Biagio Messina is an American television producer, director,

showrunner A showrunner (or colloquially a helmer) is the top-level executive producer of a television series production who has creative and management authority through combining the responsibilities of employer and, in comedy or dramas, typically also the ...

, filmmaker, and actor.

Background

His hometown is

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

. Messina graduated from

Parma Senior High School Parma Senior High School (alternatively known as PSH or Parma High School), is one of three public high schools in the Parma City School District in Parma, Ohio. The school is a member of the Northeast Ohio Conference. The Parma Board of Educati ...

, which is located near Cleveland, Ohio. While still in high school, he wrote the play ''Me and Grandma.'' It won the ''Marilyn Bianci Young Playwrights Festival'' and was produced at

Dobama Theater Dobama Theatre is located in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1959 by Donald and Marilyn Bianchi, Barry Silverman, and Mark Silverberg. The name Dobama was created from the first two letters of each man's name. The first ...

Career

He played the role of Marc Cram on the

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

sitcom ''

Kenan & Kel ''Kenan & Kel'' is an American buddy comedy sitcom created by Kim Bass. The show originally aired on the Nickelodeon network for four seasons, from July 15, 1996, to July 15, 2000. Set in Chicago, Illinois, the series follows mischievous Kenan ...

''. His filmmaking credits include the feature-length, theatrically released documentary '' Dying to do Letterman'', which was invited by the

International Documentary Association International Documentary Association (IDA), founded in 1982, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) that promotes nonfiction filmmakers, and is dedicated to increasing public awareness for the documentary genre. Their major program areas are: Advocacy, Filmm ...

to qualify for Academy Award consideration. Messina's television producing credits include the

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism of Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network based in New York City and owned by Paramount Global. It was created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Commun ...

reality TV series ''Scream Queens'', the MTV documentary series ''Caged'',

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

reality show '' Beauty and the Geek'', and the MTV '' True Life'' ''Presents'' documentary ''Secrets, Lies, and Sex''. Messina has produced and contributed to over one-hundred hours of TV and film. He later made a feature film based on the play. The film was funded with money he won on a gameshow called ''Majority Rules.'' Messina wrote, directed, and acted in the screen-adaptation of the play, which was produced in conjunction with future wife Fincioen. While that film did not achieve major distribution, the work helped him land the role of Marc Cram on ''Kenan & Kel''. He continued producing and directing TV and film. According to the book ''

Small Screen, Big Picture ''Small Screen, Big Picture: A Writer's Guide to the TV Business'' is a nonfiction book about the entertainment business written by Chad Gervich. It covers the process of entering the TV writing profession and earning a living as a TV writer. It ...

'' by Chad Gervich'','' Messina has made "countless hours of television for both broadcast and cable networks."

Personal life

He is married to Joke Fincioen, his wife and business partner. Together they own and run the TV and film production company Joke Productions. The married team collaborates on their film and TV productions. They also podcast and blog about the entertainment industry. They are known professionally and often credited as Joke and Biagio.

References

External links

* Living people American television directors American television producers American documentary filmmakers American reality television producers Showrunners Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-film-director-stub