Film

Hollywood at Home

Actors and public figures recognized in the media from Alex's hometown of Syracuse, New York: Robert DeNiro (A Bronx Tale, Meet the Fockers), Tom Cruise (Mission Impossible, Top Gun, Rain Man, & Minority Report), Alec Baldwin (Beetlejuice), Rod Serling (The Twilight Zone), Siobhan Fallon Hogan (Men in Black), Tom Kenny (Spongebob Squarepants), Dylan Baker (Planes, Trains, & Automobiles and Spiderman 2 & 3), Jim Brown (Syracuse Football, Mars Attacks with Jack Nicholson and Natalie Portman & Running Man, featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger).

Actors and public figures recognized as having graduated from Syracuse University: Dick Clark (New Year's Eve ball drop), Megyn Kelly, David Muir, Bob Costas, Vanessa Williams,

When Alex was young, Alex had a friend that played James Bond video games with Alex after school. His father owned a Marvel comic book store in town that contained a ten foot tall Hulk figure. In adulthood, Alex witnessed Hulk star, actor Lou Ferrigno, come to town to film his first horror movie in Syracuse, called The Hermit.

In Verona, New York, one of Alex's hangouts at Turning Stone Casino, Tiger Woods and Brad Pitt are known to have played golf there, and Kelsey Grammer has marketed his beer brand there, called Faith American. Alex's sister had the good fortune of meeting Brad Pitt.

The hockey movie, "Slap Shot" (1977), starring Paul Newman, was filmed at the Onondaga County War Memorial, where Alex goes to cheer on the AHL Syracuse Crunch and walked the stage for high school graduation (affiliates...)

Alex has a family friend that, for many years, had a familiar and friendly relationship with Richard Gere. Alex, while on vacation in San Francisco in roughly 2021 saw Cindy Crawford riding an electric scooter down the street, presumably also on vacation.

Star Wars and Benjamin Burtt Jr. - sound engineer for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, is the son of Alex's father's chemistry professor while attending Syracuse University circa 1985. Burtt produced sound effects for the film for laser blasters, tie fighters, etc. Recordings of sound art were produced from hitting guy-wires in the Syracuse, New York area. While attending basketball and football games, Alex grew up jumping up and down between the support columns of the Carrier Dome, which are believed by many to have produced inspiration for laser blaster sound effects. Funny enough, in high school, roughly 2009, Alex was selected among fifteen students for a hospital shadowing program for those interested in working in the medical sciences that introduced Alex to laser beam technologies, much like the jedi lightsabers used in the film Star Wars. Alex has recognized a phenomenon that concepts movie goers often perceive as "fiction" often becomes reality in the future, as exhibited by the invention of the cell phone in Star Trek. Alex was granted an opportunity from hospital staff to cut an orange in half with it, and found that it works much like the bread-toasting knife technology teased in the film Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy in 2005.

The Express, 2008, film honoring the first African-American in history to win the Heisman trophy - Dennis Quaid and Chadwick Boseman. Alex was a student on the Syracuse University campus when they installed a football statue of football player Ernie Davis at the stadium, and recognized a Nike snafu sneaker detail in which the brands shoes were on display on a statue for a historical figure that lived in a time before the brands creation and inception. The Nike swoosh was ultimately removed from the statue for historical accuracy.

AV Zogg Middle School, where Alex once ran stairs, exercised with concept2 ergometers, and completed plyometric training for varsity rowing in the winter, was purchased by Yale University graduate Jeremy Garelick. Garelick established a new film studio called American High, dedicated to producing high school comedies aimed for distribution to Netflix, Hulu, etc. Garelick co-wrote and co-produced The Break-Up for Vince Vaughn, contributed to a rewrite of The Hangover (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis), The Wedding Ringer starring Kevin Hart, and Murder Mystery 2 (Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Holly Slept Over (Ron Livingston of Office Space), and Big Time Adolescence (Pete Davidson, Jon Cryer).

In 2012, while on vacation in Cannakale, Turkey, Alex stumbled upon and was invited to touch the trojan horse from Brad Pitt's feature film titled  Troy (2004). 

While Alex was a member of the Syracuse University NCAA Division I basketball team pep-band, Alex was included as an extra in filming of Adult World, featuring Emma Roberts and John Cusack. The movie was filmed on campus while Alex was a junior premed student. The scene was to be used in the film, but, did not make the director's cut of the film. This was Alex's first experience being in front of a director and film camera intended for producing feature film for the silver screen. In the opening scene of Adult World,in which Emma Roberts chats with her friend along the sidelines of the sports stadium, Alex and the pep-band were also filmed that day.

Roughly 2020, Alex saw an ad in the local news and auditioned for Garelick's Vince Vaughn film The Binge, along with 300 other locals that were eager to get a role. Alex was tasked with acting out a scene, was runner up for a speaking role, but did not get a part. The film's sequel, A Wonderful Binge, starred actor Danny Trejo.

While on vacation in New York City, and walking past Jane's Carousel and pebble beach, Alex had a chance to chat with the film crew of Celine Song's film titled Past Lives, starring Greta Lee. On that very trip, while sipping on coffee outside of a taping of Good Morning America (GMA), Alex saw Robin Roberts and Michael Strahan from the window. Alex was asked to be on the show, but politely declined the opportunity.

Alex appeared as an extra in a friend's production of action comedy Blind Cop 2, but the scene was not used in the film. While an absurd premise and plot not to be taken too seriously, Alex used this as a learning experience beside SAG-AFTRA actors Brandon DeSpain and George Fearing.