Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Weissbrod.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started off as a teenage actor in Hollywood. Working on commercials, tv shows, and film and hustling in and out of auditions, and driving around town trying to make my mark in this tough industry. In college, I got my BA in Directing and Acting at Cal State Long Beach. After college, I continued to work in the Entertainment industry doing every job possible to learn about the business. I booked some great roles on tv shows and films like iCarly, Happy Endings, Never Been Kissed, and I continued to have lots of success acting in commercials, but I wanted to create my own films. I have always been passionate about writing and directing and begun making independent films with friends from acting classes and others around LA. I became an independent filmmaker, started a few production companies, and realized that creating stories and projects with like-minded awesome friends brought me the most fulfillment. About 15 years ago I started volunteering for a program called the “Miracle Project.” That was my introduction to the awesome autism community. I quickly bonded with the autistic and neurodivergent actors, writers, and storytellers. I worked at the “Miracle Project” for 10 years and co-wrote, directed, and even starred in these amazing productions for the stage. It was a blast, creating with this group of talented autistic and neurodiverse performers, but after 10 years, I missed my true passion, the art of filmmaking. I realized that many of the autistic and neurodiverse actors, singers, musicians, writers that I had become friends and worked with wanted to work in the entertainment industry and they didn’t know how. A lightbulb went off, “What if there was a place where all these actors, writers, filmmakers could go to teach them how to audition, create a demo reel, get an agent and most importantly create their own stories and works of film!” The spark of Spec Labs ignited. It wasn’t until I worked with a longtime friend of mine, Garth Herberg, who also had a similar dream, of creating music and recording songs and launching a record label with autistic and neurodiverse talent, that this dream would become a reality!
7 years ago, Jason co-founded Spectrum Laboratory (aka Spec Labs), along with Garth Herberg, and what an amazing wild ride it’s been! Spectrum Laboratory was founded in 2015 with the idea of creating original works of film, music, and animation with autistic and neurodivergent artists looking to gain experience and an education of what it would be like to work in the entertainment industry. Jason and Garth started Spec Labs with the idea of creating professional content with their autistic and neurodivergent artists that they could use as a calling card to get them work in the industry. Since Spec Labs launched in 2015, we’ve had many of our talent/ students go on to working and having success in the entertainment industry. Such as landing recurring roles on tv shows, starring in commercials and films, and auditioning for many types of roles, and not only “autistic” roles! We also launched Spec Lab Records and have over 100 songs released online, and numerous albums. Our Music department also has composed music for Sesame Street, Autism Live, The Special Olympics, and more! We are expanding and growing, recently launching a new Voice Over Acting department head by the incredible, Cathy McAuley, a voice acting legend in the business. She’s educating our VO artists on how to record in the studio, as well as create their own demo reels and record at home. We’ve landed our Voice Over talent numerous paying jobs for our VO talent!
Currently, we are working in numerous locations around LA, but our dream is to have our own Production Studio in Los Angeles, where we can house all our classes, projects, and events under one roof! Help us make that dream happen and consider donating at www.speclabs.org
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
When dealing with the Autism community, yes, of course, there will be struggles, there will be challenges, but our motto at Spec Labs is to jump into the fire, to set yourself free! Many of our students are scared of change. What would happen if they did succeed? The fear of success and failure is prominent in our students’ minds, especially when dealing with the hard reality of the tough business of the entertainment industry. We don’t sugar coat that it’s tough and it’s going to take a lot of work and ambition, but we’ve found out that many of our student artists have that drive. They want to make magic happen, so we encourage it and nurture their passions and talent, to help them succeed. Spec Labs is a steppingstone to making their dreams come true.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
What sets Spec Labs apart is that Garth, Cathy, and I have all had real-life experience and training in the entertainment industry. We educate our students with practical knowledge and give them truthful advice. We don’t look at our talent as, “Well they’re autistic, so that’s good for being autistic.” We hate that. We want their identity to be an actor, singer, writer, director, first, then for people to say, “Oh, they are autistic?” That’s what we strive for. We also are constantly working and collaborating with entertainment professionals in the industry and gettin them to know our talent. We’re making that initial introduction, trying to get them seen and let their voices be heard! We are a team at Spec Labs, there’s no difference between teachers, volunteers, students, entertainment professionals, when we are all on set or in the studio working together it’s a unit of creative awesomeness! A great example of this is our award-winning short film, “Boys Don’t Wear Dresses” It’s a modern coming-of-age fairytale, based on Cinderella, about the struggles of an autistic transgender aspiring writer, exploring independence and finding love. One of our film students, Aloni Schorin, co-wrote the script with me, basing it on her real-life experiences of coming out as transgender to her autism community. The film has gone to 19 film festivals and has won 10 awards! Spectrum Laboratory produced the film and hired many autistic, neurodivergent, BIPOC, and LGBQTIA+ creatives to work on the film, in front of and behind camera. Learn more at: www.speclabs.org/boys-don-t-wear-dresses
Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Starting Spec Labs was a major risk. Garth and I had no idea how to run a non-profit. We just jumped into that fire and learned along the way. It’s actually one of the reasons our content and work really speaks to many people, because we are all about the creative content and what we can all do together, not overthinking the logistics first and talking about all these big dreams and then never acting on it because of budget restraints or problems. We just took a leap of faith and 7 years later we’re still flying.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.speclabs.org
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/spectrum_laboratory
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spectrumlaboratory
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIJ9pn8Y-WUHZN8qjWm1eag
