Today we’d like to introduce you to Sean Paul Garrett.
Sean Paul, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Oh man, I’m not sure that there’s anything brief about my story haha, but I’ll try my best.
Since a very young age I’ve either been in front of or behind a camera, being creative and entertaining people has always been something that brings me great joy. Luckily for me I had a mother that was very supportive of my ambition and fostered an environment where I was able to create and explore to my hearts content. My father Drew Hoag on the other hand was a very “play it safe” and “by the book” kind of person. Working as a professor of accounting and statistics at the University of St.Thomas he pushed me to pursue traditional learning paths just as he had, and was not interested in my creative projects.
I started making short films when I was about 11 years old using an old Hi-8 camcorder and iMovie thanks to the support of my godfather Randy Nelson, who was a member of ‘The Flying Karamazov Brothers’ and later went on to work at Pixar studios as a creative director. Randy was always very supportive of my creative endeavors, helping me develop my skills in filmmaking over the years. Hebeven screened a short film of mine at the Pixar Studios campus in California for his fellow employees. This lead to an exciting opportunity to develop my skills further by attending a summer filmmaking program at the prestigious California Institute of The Arts while in high school. I attribute a lot of my current success to his influence and mentorship.
I went on to win the Edina High School film festival in 2005 during my senior year with a very dramatic piece about the Nebraska mall shooting, which was very controversial. I then went on to study motion pictures and television with an emphasis on directing at the Academy of Art San Francisco after high school. While attending I became a founding member of the Pi Upsilon chapter of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, which was the first fraternity within the city limits of San Francisco, and developed a network of very creative and amazing people. However life had other plans for me and I ended up leaving school after only one semester.
After leaving school unexpectedly, life hit me with a few very rough patches and sent me on a long and arduous path before leading me to where I am today. I eventually went on to start my own successful 3D printing business where I specialized in creating props and replicas from pop culture. I was able to fully support myself financially with this business for over 4 years but unfortunately had to close the business due to a combination of my mother’s death and the COVID-19 pandemic. I was confident enough to pursue this first independent business venture thanks largely in part to the inspiration of my mother Kimberly Garrett who was an independent and successful business owner in her own career as a home birth midwife here in Minnesota. She even went as far as pushing for changes to local government policies to do so. I still remember sitting beneath the governor Jesse “The Body” Ventura’s desk playing with toys as a young child as he signed the bill into law legalizing the practice of home birth midwifery that my mother set into motion just so that she could pursue her dreams.
For the last few years I’ve worked in Functional QA as a video game tester on the Call of Duty franchise at the video game development company Activision in Eden Prairie. For a time I was also the very first Community and Social Impact Lead for the companies “Differing Abilities” employee network as a part of their DE&I initiative where I helped to develop a company wide support group for employees living with mental and physical disabilities. While the job was unique and I was able to work in a branch of our the entertainment industry that I love so deeply, the day to day work was very mundane and unchallenging. Hard work went without reward or acknowledgment, there was no room for creative expression, and eventually it became soul crushing after the companies acquisition by Microsoft in 2024.
I developed the concept for “The Common Legend” podcast in November of last year not only to reignite my passion for filmmaking but out of an almost spiritual need to create something that would have an actual positive impact on people’s lives. This podcast combines my love for filmmaking and my passion of helping people in one beautiful package.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Growing up I faced many challenges socially due to my undiagnosed mental health issues. I was always considered the “weird kid” and struggled to be accepted by my peers. It wasn’t until I joined the Jugheads youth juggling company that I finally found friends who were accepting of me.
My senior year of high school I discovered that my father was having an affair on my mother which eventually lead to their divorce. This had a huge impact on me as a young adult and sent me down a rocky path involving drugs and rebellion and I feel in with “the wrong crowd”. This would eventually become the reason that I dropped out of film school and stopped pursuing my dreams of becoming a filmmaker.
Many years later my mother was diagnosed with a very severe type of cancer that would eventually end up taking her life. This was extremely difficult for me to process and eventually lead to a mental health breakdown where I experienced my first manic episode at the age of 30 where I was formally diagnosed with Bipolar type 1, which I initially rejected. Due to various complications that came with this diagnosis it eventually lead to a divorce from my wife and the mother or my child after a 7 year relationship.
After our separation I had two other severe hyper-manic episodes almost a year a part from each other that were extremely traumatic and came with many financial and legal consequences. Luckily I was able to overcome those traumatic life events and they pushed me to seek the help I needed for my condition as well as inspired me to become very educated on mental health in general. I now have been living a stable and healthy life for over three years.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I created “The Common Legend” to give everyone a chance to publicly tell their story, not just the people that society deems noteworthy. I truly believe that we all have a story worth sharing and that doing so could even help to inspire and motivate others that may have experienced something similar.
I believe that our culture tends to focus on what divides us as people over highlighting what we all have in common. Many creators capitalize on this and will push to strengthen that divide for capital gains and attention. With this video podcast my intention is emphasize what we all have in common while still showing that our differences are what makes us beautiful.
While I’d love to eventually be able to support myself financially through this project, it’s not the goal. I’m just proud to be able to create something that resonates with people in a positive and impactful way.
However I am pursuing a more lucrative creative outlet using my own personal venues separate from The Common Legend, I truly believe my personality shines through in my content and has the potential to be very successful.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
Like, follow, comment and subscribe! Or whatever the kids are saying these days… You can support me or The Common Legend project by visiting our social media pages. There you can find links to fundraisers, merchandise, and contact information if you’re interested in collaborating!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/turb0scorpi0
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/turboscorpio/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/12C94H5GosD/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-garrett-6a9966284
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCommonLegend
