Mario Jerez is a director, writer, and youth mentor. He has a background in martial arts and currently holds a 2nd degree karate black belt. Throughout that experience, it helped him to develop: personal growth, understanding discipline, focus, and determination for his passion for filmmaking. In 2016, he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Digital Filmmaking & Video Production from The Art Institute of California – San Francisco.For the past several years, He has spent a lot of time mentoring youth through karate, ministry, and in video production. Recently, he was afforded the opportunity to being a teacher's assistant to 11-17 year olds at BAYCAT, while introducing them to the process of pre-production and post-production. Throughout this involvement, he benefited an enormous amount of satisfaction in mentoring youth and discovered a passion for teaching. His goal is to be a film teacher to teenagers in order to help them develop a passion for filmmaking. Lastly he continues to write screenplays that focus on coming of age and self transformation.