30 Mar Meet Katy Jo McGrath

At five years old, I wanted to be a ballerina. At ten years old, I wanted to be a forensic anthropologist. At fifteen years old, I wanted to be an actress. At 20 years old, I wanted to be a travel blogger. Today, I want to be everything I possibly can be.

My name is Katy Jo McGrath. I am 24 years old and want to achieve success in every aspect of film making in order to become the most well-rounded director of my time. As a Telecommunications graduate from the University of Florida (Go Gators!), I want to know everything there is to know about film making and won’t stop until I get to the top. I’ve lived in many places growing up, but decided to move to Atlanta on my own to pursue my film making dreams.

When I was in college, I constantly found myself asking myself: “What do I really want to do after I graduate?” and “What truly makes me tick?” I started out my college career as a journalism major that wanted to travel the world and take photos, using the internet as my diary and the world as my audience. But after a few semesters, I realized that wasn’t enough for me. I needed more—more excitement, more energy, more chaos. Thinking about my future turned from an enlightening daydream into a chore. I thought, “What job out there will let my creative mind shine, but that’s also challenging and energetic and fun at the same time?” That’s when it hit me. I knew right then and there that film directing was the career for me.

As a kid, I watched the home videos my father loved producing. I grew up in front of a camera and behind a computer screen, watching my father move the cursor from one clip of footage to another dragging and dropping, cutting and pasting. My sister and I used to put on concerts for my dad to film and turn into the next hit music video of the year. We loved creating and storytelling and making people laugh. Looking back, I realize that I always loved to entertain and that working in the film industry is always what I was truly cut out for.

Through this internship at Third Rail Studios, I want to absorb as much knowledge as I can to help me start creating content that inspires people to make a difference. I want to tell stories that make people think deeper than the visuals themselves. This is how I see the world—as visuals, as stories, as beginnings, middles, and ends. I want to provoke thought, enable creativity, and elicit change to make the world a better, more loving and accepting place to live.