Roger Young

Roger Young grew up on his Grandfather's farm, and in the town of Mahomet, Illinois. Population 850. At age thirteen he moved to the big town of Bloomington, Illinois, where he learned to play pool, compete on the swim team, and circle the Steak-n-Shake in his buddy's '57 Chevy. After high school he went to the University of Illinois, where he almost flunked out the first year. By his junior year he was on the Dean's List with straight A's, in the school of Journalism. Working his way through school meant working in a donut shop, selling shoes, corn de-tasseler, and finally stage manager at the local PBS station. That led to directing news shows. Then producing and directing an early morning talk show on the CBS channel in Champaign. After graduating from U of I, he spent a year in the sales department at the CBS affiliate while working toward his master's degree. Hated sales ! Hated sales !! Moved to Indianapolis to direct the 5:30am Farm News show at the NBC affiliate. Then news shows, documentaries for Time/Life, and a variety show. Chicago called. Producer of commercials for Foote, Cone & Belding Advertising. Then moved to directing commercials for a production company. And finally forming his own production company shooting Ford, Sears, Hallmark, and Johnson Wax commercials, among others. When a friend told him to give Hollywood a try, Roger got an apartment in Los Feliz, and shuttled back and forth between LAX and ORD. After four months he was hired to be the Associate Producer on a MOW. Then Associate Producer on "Lou Grant", the CBS series starring Ed Asner. There he was overseeing editing and spending a lot of time on the set. This was a graduate education in every phase of making a film. In the second year of the show Executive Producer Gene Reynolds gave Roger a shot at directing an episode. A few episodes later he won the DGA award and the Emmy for one of his episodes. Soon he was shooting films for television, and pilots. Later he moved on to mini-series, which has been the joy of his career, winning two more DGA awards, and working all over the world.