Rising Stars: Meet Michael Zervos

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Zervos.

Hi Michael, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story. 
I’ve been in the film industry for over a decade, ever since I’ve been a working professional. I’ve worked with incredible talent and on a breadth of projects. All of that came to a grinding halt in 2020. Of course, the pandemic was a catalyst for a lot of things for a lot of people. 

For me, it brought me to the lowest I’d ever been in my life. 

Climbing out of that morass and finding happiness once again inspired me to combine things I personally wanted to accomplish, like visiting the countries of the world, with themes that I knew could help others. So many struggle with happiness. Finding it, holding it, losing it. I wanted to gather stories from people across the world that could inspire others. 

I think my career in filmmaking and storytelling has prepared me for this unique quest, both to find the right stories to share with my audience and to endure in a grueling race across the world. 

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I think the biggest struggle was communicating this crazy project of mine to my family. My family is close. Very close. I knew it would be hard for them, and I didn’t know how else to soften the blow that I would be gone for a year and a half in some of the most remote places in the world. 

Finding out a way in and out of every country in the world hasn’t been smooth, but you’re going to have to ask me once I get back from my trip. I might think this was the easy part. I’m just thankful I have great partners on this trip who know the world and its intricacies. 

Finding the right sponsors to support this trip was challenging, but I think that simply connecting to the right people was half of the battle. Once I did, many were amazed that I was attempting this, and gave me some time to hear my pitch. 

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
With more than twelve years of professional storytelling experience, I’ve led production on nine films, dozens of national branded commercials, and hundreds of digital videos. Some of the companies I’ve worked with include Activision Blizzard, Tyson, Google, Shinola, Pure Michigan, Ford Motor Co., Twitch, State Farm, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Philadelphia 76ers, Dallas Cowboys, Warner Brothers, and PepsiCo. I’ve has worked with such household names as Denzel Washington, Eminem, John Stossel, Karl Anthony Towns, Chris Paul, James Hardin, Barkhad Abdi, Kristen Stewart, and Corbin Bleu. At the age of 23, I was the youngest filmmaker in the state of Michigan to direct a tax credit-awarded feature film. 

I think it’s hard for me to be proud of anything about myself–that’s likely a character flaw I recognize about myself. I always seek to make myself better, and perhaps one day, I will have something I can truly admire that I’ve made. Perhaps it’ll be with Project Kosmos. 

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I think I had a beautiful childhood that, in many ways, I try to revisit thematically in my own work. I was always surrounded by family and friends who cared about me. As for me, I was a pretty difficult kid. A terrible student got into trouble and had a temper. I found school very boring and wished I was elsewhere frequently. My imagination and curiosity was my greatest strength and perhaps my road to the most consequential decisions in my life. 

I had so many interests as a boy. I wanted to be an entomologist before learning I wasn’t great in chemistry. I always had my nose in a book. This likely contributed to my terrible sense of directions growing up. I liked movies a lot, renting them all the time. Anything with stories really. I played a lot of video games that had narratives. Classical music, jazz, and classic rock I grew up with but then branched to a lot more music as I got older. 

Not only did I like stories, but I also liked telling them. My friends and I would have long, improvisational riffs on things we saw and did throughout our childhood, often causing us to break out in fits of laughter before trying to add on to the growing absurdities we built. 

I loved sports; the more physical the better. I was very aggressive, and I think I used them as a way to vent my frustration when I was young before I found creative outlets.

 

Contact Info:

• Website: Project-Kosmos.com
• Instagram: Theprojectkosmos
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mazervos/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectKosmos/featured