JJ O’Hearn

My name is Jarrett J. O’Hearn, but I go by JJ, and I was born on March 23rd, 1992 in Louisville, Kentucky. I grew up in Louisville with my grandparents. In third grade, I discovered my passion for writing after I had to write a book for class. The project was only supposed to be a couple of pages long and I, however, found myself surpassing the minimum requirement by more than a couple of pages. Throughout elementary school, I surrounded myself with various novels and entering many different worlds. He enjoyed works by authors such as J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkein, D.J. MacHale, Christopher Paolini, Gary Paulson, and Brian Jacques. I was drawn more and more to creating worlds of my own, where I could explore and discover my true self. I continued reading throughout middle and high school as well. In 2006 during study hall at duPont Manual High School, I began writing a novel of my own. Originally titled Azdar Kendura, The Dragon Guardians: A New Generation is meant to involve elements from many of my favorite authors as well as delving into issues such as succession, family, sexuality, and confidence in oneself. I completed the novel in 2009 and went through a period of revision where I actually nearly rewrote the entire story in a different way. Finally after three years of revision I completed the novel in 2012. I tried to get publishers to publish the novel; however no one decided to pick it up. In the end, I went ahead and put the story online so that readers can see the work online. Later in 2012, life threw me curve balls. I ended up dropping out of college in fall 2012 and focused on working instead. In 2014 after my grandmother, I decided to try and return to school again, this time deciding to go after a certificate in filmmaking at Bluegrass Community and Technical College (BCTC) in Lexington, Kentucky. It was there that I found a new passion, a passion for being a part of films and wanting to act. The final project for my first semester at BCTC was to create a trailer for a film. Instead of stopping at creating the trailer, I decided to actually go ahead and complete his first film, Ukeire. Being it my first film and the fact that all the actors were volunteers, most with little experience, it was an all to all eye-opening experience for me. Though the final project wasn’t what I expected it was still a push forward for my filmmaking career. In the same year I decided to found Emerald Shamrock Studios, a studios that will house my films and my photography works. Two years later, I released my second film entitled, Musical Madness, which was actually a revised script that I had written for a humanities class when I was in high school. Musical Madness was a massive improvement over my first film; however, it still wasn't exactly what I was looking for. It was another positive step for me. From writing and filmmaking, I discovered the passion in being a part of different worlds and meeting new characters that help me to show my passion not only to myself, but to others as well.