{"id":120459,"date":"2026-02-02T20:20:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T20:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/120459\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T20:20:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T20:20:26","slug":"damien-douglas-recounts-journey-from-queens-to-hollywood-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/120459\/","title":{"rendered":"Damien Douglas recounts journey from Queens to Hollywood \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t Search our comprehensive guide to things to do in Queens<\/a> for more local events \u2014 or submit your own<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Damien Douglas, a Queens native turned Hollywood producer, rose to fame in the early 2000s for producing films that explore themes inspired by everyday life. He has since released over 30 films spanning many genres, including sci-fi, horror, comedy and action.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The self-taught producer and showrunner said his main goal is to entertain audiences and tell the stories he wants to tell. However, he said if his films spark curiosity and encourage audiences to learn something new, that\u2019s always a welcome outcome.<\/p>\n

While Douglas traded his career as an R&B and hip hop executive at Bad Boy and FB Entertainment in New York for the star-studded film industry in California, he said he remains a New Yorker at heart.<\/p>\n

Douglas sat down with QNS to discuss his decades-long career and how his experiences growing up in LeFrak City<\/a> have shaped his approach to filmmaking.<\/p>\n

A lover of film
\n\"\"Behind the scenes, Douglas spends months writing, preparing, producing and releasing each one of his films, often juggling over a handful of projects at once.Courtesy Overtime PR<\/p>\n

QNS: What influences did you grow up with that inspired you to enter the film industry?<\/p>\n

Douglas: The story isn\u2019t what you would think. I\u2019ve been a fan of film my whole life \u2014 but I didn\u2019t get where I am because this was a trajectory based on my upbringing. I found my way to Hollywood in 2007 through marrying a young lady who wanted to be an actress. So, we came out here to give it a shot and I started on the road to becoming a producer to support her career. I originally had a stint working in the music business. I was running a magazine, and I worked on Wall Street for a decade. But now, I can say that I\u2019ve had 18 years in the film business and learned about it in every capacity. So it\u2019s not your traditional \u201cHey, he grew up loving movies and was writing scripts and had a camera filming around LeFrak City and putting things together,\u201d \u2014 it was never that.<\/p>\n

QNS: What are some of your favorite films and influences?\n<\/p>\n

Douglas: I grew up in the \u201880s, so I love \u201880s horror movies. I\u2019m a\u00a0 fan of everything George Lucas has done. I\u2019m a Star Wars geek. I love movies like the Godfather \u2014 the script for that movie is great \u2014 and I love Princess Bride. I love TV series, as well. I just love films and can just go on and on and on and on.<\/p>\n

QNS: What is your favorite movie?\n<\/p>\n

Douglas: You\u2019ve got to pick a genre of film \u2014 there\u2019s no one movie I can simply say I can sit back and watch multiple times over and over again. There\u2019s movies where anytime they\u2019re on, I\u2019m watching parts of it. Like Star Wars, I love episodes 4, 5 and 6. But there\u2019s also parts of 1, 2 and 3 I like, and 7, 8 and 9. Same with the Godfather \u2014 there\u2019s some parts I like and some parts I can do without. I also love the Halloween and Friday the 13th movies.<\/p>\n

QNS: What are your favorite movies of your own that you worked on?\n<\/p>\n

Douglas: The Paradies<\/a> franchise has always been close to me because that\u2019s how I started my own stuff. I started figuring out how to make movies with those \u2014 it\u2019s kind of like my Friday the 13th. But I love Lunar Lockdown<\/a> and Deadly Desire<\/a>. I just did To Get Her<\/a> in Italy, which is a phenomenal movie with Amber Stevens West, Branden Wellington, Jhon\u00e9 Lucas and Paide Hurd. Fatal Detour<\/a> was also so unique in itself because it\u2019s like, what if your car self-drove and it took you somewhere that wasn\u2019t where you wanted to go. I like my movies. I like my movies a lot.<\/p>\n

Navigating a Hollywood career
\n\"\"Douglas, center, joins the actresses on the set of Lunar Lockdown.Courtesy Overtime PR<\/p>\n

QNS: How did you learn how to be a producer?<\/p>\n

Douglas: I jumped right into it. That\u2019s the thing \u2014 you bump your head a bunch of times and you start learning how to not bump your head. It\u2019s chaos and order. You know, people think those things are different, but they\u2019re really the same. And when you figure that out, that\u2019s the first step in the business. It just depends on where you\u2019re sitting. I didn\u2019t know how to write a script at first, and I didn\u2019t go to writing school. What I learned while I\u2019ve been here is that my talent is being able to tell stories and putting things together. I will never fashion myself as a \u201cwriter,\u201d \u2014 I just think I can tell stories that the average person wants to see, wants to enjoy and wants to be a part of.<\/p>\n

