Shaping Reality – My Editing Career

Once I discovered my passion for editing, everything changed. My early years in production had given me a deep appreciation for the process of filmmaking, but editing was where I truly found my voice as a storyteller.

I started as an assistant/junior editor, cutting my teeth on some of the most demanding, fast-paced reality TV shows in the industry. Over time, I became a lead editor, working on some of the biggest reality television and documentary projects of the last two decades.

Early Breaks in Reality TV

My first major opportunity in post-production came with Survivor and The Amazing Race, where I worked as an assistant/junior editor. These shows were groundbreaking at the time—introducing a new era of reality television that felt raw, immersive, and emotionally driven.

Eventually, I got my first major editing gig with the Discovery Channel, working on shows produced by Pilgrim Television. This opened the door to a flood of opportunities, and soon, I was editing full-time.

The Art of Editing Reality TV

Reality television editing is a unique challenge. We take hundreds of hours of raw footage and distill it into compelling, emotional narratives that feel authentic—even when reality isn’t always so neat and tidy.

Over the years, I’ve worked on some of the most recognizable reality TV series, including:

• Survivor (CBS)

• The Amazing Race (CBS)

• Love is Blind (Netflix)

• Vanderpump Rules (Bravo)

• Below Deck (Bravo)

• The X Factor (Fox)

• and many many many more.

In the reality TV world, editors aren’t just cutting footage—we’re predators (producer-editors), responsible for shaping the story in post-production. We make key creative decisions that determine how the audience experiences the story, often crafting entire emotional arcs from unstructured, unscripted material. As reality TV editors, we’re not just responsible for crafting the story—we build the entire experience. We choose the music, lay in ambient sound, add sound effects, and fine-tune every moment to create emotional impact. Everything you see and hear is shaped in the edit suite, transforming raw footage into a fully realized narrative.

Documentary Storytelling

Beyond reality TV, I’ve also worked on long-form documentary projects, including:

• Confessions of a Superhero (Netflix)

• The Achievers: The Story of the LeBowskifans (Universal)

• Various feature-length documentary projects that required a more nuanced, investigative approach to storytelling

Documentaries require a different mindset than reality TV. While reality thrives on immediacy, documentary filmmaking is about patience, depth, and insight. It’s about finding the bigger picture and constructing a narrative that resonates with audiences on a profound level.

After years in the editing suite, I’ve developed a sharp instinct for storytelling—one that applies beyond television and into the world of digital media, corporate storytelling, and beyond.