surround yourself with positivity, you conquer and often see that risk is a pathway to that success. However, when you lack that foundation, the failure can be devastating. It’s in that moment, that you must realize your own resilience to get back up and swim again.

That said, during the pandemic, I took a risk leaving my role working in Development and Production at Warner Bros. Television after 4 years to become the Head of Development for a somewhat “notable” producer – pun intended. Initially, I had a vision for the true change I could bring to the industry – providing opportunities, taking risks on emerging, diverse voices and stories – and while I still carry my vision, without much agency, proper support, and true leadership, the role didn’t work out in the end. I’ve spent the last year recovering from this “failure” to recognize my needs in an effective work environment, listening to myself and what traits to look for in a boss and my immediate team.

One overall lesson from this experience is the type of leader I am in this industry: I lead with empathy and consider failure a badge of honor, because without its lessons there is no success. Even though things didn’t work out, I amplified my network of talent, agents, managers, and trustworthy industry colleagues, whom I admire, learn from and respect to this day. I also managed to help develop several projects, one that ultimately was set up at a major studio and even my creativity helped sell a project for over $1M. Having once been told, I “wasn’t major leagues enough”, after working for 3 major studios and these examples of successes over the span of my 15+ year adventure into Hollywood, I now know that it means: I don’t fear risk and look for the opportunity and good in others when many, especially in this industry, don’t see it themselves. That’s why we need champions.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
They say in Hollywood, it’s “who you know”; for me, it’s not who you know, it’s how you know them. I didn’t know anyone at the beginning and if anything, I was terrified about changing my major and focus on engineering to something more creative. It was my late grandfather, Bengt Berg who walked with me and told me to go for it – think BIG! And because of my Colombian roots, I never forget where I came from.

I took a chance at Discovery’s Travel Channel Academy, a 3 day bootcamp where I learned how to apply the style guide for producing, shooting, directing, and editing under my first industry mentor, Michael Rosenblum – the founder of Current TV. (Discovery was about 2 years ahead of the times as they were trying to democratize production and were rather innovative in their process, but then came a genius with a gadget that revolutionized and did that with an iPhone, while we were still shooting on MiniDV tapes.) Both Michael and Pat Younge, Travel Channel’s then President, saw my talent during the bootcamp and later I was invited to become a Segment Producer for America’s Scariest Halloween Attractions 2 where I was assigned to cover a 60-acre Christmas tree farm turned Halloween horror maze in North Carolina – at night, and on MiniDV tapes. Execution had to be perfect and to do it without prep was rather a challenge, but that earned me my first Telly Award in broadcasting. My senior producers were incredibly supportive and I remember feeling overjoyed when I was able to come back to them with some accolades.

During those early years, I faced much adversity, however – early on, for example, I was discriminated from access to Hollywood internships by some professors at the University of South Carolina, despite doing my best to create a better media arts program with creative opportunities that gave everyone in my class a chance to explore their strengths and enhance their curiosities.

One particular moment was when one of my classmates, used my project to selfishly think about his own future alone, going so far as to wait until I graduated to then attempt to use our alma mater’s legal resources against me, for a project I financed and created. He even went out of his way to switch physical screeners with the sole purpose of humiliating me at film festivals – you don’t quite expect a rap music video to be spliced into a dramatic piece ten minutes into your screening. To add insult to injury, I was always trying to think ahead like a producer and asked everyone in our production to capture their POV for marketing later. As I later scrubbed through the footage, I heard my fellow classmates on tape call me racial slurs like “dirty Mexican” as I directed my actors. Naturally, my undergrad graduation was rather traumatic as you don’t expect your alma mater to embattle you with an entertainment lawsuit straight out of graduation at the behest of something productive that ultimately did pick up some awards. But that moment, changed my perspective on life as the stress of this moment, nearly ended my life in 2008. I didn’t give up, however, and kept going. For that director and his friends, their privilege opened doors that eventually landed them in the industry, while I had to make my own. Since then, the University of South Carolina, sent an envoy on behalf of the Dean to formally apologize and assure me, that I had been correct the entire time – the rights to film belonged to me. Better late than never, I suppose.