QNS: You\u2019ve worked on 30 projects in the last 5 years \u2014 how do you juggle so many at once?\n<\/p>\n

Douglas: I have a great team, and that\u2019s what it is. I have guys I work with in Los Angeles Studios for some projects, and my partner is at Plymouth Boulevard for other projects. It just depends on what I\u2019m doing. I\u2019m writing with my writing team, creating the projects, casting for the projects \u2014 but different production companies are executing the production. So I find myself going from set to set making sure my story is being told properly. You hire the best actors for the job and then you trust your team. I\u2019m not a director. I\u2019m not sitting there yelling \u201caction\u201d and \u201ccut.\u201d I hire people to do the right thing and I trust them to deliver the stories.\u00a0<\/p>\n

QNS: What does your production schedule look like, then?\n<\/p>\n

Douglas: Well, I try to space projects out so I\u2019m not in physical production all at the same time. You can be in production for one and in development for another, and then in post-production for a third. Those projects may be released at the same time, but that\u2019s actually up to the distributor \u2014 Netflix, Hulu, Paramount Plus, or whoever. But they\u2019re all programming their release schedule around when you deliver the film.<\/p>\n

QNS: How long does it take to put a project together?\n<\/p>\n

Douglas: So, I may be talking to a network, and they could ask me to deliver on July 4 because they want an Aug. 4 release date. It\u2019s 30 days of pre-production and 30 days of shooting, so that\u2019s at least 60 days it has to come together before it can go to post-production which is normally 30 days. It\u2019ll be 90 days or even longer before I even get started shooting. You have to schedule accordingly. As for the writing process, that comes way before. During the pandemic is when I created a lot of these films, so that\u2019s why you see a lot of stuff came out between 2021-2024. But, for example, I created Deadly Desire in about a month and a half and we were in production two months later.<\/p>\n

QNS: What actors have you worked with, and what is it like watching them bring your vision to life?\n<\/p>\n

Douglas: I\u2019ve worked with so many great actors. Robert Ri\u2019chard is a great actor, Jhon\u00e9 Lucas is a phenomenal actress. My niece, Summer Arroyo is a great actress. I\u2019ve gotten to work with Raven-Symon\u00e9, Jennifer Freeman, Michael Beach, Kadeem Hardison, Brandon Quintin Adams, Golden Brooks, Jill Marie Jones, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Danny Glover, Evan Ross and Joseph Sikora. I\u2019ve seen them do a lot of things, and I\u2019m just amazed.<\/p>\n

QNS: What is it like when you see your vision come to life and it ends up being different than what you intended it to be?\n<\/p>\n

Douglas: It\u2019s always different. Always. And that\u2019s the funny part, because I\u2019ve had to learn that it\u2019s never going to be exactly what I want, and sometimes it\u2019s going to be better than what I want. It\u2019s still surreal for me to sit there and watch a film that was an idea in my head come to life. Like, Lunar Lockdown I did because I wanted it to do Black women in science fiction. Everybody was talking about Epstein Island, and I imagined, \u201cWhat if there was a prison on the moon with these notorious criminals?\u201d It\u2019s as simple as that. Epstein Island on the moon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Methods of storytelling
\n\"\"In 2025, Douglas won Producer of the Year at the Hollywood and African Prestigious Awards, as well as Best Independent Film for To Get Her and Best Independent Sci-Fi Film for Onyx.Courtesy Overtime PR<\/p>\n

QNS: You say you find it important your team tells your story properly \u2014 what stories do you want to tell?<\/p>\n

Douglas: Well, I think art imitates life. I tell stories that are extensions of what life can be. I like to tell thrillers, horrors, action adventures and epics. The biggest epic that I\u2019m working on now that I plan to shoot is a sword-and-sandal movie with people of color \u2014 Moors \u2014 which has never been done. I mean, I\u2019m humble. It\u2019s hard to say in Hollywood that something\u2019s never been done and you\u2019re going to do it. This business far exceeds me, and the greatest that have ever done it are still around in this business, so I don\u2019t consider myself in their league. But I did touch on something that\u2019s never been done.<\/p>\n

QNS: Why are stories like Moors so important to you?\n<\/p>\n

Douglas: Think about any one of these kinds of movies \u2014 Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, Troy, King Arthur, Robin Hood. Any of those movies where people are swinging swords in sandals. You think of white people, right? You don\u2019t see people of color. They act as if we didn\u2019t exist during that time period \u2014 but we did.<\/p>\n

QNS: Why is a story like that so important for people to see on a screen?\n<\/p>\n

Douglas: I\u2019m not here doing education or trying to teach the world through film because I think it\u2019s good for people to see it. I don\u2019t believe in that. But when you tell stories that haven\u2019t been told and touch on things that make people want to open a book, then so be it. I got inspired to do Moors because of a scene in True Romance between Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken talking about how all Sicilians came from Black people. I always wondered if this was true, so I looked it up. Sure enough, it was. It\u2019s a very fascinating time period, and I said, \u201cWow, I\u2019d love to tell that story.\u201d So there you go \u2014 a movie I was being entertained by made me look something up and decide I wanted to do that. So my goal is not education. But, if it\u2019s being done properly, it should open the door.<\/p>\n

