Jon is an Emmy-nominated, LGBTQ+ videomaker and viral hitmaker who served as the first Official Videographer to an American First Lady.
Jon began his video career at Newsweek where he earned the publication the first Emmy nomination of any U.S. magazine for “Voices of the Fallen: The Iraq War in the Words of the Dead.” He followed up with a second Business and Finance Emmy nomination the next year as executive producer of “The Crunch.” While at the newsweekly, he launched annual Oscar and Emmy Roundtable videos, a weekly artist interview series, presidential candidate sit downs, viral hits like “The District”, and campaign trail videos that one Ad Age critic lauded as “quick-hit quirk.”
After leaving Newsweek, he launched progressive digital docs at MSNBC, created Page Six programming at the New York Post and managed video production for Alpha Media Group’s magazines. As an independent video journalist, his work was featured by BBC News Magazine, Reuters, CBS Local, ProPublica, New York Magazine, The Cut, Men’s Health, Glamour and more. One of his favorite series from the period documented Humans of New York creator Brandon Stanton as he burst into the pop culture mainstream.
In 2016 Jon pivoted into electoral politics, filming Secretary Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail and creating some of the most most-watched social videos of the presidential election like “Equal,” “Progress is on the Ballot,” and “Brave.” He personally accumulated over 65 million of the team’s 1 billion views.
After Clinton’s stinging loss, Jon joined the country’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, the Human Rights Campaign, where he tripled the organization’s video views by raising HRC’s production values, introducing social media optimization and launching a cohesive video brand strategy. In addition to expanding the team to cover all of HRC’s political, programmatic and development work, Jon supported HRC’s 30+ annual black-tie galas.
In 2022 Jon had the opportunity to join Beto O’Rourke’s gubernatorial campaign as its Director of Video, earning 200 million social media views in just a few short months. Jon traveled with Beto, filming all public appearances and editing clips from the back of his truck. Beltway experts credited Jon with innovating a new style of political video and consistently praised the campaign’s storytelling. The finance team credited Jon’s work with helping to break Texas records.
In 2024, Jon worked as Dr. Jill Biden’s videographer on President Joe Biden’s re-elect before transitioning to Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff’s videographer after Vice President Kamala Harris topped the ticket.
He was later honored to serve as the first Official White House Videographer to a First Lady in American history, documenting Dr. Jill Biden’s public appearances for the National Archives as well as the FLOTUS, White House and POTUS social media channels. He created a viral Christmas sensation by flying a drone through the now-demolished East Wing and White House residence with the help of expert pilot Jay Christensen.
Jon’s work has been awarded by the Shortys, the Webbys, The National Press Club, the Magazine Publishers of America, the Society of Professional Journalists, GLAAD, MIN and the National Association of Black Journalists. He was nominated for an additional Heartland Emmy in 2019.
Jon earned a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and an undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary.
