You call yourself a nerdy jock. 2 things that are typically antithetical of each other. Can you elaborate on what makes you a nerdy jock?

I think all of us are eclectic mixes of our backgrounds and our passions. I've played sports my whole life. That was my social plug in to American culture as a first-generation American. My parents always pushed education so I was doing Odyssey of the Mind creative projects and chess club tournaments on the weekends and at the same time mastering the perfect kickball trajectory at recess. I'm very passionate and dedicated about everything I do. It's a hacker mentality, I guess. I use that nerdy fascination and the urge to solve problems mixed with the athletic work-ethic and finesse and that forms to my identity.

Getting a four-year athletic scholarship for division 1 football must be exciting , especially at an athletically notable school like Georgia Tech, can you talk a little bit about that experience, the highs and the lows?

I had a great experience at Georgia Tech. I was around a lot of amazing people everyday in Atlanta. I learned a lot about how to solve problems and a lot about myself when put into difficult situations. I love my teammates and the camaraderie of a football team. My senior year we ended up pulling everything together and winning the ACC Championship and going to the Orange Bowl; I wouldn't trade that experience for the world. You learn a lot about teamwork and mental toughness playing at that level and I think a lot of that translates into film. You start with a dream and you turn it into a reality by pulling the best out of everyone involved. I was also involved with the National College Players Association and I still am involved and we are working to help reform some of the laws that the NCAA has in place that systematically oppress people. You may have heard of concussion cases and amateurism being contested but that really just scratches the surface when it comes to the social issues that plague college athletics. Overall I have so much love and respect for my experience and the people that helped shape me along the way and I have been blessed with a wealth of opportunities and capitalizing on those opportunities brought me to the best film school in the country here at USC so I'm very grateful and I can't see my life's journey any other way.

A few years ago, you were a digital marketing coordinator for CNN at one point, managing their Facebook and twitter profiles. Between then and now, what has changed in the online and social media marketing landscape and what do you see in the future for how brands interact with consumers?

I have a lot of thoughts...I think the fact that there is so much attention and money pouring through social media and tech startups is amazing. I just read that San Francisco has the highest population of millionaires in the country, 1,600 of them because of Twitter's IPO. That's extremely inspiring to see that young people have the potential to find avenues outside of the traditional work structure and be wildly successful. I saw how social media also changed the social consciousness of the world by helping in the Arab Spring and I have some friends in Tunisia that I met through AIESEC and I learned how important social media was in organizing that social movement to overthrow a government. College students overthrew a government, let that sit in for a minute. I think storytelling is the future. With consumers getting smarter and also consuming so much more content that a Facebook banner is not doing it anymore. You really have to organize and galvanize a sub-culture with storytelling. Hip-hop has been doing it for years, Wiz Khalifa and Curren$y have been giving their "followers" names and tags that empowers them and gives them a sub-culture to connect to and share with. If a company can foster an environment for people to be themselves then they will win online. But they can only do that by creative and artful storytelling.

You are pursuing a Masters in Fine Arts at USC in cinema and directing, what are some projects you can talk about that you're currently working on, either on your own time or for school?

I've finished a couple projects in school. One with Elijah Steen from the Trojan Football team called "Beast" and I also finished "I'm Good" last semester. I am working on a Nigerian cultural coming of age story called "African Stew" and I am doing sound on a short film in CTPR 546 called "Drone". Drone is starring Daniel Sharman and Michael Trucco and it takes a look at the US Drone pilot program and that comes out May10th at Norris Theater. You can find some of my work on www.vimeo.com/osahontongo.

 The Creative Coup is a collective of artists starting from USC and I'll keep you updated on what is going on with that, but it's pretty exciting.

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