QNS: What is it like telling all these different stories across a huge range of genres? How do you incorporate things like humor and action and all these components?<\/p>\n

Douglas: Well, think about it. I\u2019m a New Yorker. If you want to figure out how to put all those things together, get up any morning during rush hour and go from one borough to Manhattan and back. I assure you, you\u2019ll cover everything. The biggest comedy in the world is life, and it\u2019s the biggest horror at the same time. You can literally draw parallels in any film to anything from day-to-day life. If you decide not to take it too seriously and step back for a moment, as if somebody was watching our life as a television show, they\u2019d be very entertained. It\u2019s the statement \u201cI couldn\u2019t have written it better myself.\u201d These are things that just happen.<\/p>\n

QNS: How have those experiences separated your work from tropes you see in Hollywood?\n<\/p>\n

Douglas: Well, there are some tropes that are fun to play on, and there are other tropes that belong to everybody. I like to mix them up because we\u2019re all a little piece of everyone, you know? We have all learned to live in a small space together, and it\u2019s funny because those little nuances separate us from the rest of the world. When they\u2019re looking at other ethnicities and backgrounds based on what we see on television, that creates a narrative of who that person is. But that\u2019s crazy \u2014 when I\u2019m writing something, I\u2019m not going by the narrative that I was shown on television based on stereotypes.<\/p>\n

Learning from experience
\n\"\"Courtesy Overtime PR<\/p>\n

QNS: While Queens didn\u2019t impact you going into film, did it have any impact on who you are today?<\/p>\n

Douglas: Oh yeah. I went to Forest Hills High School, Halsey Junior High School and P.S. 206 for elementary school. Between the age of 9 and the time I graduated high school, I have hung out with every ethnic background that exists and heard every language. You realize, more than anything else, we are all the same. The fact that people keep trying to divide us is hysterical. If you\u2019re in New York City, you will see a little United Nations walk by you at any given moment. When you do this everyday your whole life as a pedestrian in NYC, you walk around and interact with everyone, even if you don\u2019t realize it. You don\u2019t have to say hi and get a cup of coffee with them everyday, but you\u2019ve taken a train. You\u2019ve held the door for someone you don\u2019t know. You\u2019ve interacted with people without even knowing it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

QNS: What have you learned throughout your time in Hollywood?\n<\/p>\n

Douglas: There\u2019s no way 18 years ago I could have dreamed of undertaking this. I would have embarrassed everyone and myself, and no one would have taken me seriously. It\u2019s hard to get people to take you seriously. In this town, people want to make money, and they\u2019ll lie about what they want to do and their intentions. There\u2019s a lack of accountability and authenticity. People can say things to your face that they don\u2019t mean. Being a New Yorker, that\u2019s not something any of us can do no matter what your ethnicity is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

QNS: What kind of things do those people in Hollywood say?\n<\/p>\n

Douglas: There\u2019s just things people do that I\u2019m blown away by the audacity. Like, you walk to the train everyday and pass the operator \u2014 you\u2019re not going to be disrespectful to them in the morning knowing you\u2019re going to see that same person the very next day. You\u2019re not going to be rude to the guy that hands you your coffee, or give counterfeit money to him and act like you didn\u2019t next time. There\u2019s just a level of accountability as a human that you have when you interact with the same people in your neighborhood everyday. Hollywood does not care. They think they can do these things to people because you\u2019re in a hierarchy or you\u2019ll just never see them again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

QNS: Have you ever personally experienced that?\n<\/p>\n

Douglas: No \u2014 I watch and learn. I\u2019ve been blessed that this has not happened. I tend to keep up my relationships where I don\u2019t think anyone would want to behave with me in that manner. I think we\u2019re all pretty honorable people that I deal with \u2014 we say what we mean and mean what we say. That\u2019s the kind of people I keep around me.<\/p>\n

QNS: What\u2019s something about you or the industry the audience might not know but you want them to know?\n<\/p>\n

Douglas: I\u2019m a fan of film, and being a fan of film is what makes me a good filmmaker, but being a fan of movie stars I hope makes me a great filmmaker. I believe in movie stars, but I think people are losing the value of them everyday. Social media is making everyone think that they\u2019re a movie star, and we\u2019re losing the value of what it is to be around these celebrated people who make things you want to see. When you go to the theater, you transport someplace. I just don\u2019t want people to diminish that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Search our comprehensive guide to things to do in Queens for more local events \u2014 or submit your…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-120459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-queens","12":"tag-queens-headlines","13":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}