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JA: Okay. Let’s start off with the basics.

HN: Okay.

JA: What was the beginning that lead up to now? How did we get to now? You know what I mean?

HN: Well, basically I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. And I grew up in Beverly Hills. We were a wealthy family. I knew that I had a lot of choice..

JA: What’s your background?

HN: My dad is a successful real estate/ entrepreneur/ inventor....

JA: He’s an inventor?

HN: Yeah. Anyways. His culture, was sort of an “American Dream”. You know....Come here, and figure out a way to make money. It was a mentality that had its origins in the ghetto. “do what you gotta do and find a way to make it happen. His generation didn’t really grow up contemplating the career paths the way we have.

JA: Remember that story you told me that I liked about his dad and how he bailed out of Iran and like....

HN: Yeah. Yeah. Basically, my father just never felt like he fit in Iran. He was captivated by the American way of life....”I’m a non conforming animal” he used to say whenever he would explain why didn’t feel right in a country like Iran.

JA: That’s where he’s from?

HN: He’s from Tehran the capital of Iran.

-- At a certain point when he turned like 15 my grandfather, caught wind that his son (my dad) was looking into colleges and universities in the United States. When my Father was confronted by this he told my grandfather (who was big) that he wanted to move to America. My grandfather was not into the idea of my father leaving, to say the least. They got into this big argument where my Grandfather basically says: “Listen, if you stay in Iran and go to school here instead of the United States, I’ll pretty much guarantee that all your requests are satisfied.... I’ll get you a driver, your own apartment. I’ll set you up....” My fathers response – which, I think was very bold was, “Look, I only want ONE thing from you for the rest of my life...and after that you don’t owe me anything... ” So my Grandfather says, “What is it that you are asking me for?” My Dad says, “A-one-way-ticket-to-the-United-States.”

JA: That’s crazy! I mean, right? That’s like, balls out!

HN: He was very clear on what he wanted at an early age unlike me. I was eccentric and I wanted to be a lot of different things.

Even though we fought a lot he still had a very positive impact on me. There was always a great deal of pressure to succeed both internally and externally. I believe it can be traced to my roots on both sides. My Grandma from my mom’s side was an Auschwitz survivor and on my fathers side they literally pulled themselves out of the Persian Ghetto.

JA: So now fast-forward. You’re 18. At 18, you were modeling right?....how’d you get into that?

HN: I was a very poor high school student. Literally I got rejected from every university out of high school except one (Redlands) and their admissions office called (a month after my family threw a party) to tell me that it was a mistake.

JA: Yeah right?

HN: Entirely true.

I felt like I had to go to college though and there was this rumor that if you went to SMC (Santa Monica Community College), it was really easy. “It was the second chance for all the kids who partied too much in high-school. You go to SMC......you get straight A’s, and then you get accepted really easily into one of the real universities.” I learned really fast that that was like the furthest thing from the truth--SMC was hard.

So I was doing lousy at SMC and one day a girl who was trying to tutor me suggested I go on an open casting call. She was really obsessed with fashion and back then, it sounded really exciting and interesting to me. She drove me to two agencies and one of them was one of the most prestigious agency in Los Angeles at the time.

JA: Which was?

HN: Prima. They represented Amy Smart, Simon Rex, Leilani Bishop, Jessica Alba, Johnny Knoxville, Ethan Brown, & Mila Jovovich

They didn’t take me on immediately but they gave me a chance, to do a test shoot.. A week later, I was shooting with this artsy photographer (Joseph Michelle). When I brought the photos back to the agency they signed me. I really took it so seriously in front of the camera because I wanted to be part of making a interesting photo. And I thought creatively, on some level, I was participating. I know when you hear models talk about that in general...

JA: Nah, that’s really good that you’re part of the creative process not just some -

HN: Prop?

JA: Exactly.

HN: And I was really excited. Even though that shoot was super low budget it was my first exposure to the world of fashion photography. Literally it was just me and a guy in his apartment with his gay boyfriend helping with the reflectors and lighting. The pictures came out really cool though.

JA: Do you still have those pictures?

HN: Yeah. I just thought that it was so big time. Now looking back, I realize how modest it was. But as a kid, just working with a “professional photographer” – just that term – no matter who it was, --I took it seriously.

JA: More seriously than you were taking school and other stuff in your life?

HN: Yeah and I felt like that industry embraced who I was at the time.

JA: Because you’re kind of a ham?

HN: I’m definitely a ham, and I just had fun. I gave over to the experience. I felt like I could play a part of something that was imaginary.

JA: You felt like part of the process?

HN: Yeah.

JA: Which was what you really, desperately, wanted.

HN: Big time.

JA: Was it a good experience for you?

HN: Yes but the best part of that experience came when I left the country and got away from the world I grew up in.

When I went to Milan it blew my mind and I got inspired. I came back a different person. I saw things there that excited me.

JA: Like what?

