Film Courage: What do you think about the term starving artist?
Khoa Le, Entrepreneur and Filmmaker: What do I think about it? I think every creative is going to go through adversity and not have any way to sustain themselves, that’s how I think about it. That a starving artist is someone that’s so passionate about what they are doing that they’re willing to do everything they can to make that art form work and they’re willing to die for it. That’s how I think about it.
Film Courage: Have you seen this in yourself?
Khoa: Oh yeah, for me I was 19 years old when I hurt my arm from baseball. I decided to go into music. I worked a nine-to-five job. Really it was a nine-to-seven job, that’s what I felt like to me. From eight o’clock to four o’clock and five o’clock in the morning I’m making music, I’m producing the record, writing a song and figuring out how to engineer it to make the best sound, seven days a week. My vacations were all about the music and I would always fund my music through the job that I had. I’m not a starving artist because I had a job, but I killed myself to be the best I can be in doing it. Now I look at me being really lucky to have had a corporate job where I could do that and had the flexibility. I look at artists that don’t have that capability. They don’t have the technology background, they’re just not wired that way. They are extremely creative, extremely talented (music, art, whatever it is) and they can’t function any other way…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
Khoa Le is a successful entrepreneur and professional filmmaker with a track record of producing successful films, commercials, and corporate branding projects. He has directed and co-executive produced the feature film “Walt Before Mickey,” which was distributed globally and released on platforms such as Netflix and Amazon. In addition, Khoa directed the #1 hit Bahamian TV show “BTC Starmaker Season 5” and a TV pilot for the NY Yankees called “The Tryout.” In the 2016-2018 period, Khoa served as the co-executive and co-director, as well as an executive producer and producer, for the upcoming movie “Ice Ice Baby” about Vanilla Ice and “Behind His Guitar” about Jose Feliciano. In 2021, Khoa directed the live-action business film “Bezos” about Jeff Bezos.
Khoa is the CEO and founder of several companies, including Kvibe Studios, Live Picture Studios, and Sutudu. In 2014, he was recognized as the fastest growing business in the Tri-state area by the SBDC and SBA. He currently employs over 100 people and owns an 8000 sq ft studio in Jersey City, NJ, located near Manhattan. His businesses have experienced significant growth, with revenues increasing by more than 50% each year. This success has earned him recognition from the USPAACC, the largest Asian Chambers of Commerce in the U.S., which invited him to join and travel internationally with other businesses to strategize further growth. Khoa was also a recipient of the “Fast 100” award from the USPAACC in 2018-2021.
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