Jeremy Snead is the founder of Mediajuice Studios, an award-winning film and television production studio based in Dallas, TX. Jeremy has directed many commercials, video game trailers, short films & music videos for consumer products and game companies like Hasbro, Activision, Capcom and many more. Video Games: The Movie is Jeremy Snead’s first feature film.
Jeremy Shad Snead was born in Levelland, Texas, the son of Anita (Strickland) and Jim Snead. Snead grew up on a steady diet of Science Fiction films, animation and was an avid toy collector from a young age. “My dream from age 5 on was to work for Walt Disney” said Snead in a 2008 Dallas Morning News article. After a happy childhood with his four siblings, Snead graduated from Levelland High School and attended Amarillo Junior College. He quit after 2 days, stating “I could tell immediately that college wasn’t for me. I’ve always had ADD and knew that I could learn more by doing than sitting in a classroom.” And that is precisely what Snead did, becoming a successful entrepreneur at the age of 18. His startups included a cellular phone dealership in Amarillo, TX, a mortgage company in Lubbock, TX and his production company Mediajuice Studios now based in Dallas, TX.
On a short break after selling his Mortgage company Snead took a Licensing job at a company called FUNimation Entertainment, a Ft. Worth based entertainment company responsible for the Dragonball Z phenomenon in America. It was there in Fort Worth that Snead rediscovered his childhood love of animation, toys and video games. At FUNimation, Snead devoted himself to growing the toy, trading card and video game portion of the Dragonball Z franchise. In the early 2000’s he closed the biggest multi million dollar licensing deal the company had ever seen with new video game licensee Atari, Inc. He landed other successful licensees as well including Jakks Pacific Toys, Rubies Costumes and Score Trading Cards bringing in multiple millions for the company. Snead would also often sketch out new Dragonball Z VHS and DVD cover ideas in his spare time, which many times became the blueprint for the final covers. In a 2014 interview talking about his time at FUNimation Jeremy stated “Even though I was in the Licensing Department, I always wanted to venture around to the graphics department, Voice Over or Production departments and see what all the artists were doing. It fascinated me.”
After several successful Dragonball Z video game launches with Atari, including Dragonball Z: Budokai 1 & 2, Snead took a break from the business world. Hungry to scratch the creative itch he had since childhood, and having learned how to run a successful independent business, Snead was ready for a brand new venture. Mediajuice Studios was founded in 2004 by Snead, a creative agency that would focus on providing advertising and marketing content for video game and consumer products companies like Atari, Activision, Hasbro and Jakks Pacific. Mediajuice has served as Snead’s production HUB for his work as a commercial director and filmmaker.
Despite traveling the world, Snead remains close to his roots. In 2015, Texas Tech University invited Snead to give the opening TED talk at their annual TEDx event in recognition of his body of work. He also headlined as the key note speaker at a Louisiana State University screening of his film Video Games: The Movie and has been invited to be a panelist at San Diego Comic Con in 2013, 14′ and 15′.
Snead maintains a sense of humility and gratitude, even in the wake of his recent successes and recognition. He keeps himself grounded by spending time with his family and tinkering with his vast Toy collection, an enterprise he began during his time at FUNimation. He values authenticity, honesty and hard work, and strives to exhibit these qualities himself in an industry that all too often puts values elsewhere.
In addition to his work in film and television, Snead continues to cultivate his lifelong love of drawing, writing and exploring new forms of artistic expression.