HN: When I went there I was exposed to so much so fast. Working as a model, for me was the quickest way to get straight to the center of it all. I mean, 4 or 5 months from when I started it, I was being fitted by Gianni Versace himself. I did his runway show as well as Dolce & Gabanna and Romeo Gigli. I met Gorgio Armani, Jean Paul Gautier, worked for Vogue, etc. It was educational. I had instant access to many very inspiring professionals –Ultimately what moved me most, was watching these people work and thrive in there creative process while the world watched.

JA: So, you were in Milan for like six months and then you come back and then what?

HN: I did shoots & commercials and it was fun, but somewhere along the way I realized what I liked most about it all was being on set. Being on a set to me was like heaven. I kept meeting these young hotshot directors and photographers and thinking …I could be like that one day.

JA: Like Brian Beltic?

HN: Especially him. And when I worked with him I was like, that would be a dream career. I didn’t believe that I could do what he could do at the time but I knew, I had a chance…that stranger things had happened….I thought to myself maybe somehow I can figure out a way to get on the other side of the camera.

JA: As a director?

HN: Yeah. I just felt like there was something there…some common ground. He chose me for a reason…and he trusted that I understood his vision for the project.

JA: So what did you do?

HN: I went back to SMC.....But I went agro. I started studying like there was no tomorrow. I started drinking coffee. I started living at the library; smoking cigarettes I even took Ritalin a few times. I mean, I was like a crack head but in the library. I would follow my teachers around with tape recorders and daily I would write down every single class verbatim. WORD FOR WORD. People in the library would be starring at me in the quiet section ‘cause I was pushing the stop, rewind and play button on my tape recorder so much and it made a lot of noise. They were probably thinking, this dude is amped up on something. And I remember that I was pressing so hard with my pencils that I kept breaking the tips. I went from a C’s D’s & F’s to straight A’s practically overnight. I mean, it was really a hard shift.

JA: It took a lot of work.

HN: It took discipline. I said to myself, That’s it… this is all that I care about.” I dorked out so hard….My ears would perk up when I heard a tutor was good or, a professor gave good lectures.

Then one day, I this film-buff kid I knew says to me “I just got into UCLA and I’m gonna study design there.” I didn’t even know what he meant when he said design so I went to his house to see his work. It was the first time I ever saw someone working with film graphics, and photography on a desktop computer all at the same time. I had a moment where I felt like I was seeing part of my future. I was awestruck by it all and I knew there was a connection to much of what I been exposed to in Milan, Paris and New York.

JA: It was close. You could see something about it.

HN: Yes

JA: So then you get into UCLA

HN: I get into UCLA. That was one my most magic moments -

JA: Did you cry?

HN: I remember I called my dad who was, clearly on a business line and I was like, “Hey dad, I gotta tell you something.” And before I could even finish that sentence he was like, “I gotta call you back.” And I was like, “No dad, wait.” And he was like, “I gotta call you back!” He started getting angry and I was like, “Dad!” “I gotta - Dad, I got into UCLA!” And it was like silent for what felt like an eternity, He stopped everything. Whoever he was talking to sat on hold, and he was like, “Allllright!” He took a good few minutes to just -

JA: To just absorb it?

HN: Totally…He had to give me that love because cause he knew…He had seen me…he saw what I was doing and he recognized that, I had overcome something that was very challenging to me.

*************
JA: So, you’re in the design program, you’re studying acting, and you’re focusing on acting more?

HN: While I was studying at UCLA, I was going to acting school at the same time. I loved my classes and school projects but I still really wanted to act in film. I really pursued it because I felt like I was so close to making it happen.

JA: But really were you?

HN: No! That’s the thing. I thought I was way closer to it than I really was because I had an easy time with the fashion and commercial acting.

JA: So then what happened?

HN: I was struggling really, really hard to break into acting and it was not happening. My confidence, had gone through the floor. I was just - - You know, I was having a really hard time with it.

JA: So, anyways.

HN: I was at a crossroads in my life because I was not working on any special design projects - And my big acting break was a part on someone’s answering machine on Will & Grace. -- that literally happened.

JA: No way!

HN: So then, one of my friends wrote a movie. Scott Caan wrote Dallas 362. At the time, I didn’t even have the courage to ask for an audition. I just didn’t feel confident in my ability. One day at his house we were hanging out and I casually said to him,“Can I do the title sequence for your film?” And he’s like, “Yeah, of course.” He had seen what I was doing in school and I think he had total faith in my creative ability even though I had never done a title sequence for a feature film. For me it was a huge opportunity. There were all these big names in the film and I saw it as my chance. I think I channeled all my frustration from being a struggling actor in that piece. I really pushed myself. And that was the first design project where I went-

JA: Balls to the wall.

HN: Balls to the fuckin’ walls. I mean, you saw me. There were sleepless nights. And what happened was....the project evolved into a much bigger project. than it actually started off as. Originally, it was just the titles - white type on black... but then the producers said, “Can you figure out a way to graphically introduce the characters so that we know who we are dealing with from the start -” By then they’d seen some of my motion tests. So they took me seriously.

