Creator Stories: Featuring Alex Penrose
Coming from small-town Ohio, Alex and his friends would often visit the video rental store. His obsession with movies and film-making eventually led him to watch Casey Neistat’s YouTube videos. Alex was fascinated with how the DIY nature of Casey’s videos contrasted with the production you see in Hollywood movies. While a full production seemed out of his grasp, the organic feel that you see on YouTube made Alex believe making content could be a full-time job.
His first step into the creative sports industry came from an internship with the Lake Erie Crushers, an unaffiliated professional baseball team in Avon, Ohio. During his college career at Ohio University, he made videos for the school newspaper and was able to use that footage to put together a reel. He didn’t really know what he was doing, but credits that time behind the camera as a primary factor in becoming the creator he is today. Starting with his time with the Crushers, Alex has been in the industry for five years. He’s also made stops with UConn Athletics and Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball before landing his current job with Ohio State Athletics.
In an industry built on creativity, inspiration is everything. Alex gets most excited when he finds a creative with a new perspective. The unfortunate reality of working in sports is that everyone’s chasing the same thing. Everyone’s influencing each other, and it can blur together.
While Casey Neistat is still one of Alex’s most significant influences, he has a considerable amount of respect and admiration for Baillie Boggs and David Kaplan, his bosses at UConn. His biggest inspiration comes from his peers in the sports community. With a near-endless list of bookmarks from other creatives in the industry, he also realizes that he needs to look outside of sports, like movies and non-sports photography. His internal motivation to express himself is what drives him to create.
While Alex has worked with many different teams across many sports, he’s especially proud of the work he’s done for the Ohio State Women’s Volleyball team. He created the intro video that plays before team lineups.
“I think that intro video expresses the team’s personality, my creative style, and matches the energy of the awesome crowd that we get in the Covelli Center.”
In addition to his work with women’s volleyball, Alex looks forward to football every Saturday. He believes his team steps up to the occasion every game day.
Every creative has a defining moment of “I made it.” Alex’s moment came with his internship at UConn. He was thrown into the deep end in his introduction to college athletics. After months of learning on the job, he had the opportunity to shoot at Madison Square Garden. All his hard work had paid off.
