Jo is a vocal advocate for Independent TV modelled on his independent film experience. First up and available to the world markets is BTS (Behind The Scenes), a show about a show that’s been called “the indie version of The Studio.” That experience proved to be exhilarating and he continues to write, direct & produce more indie tv and seek out the stories and storytellers that love the craft as much as he does.

The most memorable day of Jo’s education was when a substitute teacher put on “The Making of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid”. He hadn’t even seen the actual film. He didn’t need to. Something in that behind-the-scenes glimpse at the machinery of movies lit a fuse that has never gone out.

His education began on set, not in a classroom. As a background performer on productions like “Sea of Love” and “The Dream Team”, he watched Al Pacino and Michael Keaton work at close range, studying craft the old-fashioned way — by paying attention. When the California sunshine made a compelling case against Canadian winters, Jo headed west and found himself on the stage of the Famous Comedy Store, sharing the room with Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Garry Shandling, Robin Williams, Andrew Dice Clay, and Jim Carrey. Before he’d shot a single frame of his own, he’d received an informal master class from some of the most gifted comic performers of the twentieth century.

His first professional screen credit delivered one of the more poetic ironies in a career full of them. Cast in Phil Alden Robinson’s Sneakers, Jo found himself on set with Robert Redford — the actual Sundance Kid, the man from the film that had started everything. Alongside Redford stood Sir Ben Kingsley, Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix, and James Earl Jones. It was, by any measure, a sign he was exactly where he was supposed to be.

Jo continued to sharpen his craft with renowned acting coaches Howard Fine, Charlie Laughton, and Ernie Lively in Los Angeles, and Joanne Gibson and Susan Scanlon in New York, while simultaneously developing his voice as a writer. That dual pursuit produced its first tangible result when he wrote and directed the short film Who’s Killing the Meter Maids?, starring Mariska Hargitay. The experience of bringing that film to life gave Jo a clear sense of what he wanted to build.

It led directly to the founding of Nichol Moon Entertainment and Arrival Entertainment, production services companies that became quiet engines of the independent film movement of the 1990s. Consulting on over 250 productions — including Doug Liman’s Swingers, along with features, shorts, docs, music videos, and PSAs — Jo and his partners helped an entire generation of filmmakers realize projects that might otherwise have never left the page. That era was capped by co-writing and producing Blink of an Eye, which took Best Feature at the New York Film & Video Festival.

In 2006, Jo co-founded Film Tiger with partners Arnold Rifkin and A-Mark Entertainment, shifting his focus toward financing and producing independent feature films. The company’s early slate included Timber Falls, Night Train, and Stag Night. Around the same time, Jo wrote, produced, and directed Going Thru A Thing — a film drawn from a personal place, inspired by his brother’s relationship with his daughter. The story of a small-time criminal who coaches his daughter’s basketball team to impress a judge, only to find himself genuinely changed by the experience, it remains one of the most personal works in his filmography.

He went on to co-write and produce Battle Drone, an action thriller exploring the future of warfare, and took on producing duties for Frat Pack; Billionaire, which claimed Best Comedy Feature at the Burbank International Film Festival; Escape the Field; and The Doorman, starring Ruby Rose and Jean Reno. Each project added another dimension to a producing career defined by range, creative instinct, and an ability to attract top-tier talent to material that matters.

In development, Jo is attached to Dreamboat, a classic romantic comedy, and White Flags (from his own book) a powerful family drama about the shattering aftermath of losing a son to a suicide bombing — two projects that illustrate the breadth of his storytelling instincts and his ongoing commitment to films that move people. Also in the TV world, several more series’s are in the works and will define the new era of television.

Behind the camera and away from the set, Jo has built an equally distinguished career as an international production executive. As Head of Production across major studio facilities in Budapest, Bucharest, and Sofia — and as a trusted advisor on EU and U.S. State Department-mandated state aid programs — he has operated at the intersection of creative ambition and institutional complexity for two decades, advising government bodies, bond companies, and financing entities on co-production structures, tax incentive frameworks, guild agreements, and production liability reform.