Meet Andrew St Juste

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Andrew St Juste a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Andrew , we’ve been so fortunate to work with so many incredible folks and one common thread we have seen is that those who have built amazing lives for themselves are also often the folks who are most generous. Where do you think your generosity comes from?

“My journey into gardening this year became an unexpected masterclass in life philosophy. I watched in awe as tiny seeds transformed into thriving plants under my care. The most profound lesson came from the pruning process – how cutting back actually encouraged plants to grow back four times stronger. It challenged everything I thought I knew about growth and nurturing.
This experience completely shifted my perspective on relationships and personal development. Just like in my garden, some investments yield immediate results – like a fruit-bearing tree – while others are more like seedlings, requiring patience and consistent care before they flourish. I’ve learned to approach both my personal and professional relationships with this gardener’s mindset.
Every day, I make a conscious choice to ‘water’ the people and opportunities around me, never knowing which small act of kindness or support might help someone bloom. Some seeds might take years to sprout, while others bear fruit immediately. The beauty lies in nurturing without expectation, understanding that every investment in others – like every seed planted – has its own unique timeline for growth.”

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

My love of the arts started with family connection. I come from a very traditional Haitian Background and my parents LOVED Coming to America. It is a yearly tradition in our family. Growing up there was a disconnect between me and my parents but movies were always common ground. They didn’t let me go to parties or believe in sleepovers (“You are my child why are you sleeping at other people’s houses?”) But when the lights dimmed we would laugh, jump, and cry together. Film was always special to me but as with most immigrant parents a job in the arts wasn’t in the cards. So I went to college to study biomedical engineering. I got a job at a pharmaceutical company as an analysis and that was the start of my career.

Everything changed when I had a daughter. Seeing the world through a new lens as a father changed everything for me. I felt inspired and motivated in a way I never imagined. All these feelings came to a head one night when I dreamt an entire movie. I woke up at 2 in the morning wrote everything down and shrugged my shoulders as a coincidence. Then it happened again and again. At that point I realized this wasn’t an accident there was something deeper inside. I took my comedically dramatized story about my breakup with my ex and taught myself screenwriting. I saved the cat, went through story, and downloaded some of my favorite screenplays leading to a finalist award in the World Series of Screenwriting. (As a newbie I was drawn to the title since I am also into sports). This beginner’s luck and frustration at my corporate job threw me into the deep end of writing. I went to a festival in New York with my finalist award thinking it would be a straight shot… it wasn’t. I was hit repeatedly with the same question. “That’s cool you got that award but what have you produced?” And I realized the next thing I had to do. I moved with my daughter to Phoenix and like the Alchemist followed my personal legend into the desert.

I volunteered at a local access network station that filmed an independent music video show. I taught myself how to work a DSLR and shot BTS. Meanwhile I leaned into comedy creating sketches and with access to a studio now created a live sketch comedy show in the style of Saturday Night Live. We sold out! A few weeks later, we did it again but this time organized the entire show in a week. We sold out again with twice the seats.

Filled with a lot of failure and bad scripts I captured my journey on social media growing my IG following which garnered the attention of BuzzFeed. They launched a program with Instagram to invest in vertical content and my horror film “Stories” (a horror film through the lens of an IG story) was picked. Out of 350 applicants, I was one of 16 projects selected. Once I entered the doors of BuzzFeed i was inspired. Coming from an analyst background I didn’t fathom a job where all I had to do was shoot content all day. I leveraged the one week BootCamp into a fellowship into a full time job. That lead to Story producer and pretty soon I was a show runner on my first original series “Date My Fit”. A bachelorette picks a date based on the bachelor’s outfits. It was the one of the first online dating shows predating “Line-up” dating shows and “Pop the balloon”. After 3 years and helping launch Cocoa Butter BuzzFeed’s black-focused channel I left BuzzFeed to join Peacock Kids to create social content for NBCUniversal properties. I created content for How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, Trolls, Gabby’s Dollhouse, and a few original digital pilots. I lead their YouTube Shorts strategy and raked over 100M views in less than a year. However, I felt stuck because although I was working at my dream location on the Universal lot. I was stuck as the digital guy.

That’s when I decided to bet on myself. I taught myself TV writing, landing two Finalist placements in two different festivals for my original Pilot “Viral”. I am a year 2 Cohort producer of the “Find Your People Program” from Issa Rae’s Color Creative and in less than 3 weeks I’m putting on my own play “General Naaman: The Musical”. (Tickets on sale now 11/1 and 11/2). The funniest thing about my zig-zag story isn’t the views on YouTube, the screenwriting placements or the jobs but it’s the joy I find when my daughter and I watch a show and the same feelings I felt with my father are being passed to her.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

THe three qualities that helped me be the most successful were my ability to be optimistic through adversity, curious and have a “yes and” attitude, while not be afraid to work.

Life isn’t a straight line there are twists and turns and unexpected challenges everywhere ahead. It is imperative to be able to not only roll with the punches but be excited to capitalize on the opportunities to learn and grow.

If you are just starting don’t be closed-minded to new opportunities around you. You may have to learn a new skill that doesn’t seem like it directly correlates but in time it will come together to work out for the good.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

My number one obstacle now is reclaiming my time. I think society has made exceptions feel like the rules, and the rules as the exceptions. Just 75 years ago humans lived wildly different lives with wildly different expectations. There’s a scene in ATLANTA that I never forgot. One of the character was eating his breakfast out of a cup and someone asked him what are you eating? He responded Breakfast cup. The other person said ‘That’s made up’ and his response was everything is made up. That is literally SO TRUE. Everything money, schedules, school systems, traffic lights. Everything is made up. And when you think of yourself as a creator it’s empowering to realize you can create the life you want to look exactly how you want.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @DrewDynamite04