Biography
Michael Rose
What do you do? I am a producer based in LA. From when I graduated in 2013 until the end of 2022, I worked in BuzzFeed’s video department and produced over 250 videos across its multiple channels and platforms. Highlights include my celebrity videos “BTS Plays With Puppies” and “Emma Watson Plays With Kittens,” with a collective 80 million views. I co-created the plus size travel fashion series “The Empty Suitcase Show,” which received an 8 episode order from Facebook Watch. My video work has been featured in publications such as HuffPost, Adweek, Upworthy, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and Entertainment Weekly.
How did the GNSS concentration shape your career? GNSS has informed the lens through which I’ve approached video production during my entire post-Brown career. At BuzzFeed, I was the first openly queer producer hired in the video department, and pushed to produce as many videos related to LGBTQ topics as possible (including “Coming Out To Immigrant Parents,” “Journeys Through Trans Masculinity,” and “15 Bisexual Girl Problems”). I produced dozens of videos with strong feminist commentary about gender roles (including “If Women’s Roles In Ads In Were Played By Men,” “Childhood Gender Roles In Adult Life,” and “What It’s Like To Be A Woman At Night”). GNSS taught me how to think critically and interrogate norms, and strongly kindled a passion for putting queer voices and stories to the forefront. I’m currently producing my first feature film, a heartfelt gay comedy set at a clothing-optional resort in Palm Springs, in which I’m Trojan-horsing deeper themes of how capitalism and patriarchy make easy weapons of body shaming and sexual frustration.