The PERSON BEHIND IT
Back Story
Failed childhood actor. Corporate survivor. Career pivot.
- Ron Burgundy
"I'm kind of a big deal."
Like a lot of kids who grew up in LA, I caught in acting bug early. Unfortunately, I never made it big. A few impressive almosts. No big Hollywood ending - but back when "the cutting room floor" was a real, physical place, I at least made it that far.
- Red Forman
"Welcome to adulthood. It's disappointing"
Like a lot of kids who grew up in LA, I caught in acting bug early. Unfortunately, I never made it big. A few impressive almosts. No big Hollywood ending - but back when "the cutting room floor" was a real, physical place, I at least made it that far.
- Milton Waddams
"Excuse me. I believe you have my stapler"
I majored in practicality and marched off into Corporate America. Twenty-five years later I found myself laid-off, like some many these days. Those two decades taught me how to read a room, communicate the thing that nobody wanted to say and have empathy for folks. Turns out I leaned heavily on my former acting chops. I was not afraid to get in front of a group of people, in fact I thrived on it.
ACT TWO
"You talking to me?"
- TRAVIS BICKLE
"Then fate came knocking"
An acquaintance once told me a true story so bizarre, so surreal, that I could not shake it. Something about it lodged itself deep in my brain and refused to leave. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it wasn’t just funny — it was painfully human.
I’ve always believed there’s a little bit of Seinfeld hidden in everyday life. Those strange, awkward, ridiculous moments that reveal who we really are. The tiny social disasters. The contradictions. The absurdity of being human. If you pay attention long enough, life eventually becomes comedy.
So I started building.
At first, I was chasing the humor. I kept imagining all the uncomfortable, chaotic, deeply funny situations I could throw this character into. There was endless material in the mundane. But the deeper I dug, the more I realized I was asking the wrong question.
The real question wasn’t:
“What ridiculous thing happens next?”
It was:
“How did this guy become this guy?”
That changed everything.
Suddenly the comedy wasn’t the story anymore. It was the scar tissue. The coping mechanism. The by-product of a life that had gone spectacularly sideways.
From that, HaPpY was born.
A story about flawed, messy, beautifully broken people trying to survive themselves. Not polished heroes. Not tidy redemption arcs. Just raw humanity stripped to the bone — funny, painful, absurd, selfish, loving, cruel, hopeful, and deeply recognizable.
Because if the show works the way I hope it does, somewhere along the way you stop laughing at the characters…
…and realize you’ve been laughing at yourself the whole time.
"I didn't start developing HaPpY because I had nothing better to do. I started it because I couldn't find it anywhere else."
Latest - RAD attended SeriesFest 2026. HaPpY mini pilot script finalized. Pre-production planning underway.