Simultaneously, the Great Recession had hit a month after my graduation so finding my way to Hollywood became almost impossible as well and all I had was an idea and a feeling that’s where I needed to be. I recall the same feeling looking from afar and even walking the sets of this rather inspiring filmmaker who happened to be in town making his movie, Death Sentence (Shout out to Mr. James Wan!) or that moment hanging out with Paul Reubens, Kurt Fuller, and James Marsden at the wrap party of The Nail – later known as Accidental Love.

I didn’t know how I would get to Hollywood from South Carolina, so I kept making films and building on my entrepreneurial curiosity. One of the proudest moments was being able to create my own production company and being invited as one of 32 international producers to the First Audiovisual Business Conference in Bogota, Colombia where I was able to partake in the discussion with President Alvaro Uribe Velez for generating new opportunities with international markets and advocate for the creation of the Colombian tax incentives, that are commonplace within the industry today. I wasn’t part of any studio back then, all I was armed with was a vision for creating opportunities for the next generation of Hollywood. While that moment was a triumph during the day, what people didn’t know was that invitation allowed me to spend time by my grandfather Jose’s bedside during his final days.

Life and careers have a natural balance. You can be on top one day and in despair the next. But overall, these are the experiences that help build our perspective and strengthen our resolve. I learned my power in making an impact across boundaries and who really was with me in those moments of doubt and despair. Those of you know who you are and I’m grateful for them.

There are echoes of this lesson throughout my graduate days at Chapman University and later as I continue to build my professional career. Afterall, it’s hard enough for anyone, let alone a 1st-Gen Latino, to not only start film school once, but twice. Or similarly, be part of a sudden restructure at an “inclusive” company and be asked to take a pay cut, title demotion, and pay your own benefits in order to “stay on” – (#inclusionillusion).

According to the UCLA Inclusion report of 2020, less than 2.1% of tv execs and less than 1.8% of film execs are Latino (even less today), while talent like mine has the potential to generate $12-18 Billion (src: McKinsey & Company) adding to the overall $3.4 Trillion US GDP that my community already contributes. It’s baffling why some of these corporate elite senior leaders and particularly the major studios lack the vision and the courage to innovate and actually hire into the development suites. It’s as though they don’t like to make money, I suppose.

You see the headlines, you read the reports. And I have the receipts.

Some didn’t believe in me to land that studio internship either, but the champion recruiters (Shout out to Kyle Clark, Ricardo Sanchez, Caitlin Wright) at NBC Universal saw my abilities and kept putting me up for different departments, even after telling some of the talented journalists at Telemundo 52 that they were asking “stupid questions” during a 2 hour interview rotating 5 different execs who all kept asking, “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” (Sometimes my Jersey honesty comes through.) I didn’t land that one, as you can guess and as I sat outside the Brokaw center accepting my fate, a security guard walked over to me and reassured me that he had a feeling I was going to land back on the NBC lot. He was right. (Shout out to Studio Security Guards!)

Ironically, it was my 10-minute interview with Helen Cariou and Ivano Leoncavallo, two really amazing marketing executives and their teams that made me feel at home so I could get my start in TV. There was no other feeling like attending the Emmys rehearsal and pretending to be Aaron Paul that year. (I later did run into Aaron Paul at during my time at Universal TV though I didn’t let him know. He was chill.)

A great boss / team can lead to innovative approaches to unique problems, while toxic bosses can destroy worlds, ideas, morale and even revenue. Those leaders are the ones this industry needs desperately. Those that go to bat for you, even when you fail.

