Meet Daniel Montgomery of CreepLA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Montgomery.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Daniel. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
I moved out to LA all the way from Charlotte, NC, for theatre school (I went to USC’s School of Dramatic Arts) and graduated ready to take on the world. I did a few cringe-worthy plays here and there, hopping around from small talent agency to smaller talent agency, taking acting classes and holding a hundred side-jobs to make ends meet. I struggled to find my place and, like a lot of artists, feel creatively fulfilled.

I knew three things: I loved acting, I loved horror, and I loved getting a reaction out of people. I started a sketch comedy group called Mary-Kate and Ashtray with fellow USC-friend Riley Rose Critchlow and began to find my voice through writing. Our comedy was irreverent, esoteric, and a little twisted. I found joy in the silly darkness of things, I loved making people laugh – and gasp.

This joy was parlayed into weird game-nights I’d craft for other performer friends of mine – scavenger hunts in my apartment, wild and weird tasks for my friends to accomplish, each night themed. One was a mock-funeral for a friend who had moved away, friends were instructed to wear all black – others were 90’s movie-themed (The Craft, Scream, The Bodyguard, Clueless, etc.) with performative games designed around each movie.

Things picked up acting-wise, and I began to book a solid amount of co-star roles on major prime-time shows, but nothing consistent. At the same time, I started a Goosebumps podcast called Welcome To DeadCast with my twin brother, Matthew, in order to release more creative energy.

Goosebumps had always been a major factor in inspiration and joy – it’s nostalgia mixed with spookiness, with the right amount of humor and shock – it colored my view of the world as a child and also, now, as an adult. In 2015, one of my best friends Justin Fix approached me with an idea that managed to combine all three of those things I love – and tie in all of my ideas and inspirations.

We’d call it Creep LA – a modern twist on a haunted house. Theatre where the actors could touch guests. Guests would have to crawl, they’d be split up, they’d be alone in dark rooms. It’d be scary, it’d be shocking, it’d be new – and, most of all, it’d be fun.

Justin pulled together a lot of friends, borrowed a small warehouse space from a buddy, and built a crazy-twisted horror maze from scratch. Not only would we create the show – but we’d perform in it as well. Together we came up with scenarios and scenes, I put them to paper, we held castings – and a few weeks later we opened. And we were sold out for weeks. On our closing Halloween night, Justin and I looked at each other and knew we were addicted to it. Justin formed JustFixIt Productions – and we had a company!

Since 2015, our company has grown tremendously. I had officially become a content creator – and a writer. In 2016, Creep LA returned bigger and badder. In 2017, we opened a show called The Willows, a twist on a murder-mystery dinner in an actual mansion in the heart of LA (which has run ever since, even as we speak).

We partnered with Amazon in 2017 for a show, with Facebook in 2018 for an escape room, continuing to do Creep every fall. I had become an actual writer, a content creator, and somehow, without realizing, I was able to pull from all my inspirations and combine my passions into a successful full-time business.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Oh, absolutely not. I think for any artist a big challenge is how do I making a living off of my creativity or my gifts? And it’s still a big struggle. It wasn’t until last year that I was able to quit my “survival job,” and that was after a push and the support from my business partner, Justin, that I was able to take the leap.

What was incredible was what I learned from those “side jobs” – how to deal with people. Helping run an immersive theatre company, I’ve learned the value of guest management, people skills, and “reading a room.” I ran the front desk at a barre studio for years and had to deal with all kinds of people.

At 5 AM, not everyone is their best self – and, because I needed to keep my days free for auditions, I had to work the eeeearly shift. I also worked (and still do sometimes!) at UCLA as a “standardized patient” – where I would act as a patient for medical students.

I’d have to fake illnesses, have a 30-page character back-story, improv and be “real” with the students in order to simulate a real-life, true doctor’s visit. It included make-up, props, emergency-room scenarios. It was improv, immersive-theatre.

Working there, I learned the skill of staying “on script” while going with the flow at the moment – and my job there is still the guideline for how I write for and direct actors in our immersive theatre shows. I was learning the tools I didn’t know I’d need to use!

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about CreepLA – what should we know?
Creep LA started out of a desire to connect and invigorate the LA theatre community – and provide opportunities for performance and experience. I want people, who leave our shows, to say “Wow! I’ve NEVER seen something like that before.” We are all about intimate connection, eye contact, putting-down-your-phone for an hour or two, and making people FEEL something.

Our company is technically JustFixIt Productions (JFI Productions, for short) but most people know us as “Creep” or “CreepLA” because of the popularity of our Halloween-seasonal show. And creep is such a good word to encompass all of the work that we do – we wanna creep into your minds, make you think, make you feel unnerved. We are not chainsaws and blood – rather, we’re heavy on dread and unease and style.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
My partner-in-crime is my collaborator and company founder Justin Fix. We built this company together, and without his vision and support and tenacity, we’d be ghosts, performing for no one in a small dark room somewhere downtown.

He keeps the company alive and thriving and continuing to push forward. He inspires me and challenges me to think outside the box – I’ve never laughed so much or screamed with another human being in my life. And now, every year, we get to perform for a lot of people in a big dark room somewhere downtown.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jfiproductions.com, www.daniel-montgomery.com
• Instagram: @jfiproductions, @danielxmontgomery
• Twitter: @jfiproductions, @danielmontgomry

Image Credit:
Ricky Middlesworth, Leah Huebner, Shandon Photography, Jeremey Connors, Hatbox Photography

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.