Toni jo bio

" MY BIO"

Ok so I got this new website and the company that built it for me said I had to have one of these bio’s well I hate writing about myself but here it goes.

I was born and raised in a small west coast Florida town of Madeira Beach just south of Tampa. I dropped out of high school at age 16, I wasn’t really in to school but knew I wanted a career and excitement! I took some friends advice and enrolled in Loraine's Beauty Academy.

I started my career as a professional make up artist while I was still in school! While enrolled at Loraine’s Beauty Academy in St. Petersburg Florida an HBO film entitled “Long Gone” starring William Peterson, Dermott Mulroney, and Virginia Madsen was being filmed in the Tampa Bay area. The key make up artist Annie Maniscalco needed assistants and called Loraine’s well there I was six months from graduating beauty school and I was working on a film! I only worked on the extras, nobody famous but what an experience! I knew that this was the career for me.

Once I graduated from school I worked for several years learning the finer points of hair and makeup in a the salon environment. So this is when my worlds collided and I decided I really wanted to pursue hair and makeup in music videos. So I moved to LA!

In 1998 After moving to LA I met ReaAnn Silva the woman who was to become my mentor at a garage sale of all places. She was looking for an assistant and I was looking for a break in to the business. The rest is well is history! The first gig that she called me for she said ‘hey can you come cover this set I am working on?” I said “yeah sure.” thinking is this really happening the whole way there. I worked that day on the set with Leo Decaprio doing pick up shots for Basketball Diaries! A couple of days later I was on the set working a Marky Mark video. ReaAnn took me under her wing and really taught me how to express things with my craft! While working with ReaAnn Silva I met another very influential person in my life and my career, Christopher Maldonado. I worked a number of jobs with him and did some really fantastic make up. Things rocked in LA, Christopher, ReaAnn and myself worked the Keenen Ivory Wayans late night talk show for 18 months. I can not even put into words the things that I learned on that job working with those 2. ( Unfortunately we lost our dear friend and mentor Christopher Maldonado when he died in the plane crash that killed Aaliyah and her crew.)

This experience gave me the in on several major music videos. I worked as a department key for Will Smith on the Wild Wild West Video, and with Tu pac and Dr Dre in the California Love video. I had achieved a goal from my early days in the business and it was a wonderful feeling!

I have been very blessed to work with so many great and talented people throughout my journey through this crazy business. I am living back in Florida to be close to my family. I am currently working on some really great projects with some of the best photographers, artists, models and agents in the biz! Right here in my home state of Florida. I am pursing my newest goal of getting more into the role of producer/ production design.I have recently started Zee Productions and co produced and directed a music video for an up and coming heavy metal band called Smite, of which I am very proud.

I love this business and everything about it, I feel truly very lucky to have had all the wonderful experiences that working in my chosen profession has afforded me. I love what I do and every day I look forward to working with more talented and driven people.

Toni Jo

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