Biagio Messina is an American television producer, director,

showrunner A showrunner is the top-level executive producer of a television series. The position outranks other creative and management personnel, including episode directors, in contrast to feature films, in which the director has creative control over th ...

, filmmaker, and actor.

Background

His hometown is

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. Messina graduated from Parma Senior High School, 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.

Career

He played the role of Marc Cram on the

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

sitcom '' Kenan & Kel''. 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, Film ...

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

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

reality TV series ''Scream Queens'', the

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

documentary series ''Caged'',

The CW The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...

reality show '' Beauty and the Geek'', and the MTV ''

True Life ''True Life'' is an American Television documentary, documentary television series that aired on MTV from March 31, 1998 to June 21, 2017. Each episode follows a particular topic, such as heroin addiction as in the first episode – "Fatal Dose". ...

'' ''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'' 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

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Messina, Biagio Living people American television directors American television producers American documentary filmmakers American reality television producers Filmmakers from Cleveland American showrunners Year of birth missing (living people)