Alumni Spotlight: Jared Baker ’92

After graduating from the Academy, Jared Baker (IASMH ’92) moved to Los Angeles and attended the University of Southern California, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Television Production.

Jared came to The Academy from South Bend, where he was raised as a Fighting Irish fan. Although Jared still loves to root for the Irish, he has to be true to his alma mater and root for the Trojans when they meet on the gridiron every fall.

Jared had always been interested in theatre and filmmaking, and his experiences at The Academy helped further those ambitions. He served his community service in the Burris Media Center under Fred Shears, who encouraged Jared to utilize all of the available resources to learn and create. Jared spent a great deal of his senior year at The Academy with either a video camera in his hands, (yes, one of those old school full size VHS cameras) or in the editing bay at the media center. Jared created a video yearbook, and with the help of an entourage of classmates, a video of Dante’s Inferno, a class project for Christine Ney’s world literature class. Jared doubts that he would have been accepted into USC’s film school without attending the Academy, and is grateful for how The Academy prepared him for college.

Once his time at USC was concluded, Jared had a brief stint at an independent production company. Feeling that office work wasn’t really his forte, Jared landed a job at a special effects shop where he spent a few years learning about fabricating, hydraulics, pneumatics, pyrotechnics and weather effects. Jared now works as a freelance special effects technician for film and television. Jared works very hard at fighting the stereotype that FX guys don’t know how to spell. Jared has worked on a number of award-winning television shows including Six Feet Under, True Blood, Big Love, The Mentalist, Las Vegas, The Forgotten (he appeared in an episode) and the Indiana-based show Close To Home (he had to inform an actor on the proper pronunciation of Notre Dame). Jared has also worked on several feature films including A Single Man, The Informant!, and most recently Scouts vs. Zombies, The Gambler starring Mark Walhberg, and Gone Girl directed by David Fincher.

Jared is currently finishing a script in hopes of aspiring to his true goal of directing.

Jared lives in Simi Valley, California with his wife, fellow Indiana transplant and USC Trojan, Dr. Shannon Johnson, and their two very spoiled hound dogs.