(Photo by © Karen Pulfer Focht)
Inevitably, when people first meet Mike Griggs, they can’t help but notice one prominent feature—his fulsome facial hair, which he started growing in 2013. “Everyone always comments on my beard,” he laughs, “and my common response is ‘thanks, I grew it all by myself!’”
Mike first came to Memphis in 2005. He enrolled at the University of Memphis, majoring in Recording Technology with a plan to become a studio engineer. But while attending college he was also working at Smith & Nephew, a medical device manufacturer, in their “innovation group”, where he began to develop an interest in video production. Mike explains, “They were shooting interviews and focus groups, and they said if we bought a Mac and Final Cut (editing software), would you figure out how to use it? And I immediately responded that yes, I could do that!”
Mike went on to work as a wedding videographer and later became the lead video editor at a mega-church in Chicago. There, he met a former Hollywood director, and they began working on short films and documentaries together. When the opportunity to work on a feature length documentary arose, Mike spent two years travelling the globe to capture footage.
Once the doc was done, Mike wanted to return to Memphis, to be close to his two children Chloe (10) and Noah (8). So how does it feel to be back? He put it this way in a recent social media post: “The physical places in my past are definitely worth thinking about—but, if I’m honest with myself, it’s the people that made those places special. I’ve known some folks in my life from whom I could be apart for literally years and still pick up—seemingly—right where we left off. What I love most about that is the feeling of familiarity. The knowing that we don’t have to establish a rapport; just discover the deeper, the newer, the true. Memphis is that for me. I feel like I’ve known who you were, and I’m excited to discover who you’ve become since we last met.”
By the way, if you want to become one of those people in Mike’s life who make a place special, it’s actually pretty easy. “I love movies,” Mike says, “and I quote a lot of movie references. If you ‘get’ one of my random movie quotes, we’ll probably become fast friends.”
