Voices of the Bay: The Film and TV Path of Bristol’s Kyrik Cordeiro

"What am I doing here?” Bristol’s Kyrik Cordeiro remembers thinking to himself as he sat in a business class his freshman year at St. Michael’s College in Vermont. The Bristol native realized he didn’t want to end up with a degree in a subject he wasn’t remotely interested in, coupled with tuition debt. He transferred the following semester to Los Angeles Film School online. The class schedule allowed him to complete his assignments early in the week, leaving free days to obtain television production jobs. He graduated in June 2022 with a Bachelor of Science in Digital Filmmaking. His growing resume includes work with ABC’s The Bachelorette, History Channel’s Forged in Fire, ESPN’s McEnroe’s Places, and a range of large and small commercials and documentaries. The Mt. Hope High School class of 2018 graduate balances his production work with writing scripts while juggling hours at The Beehive and Stingy Alley.

ECON101: I attended college online, which saved me about $260K. By March of 2019, I was a production assistant (PA) on whatever was shooting locally. There’s a job board called Staff Me Up with a lot of quick three-day contracts. I had zero television experience. I applied to NZK Productions for a PA assistant job; I got a call and they were shooting The Bachelorette and I was like, “Oh, okay.”

Crew for Hire: I would apply for 15 jobs every day on Staff Me Up. More often than not if you are not one of the first three to apply you won’t get the job no matter your qualifications. I started setting notifications, and the minute a job was posted I would apply.

Name Recognition: I was doing a stand-in job for Netflix’s Snack Versus Chef. Before the shoot they often need people to stand in for the cast while they adjust the lights. I stood there all day. It paid $150 in Stamford, CT. I lost money in gas but I thought I might meet someone. I was talking with a production manager and he asked me to come back the next day and help out as a set design assistant. Three months later, I saw a job, applied, and a week later I got a text from that same production manager who recognized my name and offered me a job on Forged in Fire, which I worked on for the past two seasons.

High Stakes: I was a media manager/story producer. I would go to the contestant’s homes with the director and film them for a couple days. I take notes on all the footage for the editors to facilitate the process. It’s backed up and forwarded to five different places so it won’t get lost. It’s a high risk because if you screw up with corrupted or lost footage, it will cost them thousands of dollars and they’re not going to hire you again. It went well and they called me back.

Follow the Words: The longer I have worked, I have begun to develop this fear of becoming pigeonholed in production. My goal is to write and sell screenplays. I have written two feature films and a couple of pilots. I just started sending them to contests like Big Break sponsored by Final Draft. I usually write in the morning. My mom’s always in my ear: “I know the money’s great and you’re working a lot, but are you writing every day?” She’s unbelievably encouraging.