Guest Speaker | Grammy Award Winner - Andre Merritt | LIVE in The REINVENTION ROOM | Nov. 7, 2026 | 1:30pm PST | 4:30pm EST
Updated: 7 hours ago
I'm very excited to announce Grammy Award Winner - Andre Merritt will be joining us in THE REINVENTION ROOM, Sat., Nov. 7th, 2026; 1:30pm PST | 4:30pm EST.
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Andre takes me back to an absolutely magical time in my LA experience! I met Andre through a Producer that was mutual friends to us both. Back in 2008, Andre came into a TV commercial audition I was running, and he just had a fun, warm, charismatic personality... and that was the beginning... I didn't know at the time he was already a super successful songwriter. He had written one of my all time favorite hits, "Entourage" performed by Omarion. Now I was already a big fan of HBO's hit show "Entourage" at the time. And so Andre's song just hit different for me! Then I loved the song even more when I learned Andre wrote it.
It was an exciting time in our lives... I was a mainstay in Commercial Casting at this point, but I was trying to transition my career into a Commercial/Music Video Director. So that was probably the height of my casting grind at the time. And Andre and I were in a lot of intersecting circles.
While I was casting TV commercials for iconic brands like Adidas and Chrysler... [a few of my favorite projects I worked on are below]
... Or I was casting music videos for Beyonce, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Green Day, Calvin Harris & more... I was doing well for a single guy in my late 20's & early 30's... it seemed like everywhere I went someone recognized me from a casting studio... But Andre was operating in a whole 'nother' tax bracket!!...
He was a hit songwriter for Chris Brown, Rihanna, Omarion, Marques Houston, Cheryl Cole and many others... I was getting paid well enough for a days work... but he was making RESIDUAL INCOME!!! While I rented my own apartment in Koreatown... He OWNED his own luxury condo in the valley. I had a beautiful ivory-colored Chrysler 300... And he had a black Porsche SUV... [see... I thought I had it good... hanging around Andre I learned quickly why you shouldn't compare yourself to others... LOL]...
One night while filming shots for a series of commercials I was directing, for Monster Audio back in 2011/2012... I'm loading, or unloading camera equipment from Andre's trunk and I tried to close the hatch door manually... but it was TOUGH!! Andre quickly corrected me, "No!... Push the button!"... I had to admit I had no idea... I had never even seen that before... and I was definitely a little embarrassed... ehh first class problems!!... But I digress.
Andre was a bonafide star at this point... And no matter where we went... if I met up with him to go to a club, hoop on the b-ball court at the gym, recording sessions at the studio, heading out to eat, or a pool party/BBQ, or some type of music event... it always felt like we were in our own version of HBO's Entourage TV show!!... A Grammy Award Winning Songwriter... and a Hollywood Casting Director/Photographer... I had developed a solid Photography career so I was shooting photos of Hip-Hop/Rap artists for various Hip Hop Magazines... I was also shooting female models for beauty and mens magazines... We would go out with incredibly beautiful women... One of our main friends in the clique was Janeisha John (Miss Virgin Islands 2007 & 2011), and her sister [I mean they were cream of the crop!]... and various friends of theirs. [There's still some photos I shot of Janeisha on my coaching/consulting page carousel.] She was truly one of the coolest personalities I knew too... I was spoiled!... I was living life better than I could afford... thanks in part to Andre!
When I mentally travel back through time to this period with Andre, I was really living a Hollywood Dream in a lot of ways! Pursuing my passions with a super successful, eclectic, and creative group of friends. It was ELECTRIC!!...
And so now speaking of "Electric"... In preparing for this promotional article I found a couple old projects I worked on with Andre. When he released his Electrik City album.. I found a video I edited for him back in 2011 to play in the background of the club, at the release party back in the day.
Then I also found a video from a project below where I directed 3 or 4 commercials for Monster Audio... And Andre starred in one of those.
This commercial was shot by myself and my old friend Michael Greene (I affectionately refer to as Maaaaagic... we worked together a lot too)... Magic has since launched a movie directing career himself. His movie Clika was released earlier this year and is now available on Netflix.
So I'm really anxious to hear Andre's perspective on his life journey over the years... maybe he'll share his definition of what "success" means, or how his definition may have changed... maybe how the music business has changed, the pivots the business has forced him and other artists to make... what his perspective is now, looking back... and also what he sees looking forward.
Join us with Andre Merritt by entering THE REINVENTION ROOM. Nov 7, 2026 |1:30pm PST | 4:30pm EST.
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