JA: And so that’s it? That starts the ball.

HN: That pretty much starts me on my own. Remember when I was saying to my father, “Look, I’m gonna quick acting,” which was such music to his ears, “I’m gonna intern and I’ll go work for the best. I don’t care if I don’t get paid. I don’t care what I have to do. If I have to beg for the job, I’m just going to make this a learning experience and I’m gonna target the people at the top -” and I literally wrote all their names, on my front door -- every day when I left my house, the ten companies that I really wanted to work for were right in my face. I hounded them. And I think it was just because of the Variety Review that one of them, after lots of rejection - gave me a break

JA: I mean it’s crazy! You did a really reputable and really interesting title sequence and they weren’t willing to give you a job as an intern?

HN: Yeah. And I was actually thinking to myself, I quit acting so I wouldn’t have to audition and get rejected and now I’m getting rejected in the field that everybody told me I wouldn’t get rejected for trying to do.

JA: So, you’re interning. . .

HN: Yeah. The only reason why I interned was because they knew I hadn’t paid my dues. While everybody else was interning, in college, I was going on auditions, thinking I was going to be a big-shot actor, and in a way I hurt myself.

JA: You think they held it against you that you kind of skipped the line a little bit?

HN: Yeah. They didn’t like that I skipped the line...these design firms want it to be done a certain way and I didn’t know how to do it that way. Although I could produce the end result, I had sort of created my own process.

JA: What process is that?

HN: First of all was used to working directly with the director ...it wasn’t like I had to make presentations. It was sort of like we were hanging out and sketching ideas out by hand. It was in my apartment. It wasn’t in a formal environment. I wasn’t creating presentable storyboards or anything. I was sort of doing everything off the cuff. If something didn’t work, I would just re-animate it. I never really -

JA: You just kind of figured it out on your own?

HN: Yeah.

JA: You didn’t have a formal process. And they all had formal processes.

HN: Well they knew how to do it a different way

JA: Steps one though five.

HN: Yes

JA: And you would do step three and then do step seven.

HN: Something like that

JA: But it’s funny because it didn’t feel like the wrong way to you though, right? It felt like the right way to you.

HN: I would do what I needed to do. I definitely don’t opt to do things the easy way, I’ll tell you that..

JA: I know this. So when did you decide to start your own company?

HN: I was working project to project. I had no business sense at the time. I was working on jobs with no awareness of time or my real expenses. I was doing a lot of favors for friends. It was sloppy and at a certain point, I needed to grow up. I felt I needed to either make a business out of this or get a real job and go into a whole other field. I didn’t want this to be a hobby.

I had already thrown in the towel with acting and I didn’t want to throw in the towel a second time. I decided if I quit acting, I was going to do design and I was going to succeed in it.

-- I started reading books on business, setting goals, I even hired a business coach! And I got serious. I spent a few months just creating a business plan. I “designed” my design company.

JA: And this was in-between working for...?

HN: Yeah. While I was starting my own company I was still freelancing. Basically my company started of with just me but it has grown since then...Especially when Eileen Bertumen came onboard.

JA: What have you done?

HN: Some note-worthy projects; An identity package for a new CW show, video instillations for Taschen, Stussy graphics, and were working on a really cool top secret project. I addition to that Apple hired me to give a bunch of lectures and I may be speaking at a Adobe convention in late May.

JA: Nice. and, where did the name Grand Jeté come from?

HN: I grew up with an older sister and when I was like seven I got drafted to dance in the Nut Cracker ‘cause there weren’t enough guys who wanted to do it. My sister sort of tricked me into putting tights on and make up to be a party boy/toy soldier. So I danced in the Nut Cracker. I always knew what a grand jeté was. It was the only thing that I thought was cool in ballet back then. It was the “big jump.” So, that was always somewhere in my memory bank.

--When I hit my threshold as a one-person team. I realized that I wanted to take a big step forward. I went through all these different names and one of the ones that I wrote down on my list was “Grand Jeté” because I thought it was really sort of a metaphor and it symbolized what my ambitions for the business was - to take a giant leap forward.

I didn’t want to take small steps, I wanted to take big steps. A giant leap is even better than a big step.

JA: Yeah. So let me ask you this then, and this will be the last question: Where do you see the company going? What’s some of the future plans?

HN: My vision for the company is this - To become a Charles Ray Eams sort of studio/ Andy Warhol factory. It will be a creative oasis where creative minds come together. People that I hand select, come together to work on the most cutting-edge, most interesting, most prestigious, most thought-provoking storytelling/ designs/ art/ graphic projects.

JA: So what are some personal ambitions? Some personal things that you want to do? Like art-wise, or graphic-wise?

HN: Yeah. Film. I wanna make movies. I definitely want to make a movie soon. I don’t know if the company will be the platform for that. But It’ll definitely be part -

JA: Personally, yeah.

HN: Yeah. Personally, I see myself definitely telling stories so you know, finding different creative outlets to tell stories.

JA: End it on that?

HN: Yeah.