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Sammy Sardoza
Alum Sammy

For this “Alumni Spotlight," we will be landing in sunny Los Angeles, California to meet Sammy (Cinema '11). Before moving to the City of Angels and pursuing film, he worked various odd jobs including delivery driver, wedding DJ, school teacher, hand massager, and women's roller derby videographer.

Feeling unfulfilled with these jobs, Sammy enrolled at Minneapolis College in 2008 with a clear vision for his future; he had a passion for the film industry and wanted to make it his "9 to 5." Sammy earned an associate of arts in cinema, acquiring skills in producing, screenwriting, and directing. Throughout his college career and shortly after, Sammy built up a strong portfolio of short films, earning him showings and awards at local film festivals.  

Sammy made the leap to LA in 2014 to fully pursue his big dreams. He currently works at Deluxe Digital Cinema as a quality technician. This role is responsible for the dubbing, closed captioning, and other quality assurance measures taken before digital files are sent to theaters. He's worked on recent blockbusters like Wreck it Ralph and Aqua Man. 

That's not all though; Sammy has multiple side hustles. He was a writing fellow for The National Association of Latino Independent Producers and the National Hispanic Media Coalition. Most recently, he was a finalist for the Disney/ABC TV writing fellowship. This means he was in the top 28 out of over 2500 applicants! He's also a freelance writer for Parcast Network podcast shows including Haunted Places, Conspiracy Theories, and Assassinations. His episode of Conspiracy Theories (October 2018) landed on Apple Podcast's Best of 2018 list. 

Noticing he kept bumping into Minneapolis College alumni, Sammy started the Facebook group "MCTC Alumni in LA" in 2016. The group is now 36 members strong. They plan quarterly networking events and help each other navigate the highly competitive entertainment industry. We love seeing our alumni remain connected to their alma mater, despite it being thousands of miles away!