That's me on the left, next to my older brother and sister. I'm laughing 'cause I'm holding a gun, and that's why I gets respect.

Birthed in Toledo, OH, David Markland was moved from the Midwestern suburban sprawl to rural Old Lyme, Connecticut (home of the Lyme tick) at the age of 10. His formative years were spent dreaming of movies, earning a varsity letter in fencing in his freshman year of high school, sorting recyclables as his first job at the local A&P, then saving up enough money to get the hell out of there by working at the Millstone 3 Nuclear Power Plant for nearly a year.

When he turned 21, Markland set his sites on the West Coast, to make movies and once again return to suburban sprawl – this time, though, in Los Angeles. His first jobs in Los Angeles enabled him to have a dual identity: babysitter (au pair) by day, bouncer at the Oar House, a rowdy beach bar, by night. His first few production assistant jobs included an HBO TV movie, and “The Usual Suspects.”

In the next few years he also found work as an assistant to a producer on the still unreleased independent film “Abilene” starring Academy Award winning actors Ernest Borgnine and Kim Hunter and as an assistant in publicity at Castle Rock Entertainment during the release of “The Green Mile.”

George Lucas and I, from MTV's advance screening of "The Phantom Menace" at Skywalker Ranch.

Markland soon found a niche working with MTV’s Production Events department coordinating audiences for their annual spring break pilgrimages in Cancun, managing lines of contestants across the US for their Wanna Be A VJ competition (a sort of predecessor to “American Idol”), and in one unusual moment filling in as the audience warm up guy, opening for and introducing Ozzy Osbourne at an outdoor concert on Fremont Street in Las Vegas.

Based on the assorted event management skills learned from MTV, Markland was hired as production manager for Mervyn’s California Beach Bash, a sports and music festival held on the deep sands of Hermosa Beach, featuring televised AVP volleyball tournaments, and pro inline skater and skateboard competitions (including an appearance by Tony Hawk).

In 2001, Markland began working with ESPN, which over the next few years included managing the red carpet for the Espys, as well as production managing the festival and vendor village elements at the X Games. During this period he also began taking on role outside of the entertainment field in event marketing, from coordinating radio personality appearances for a Dove/Lifetime national mall tour to managing a promotion for Dave & Busters in Southern California and Florida.

Markland began working with On Board Entertainment in 2005, launching mobile marketing campaigns for a number of product launches for Nike Running (including Nike+ in conjunction with Apple’s iPod) and a mobile tour for Jamba Juice. Also in 2005, Markland joined Group 101 Films, making a dozen short films, each made within a month timeframe and an assigned theme.

Around this same time, Markland also began becoming more and more involved within the online blogging community, joining Los Angeles Metblogs in early 2006, and becoming “city captain” (essentially site editor) in August of that year, managing over a dozen writers and creating content, for the next two years. While he passed the “city editor” torch in mid-2008, he still continues to contribute to the site on a regular basis. Additional online media credits include writing “California Faultline,” a state politics blog for NBC Local Media, throughout 2008, and creating and editing CreepyLA, a seasonal Halloween blog. This experience led to his being an invited speaker at the Society of Professional Journalist’s “Citizen Journalism Academy” and for the Online Journalism Association event, as well as assorted consulting assignments on blogging and social media for local unions, entertainment professionals, and marketing firms.