Hi, my name is Arnold Veraart, but you can call me Alex. Why? Because my dad's name is Arnold too - I'm actually Arnold the 6th - and that got real confusing real fast around the house. So for as long as I can remember, I've gone by my second name Alexander or Alex for short. If you think that's still too long I've also heard Ali, Lex, AJ, and Al.
When I was younger I was eating at a pizzeria with my family and the chef asked me where I was from, I told him do you want the short story or the long story. My parents thought this was the funniest & cutest thing and so right now I will give you the same options I gave that chef back in 2009.
The Short Story
I grew up moving around quite a bit for my father's work, 4 moves, and 4 different continents. After graduating from an American high school in Dubai with an International Baccalaureate diploma, I ended up at the University of Miami where I'm about to graduate with a double major in motion pictures and creative advertising. During my time at the University of Miami, I discovered my enthusiasm for leadership and management which lead me to develop a passion for producing. Combine that with my need to pursue something creative and you get a Creative Producer.
Some other things about me:
- I've traveled to 38 countries and counting
- I love animals and have a fluffy best friend named Skipper pictured above
- I love doing anything outdoors whether it's laying on the beach, going for a hike with Skipper, or sailing
- I'm a sailing instructor at the oldest sailing school in the Netherlands
- I fell out of an airplane once
- I love to cook and I'm saving up recipes to write my own cookbook series
- I taught myself to juggle over quarantine
The Long Story
Although I'm originally Dutch, I've never actually lived in the Netherlands, I have stayed there almost every summer and winter break throughout my life. I was born on the 7th of July, 1999 in the city of Westminster, London at Portland Hospital (delivered by the same doctor that delivered most of the recent royal babies.) I lived there for about four and a half years before moving to Johannesburg South Africa, where after countless safaris I discovered my love for the outdoors and animals. This was also when we got my first dog a black lab named Skye. The summer of my 9th birthday we moved to Greenwich, Connecticut, where I lost my British accent which I'm still pretty upset about. On the bright side, however, it's also where I began to fall in love with sailing and being out on the water. Less than a year after moving to Connecticut my dad's job at PepsiCo sent us to Dubai. I lived in Dubai for the next 8 years right up until I graduated Highschool. Living in Dubai was certainly a unique experience, one thing I really loved about it was the mix of cultures. My school had about 160 people per grade and over 150 nationalities at the school. While I was lucky to have traveled a lot growing up, going to school and growing up with all these different people at this age gave me a totally different appreciation for different cultures and people's individual differences.
Growing up my parents tried to get me several times involved in sports. Back in South Africa, they would bribe me into playing football(soccer) with pieces of a giant chocolate football. When that didn't stick they signed me up for Karate, I did that for a few years but I got bored by the time I got my brown belt. I soon decided sports just weren't for me and I began to explore the arts. I took acting and singing classes but I soon realized that I couldn't sing and I had stage fright so that ended quickly. I took drawing painting and ceramics classes too and these proved to be a little more my forte, although I didn't like all the rules and preferred to just doodle in my books at school I had now ignited a creative spark that was going to prove to be hard to ignore. In high school, I rediscovered sports after several coaches convinced me to try out for their teams so they could use my height. I played basketball and volleyball and ran cross country and track and field (my favorite), and in the process learned a lot about rejection, failure, and perseverance. This new rediscovery ignited a love for sports and exercise that I have no doubt will stick with me for the rest of my life. In 2017 I graduated Highschool with an International Baccalaureate diploma that would've let me study anywhere in the world.
My newfound love passion for sports and love for Grey's Anatomy brought me to the conclusion that I was going to study to be an orthopedic surgeon, with that in mind, I ended up at the University of Miami. While I really enjoyed what I was studying and I was getting good grades something didn't quite feel right. This is where the creative spark that had been ignited in me several years earlier I told you was going to prove hard to ignore comes back into play. I realized I wasn't feeling creatively fulfilled, so after some soul searching and google searching I switched over to the school of communication and started a double major in Motion Pictures and Creative Advertising. The thing that really pushed me to make this switch was the realization that while I wasn't sure what exactly I wanted to do with my life I knew for sure that I wanted to help people and there are more ways to do that than just literally saving lives.
My second semester after switching majors I joined our campus chapter of a national professional cinematic arts fraternity, Delta Kappa Alpha. In DKA I discovered my enthusiasm for leadership and management as I ran recruitment for two semesters and went on to be elected president for my senior year. My presidency coincided with the year of Covid-19 which posed several challenges but I came out of it having learned a lot and even won the student organizations accomplishment award for president of the year.
When you combine my leadership abilities and creative drive I found that creative producing was the way for me.
The Longer Story
Autobiography coming soon...