Over the years and to this day, I’m still navigating, but I’ve learned to pick up on who is a champion versus who is a destroyer, and often with much sacrifice. I never cried so much being on food stamps and learning I landed a job at Warner Bros, only to be told by a former Director of the WBTV Workshop a couple months later that I would be the “bump on the road to their success” when I was trying to bring in inclusive talent to the table. If anyone had a bumpy road, it was my diligence in commuting 6-9 hours daily from Irvine to Burbank daily. Funny enough, one of those “bumpy” writers I wanted to bring forward ended being staffed on a major Netflix hit that summer, where he earned his 4-season run. after I gave him some notes. Warner Bros. lost out to his talent in a similar way my former company lost out on a “too pedestrian” project that just won Sundance. To quote one of my best bosses, Chris Mack, “Have empathy.” (He also gifted me my first triathlon bike after moving to Netflix.) He was right and leaders like him are a rarity.

From Colombia to the news station, to building an international film festival, to film school, and then the studios and now, my journey has always yielded an abundance of mystery and duality of between the great and the not-so-great. I think we sometimes forget the further we get into our careers, how some truly, seemingly trivial moments can make such an impact for better or for worse. It’s really easy to give up and let the destroyers win, but it’s more rewarding when you see those you’ve championed and even yourself WIN!

My resilience, creativity, strategy, and empathy are my superpowers and now I’m ready for that next chapter of the story. I only hope I encounter more heroes than villains on the next round. I’m currently producing several projects that champion not only my community but our industry in a positive way. Having worked on shows like Special (Netflix) and Two Sentence Horror Stories (CW / Netflix), I’m a bit of a genre nerd and am excited about my upcoming grounded sci-fi thriller television series, Aurora, with my writing partner and friend Leon Langford as well as a female driven queer-Latin thriller in the vein of Sunset Blvd meets Fire Island, called What Ever Happened to Rosa Elena. (Shout out to the Rosa Elena team).

No matter whom I’ve met or the projects I’ve worked on, I’ve strived to leave people and ideas better than how I found them, because it’s also that “how” that people remember. Be nice to people. That’s the lesson.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Well I don’t shy from adventure, discovery, and going to places that lead to new perspectives. There’s nothing like taking a stroll through the Japanese Gardens at the Huntington Gardens on Monday, going for a hike in the Los Angeles National Forest at Switzer Falls on Tuesday. Wednesday hitting up The Alcove in Los Feliz for its natural eclectic spirit over a Latte and later taking the escalator up into The Broad or going down Angel’s Flight, just in time for some drinks at Electric Owl. Thursday would be a west side adventure with lunch at Eataly in Century City for the best Fettucine Al Burro Di Tartufo e Parmigiano ever along with some of the most rare and best rare Maracuya (Passion Fruit) Gelato. Later, a visit to Rocco’s in West Hollywood would burn off the calories while getting to hang with some of the best and beautiful people in town. Friday would be a venture to El Paisa in Long Beach for literally the best Colombian food in the entire area. (Shout out to Melvin at El Paisa) No joke, the hospitality and food is as close as I’ll get to “home”. No trip would be complete without an LAFC futbol game to see some Colombian stars play that night – Que Viva Colombia! And the weekend, it’s time for some Hollywood history at the Academy Museum during the day, reggaeton and salsa at the Sudamericana rooftop party downtown at night and a trip to Zuma Beach to open water swim with dolphins in the morning and ride along the PCH. Tired yet? Keep up. I promise it’s memorable!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I love to dedicate my shoutout to my loving partner, Isabel, and daughter Hannah. who have been with me through every step of this journey into Hollywood and provide me with the inspiration to laugh at myself in the face of much adversity.

Also to the late legendary, veteran agent Harry J. Ufland whose final lesson to me before his passing was to “be bold”.

And to real friends in my life, who have helped lift me up when I was down and haven’t forgotten where they came from. You are my champions!

Lastly, to anyone reading this who needs a light of hope, remember that the dimmest stars shine brighter and longer across the universe. Shine bright!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miguelb3rg/

Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/miguelberg

Twitter: https://twitter.com/miguelberg