Former ComAcad student becomes Hollywood success By Emma Rose Neal and Luca Ross Fake blood dripped from the mob of teenagers in the Devonshire quad as they acted in “Zombie High School,” an original short film by former Drake student Matthew Kazuo Firpo. 12 years later, Firpo has written 7 feature films, including “Mimi From Rio,” currently being produced by Ridley Scott for Netflix, and the upcoming “Eternals”, starring Angelina Jolie and Gemma Chan, for Marvel Studios. Firpo has been named one of Forbes’ 30 under 30, Zombie High School has racked up over 2 million views on YouTube, and his movie Ruin was placed on the top of the Black List, an annual ranking of the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood. In 2008, Firpo received the senior superlative of “most original,” and still demonstrates this label as a successful director, screenwriter, and photographer. While a student at Drake, Firpo was the feature and photo editor for the Jolly Roger, an enthusiastic student of ComAcad, and began the Drake assassin game which has evolved into a yearly tradition. Firpo looks back at Drake as a place that empowered people to be themselves and valued creativity, “Drake was pivotal in fostering and encouraging that creative spark that put me on the path towards writing movies and making movies for a living, telling stories for a living.” Firpo said. After graduating high school, Firpo pursued his passion for filmmaking by attending NYU Tisch film school. “I just kept working and working and I found myself in a position where I’m making the things that people want to see,” Firpo shared. His next big project is his debut feature film, “Motor City Girls”, planned to be shot in the summer of 2020. “It’s about trauma, it’s about otherness, it’s about the high school experience. It was a coming of age story essentially for young women, but it’s a story that is very true to what I believe and the way that I sort of see the world,” Firpo said. In addition to Firpo’s film The Buccaneer, 2008 achievements, he’s shot editorials and covers all around the world, and led photo expeditions in places like Mount Kilimanjaro and the Swiss Alps. Firpo also has interest “We should live incrementally better because if we don’t, we make it exponentially worse.” in the our lives trying to make the world humanitarian crisis. He explored this by working at the Yucatan and Tijuana borders in the Central America migrant crisis, and Syria and Lebanon for a photo project. Peter Parish, the assistant teacher for ComAcad in 2008, remembers Firpo fondly. “Matt Firpo was one of those students who was incredibly driven. He had an idea and was willing to do everything to follow through on that idea and make it happen,” Parish said. Firpo lives his life as a creative storyteller, and believes “if you love something, chase it with everything you’ve got.” From screenings in Drake’s Little Theatre to theatres worldwide, Firpo strives to make a difference through his passion. “We should live our lives trying to make the world incrementally better because if we don’t, we make it exponentially worse,” Firpo said. Photo courtesy of mkf.tv 14
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