Check Out Josh Lindquist’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Lindquist

Josh, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I became interested in filmmaking and writing from a young age, and going into college I knew that I wanted to pursue that as a career. I was also drawn to the military, for a variety of reasons, and so in college I obtained a Film Studies degree from the University of Colorado, but most of my time was spent doing things for ROTC.

Once I graduated, I was assigned to a reservist unit in Los Alamitos, California. So I started working in the film industry as a PA. Freelancing a blast, but it was also difficult, so in 2014 when I got a job offer in Colorado that was not in entertainment, but it was steady, I decided to move back and take it. I worked in that job and a few others after I left it until 2019, when I realized that I had gotten off course in life and needed to get back into the film industry.

So I moved back to LA in late 2019, and starting working as a PA again, getting back into the industry. Things were going great for a few months until covid shut down production across the country. I was laid off, and that’s when I started really writing. During the pandemic, I published two novels and wrote my first couple screenplays. As production started returning, I got back to work, sometimes as a PA other times as a Covid Safety PA, and a few times as an Associate Producer on some independent feature films.

I also started going to acting classes over zoom, which was never something I thought I could do. But I had wonderful teachers (shoutout to the Just Be Acting Studio and Katie Sarife and Tyler Steelman) who gave me the skills and confidence to realize that I could be an actor if I wanted to put in the time and work.

In 2022, my lease was up and I decided to move back to Colorado Springs to be around family for a while. I got a fun job at an escape room and did some writing. It was fun but ultimately I was starting to make the same mistake I made in 2014 when I took a job outside of the industry. So in April of 2024, I left the escape room, started my own production company, and on a whim started looking into acting gigs in Colorado.

And it was the best decision I’ve ever made! I’ve lived most of my life in Colorado, and yet I had no idea that we have a small but thriving film industry all across the front range. I’ve worked on projects in Denver, the Springs, met filmmakers from Pueblo and Fort Collins. There’s so many passionate and talented artists out here, and I’ve been so fortunate to start working alongside them.

I’ve acted in a number of awesome projects, including a short film for a 48 Hour Film Festival premiering in mid October, a commercial for the Arapahoe Ski Basin Resort, local indie films, and even some immersive theater projects in Denver! My production company, JLE Productions, released its debut music video on September 9th for the song Mind Games off of rising Denver star Seattle Kay’s new album! We have more projects in development now, focusing on music videos, commercials, and short films.

I am gearing up to go the American Film Market (AFM) convention in Las Vegas in November, to try to sell or finance multiple screenplays I’ve written. And I also play Dungeons & Dragons professionally. So I am living the dream; acting, writing, producing, directing, and Dungeon Mastering full time! I am so grateful to be here and to be doing it in beautiful Colorado!

I hope I’m not getting ahead of future questions here, but right now is an interesting time for the film industry. Covid was a massive change for the industry, and the bounce-back from that has been impacted by the SAG and WGA strikes (which I wholeheartedly support and think were a huge benefit to every working actor and writer in the industry). But the biggest impact has been from the streaming market being oversaturated. Too many competing distributors are releasing too much content, and their revenue is plateauing as nearly every person has at least one or more streaming subscriptions.

So the industry is re-configuring and no one knows exactly what that will look like. Everyone I know in LA says not to move back there right now for film work. Atlanta is doing alright, but still slowing significantly. I personally predict that independent films will make a huge rise as studios and streamers change and reevaluate their business models. I sincerely hope that Colorado starts offering better tax credits and incentives for productions so that we can compete with our neighboring states Utah and New Mexico, both of whom have significantly more production currently that us.

So I look forward to being part of that resurgence in indie filmmaking and doing it with all of the wonderful artists I have met here in Colorado!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Definitely not, but that’s what makes it a journey and not a given. I’d say the biggest struggles were learning about myself and how to be healthy in the world around me. Learning about my mental health and what my needs are has been a massive boost to how much I can do creatively. And just learning what things in life are not important has helped me focus on what is important.

And as for the film industry, it is an incredibly competitive industry. And it typically has insanely long hours. Thankfully the latter problem is improving as people realize how dangerous that can be.

So all of the struggles have given me a good perspective on what things I can do better as a producer and director, to try to ensure that no one else has to struggle with what I went through in the earlier days of my career.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My work has been quite scattered around, and I’m very proud of all of it, because none of it was easy to complete. As an actor, I’ve been focusing on just developing my skills and improving in the craft. I have a number of projects that I’ve filmed that will be releasing between mid-October and January that I can’t wait to share with everyone.

As a writer, my fantasy books tend to explore themes of religion and personal ethics and complications around notions of honor and duty. My favorite screenplay I’ve written is about the Lost Colony of Roanoke; it’s my first historical fiction and in researching it I learned a lot about that event and the things leading up to it. To my knowledge there hasn’t been an adaptation of that story that is anything other than the English colonist’s perspectives. So my story intertwines the perspectives of the colonists and the Algonquian tribes present at the time, and I think its a really good illustration, using real events, of how toxic and damaging racism and colonialism and unwarranted aggression can be. To everyone involved. It is my favorite thing that I have written so far, and my goal is to get it financed and attach a director who has ties to the Algonquian communities who were affected by those events in the late 1500s.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Getting a super basic camcorder and making silly skits with my siblings and my neighbor Clayton Miller (who is an amazingly talented actor, comedian, and impressionist). We’d film them and show them to our friends and make them laugh. Just working with your friends to craft something funny and interesting and then showing it to people and watching them share in your joy and laughter was enthralling, and its a thing I still pursue to this day.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jle-productions.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshlindquistbp/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nerdsandfriends
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2567732/

Image Credits
Duncan Hollis
David Hayden
Andrew Shephard