Rich Celenza is someone who was born into the fashion / entertainment industry. His father’s family can claim almost a century in the fashion industry. Originating in the town of Vasto in Italy, they came to eventually own and operate the largest garment shop in the city of Chicago. As a little boy Rich spent a great deal of time at his aunt and uncle’s clothing factory learning about the garment industry, in fact, most of his immediate family members were tailors, designers and models.

Rich’s father didn’t have an interest in the garment industry so he went out and opened his own restaurant / nightclub, getting Rich involved in his business from a very young age by teaching him how to book talent (musical acts, comedians). Rich grew up checking out acts of the likes of Frank Sinatra, James Brown, Madonna, Prince, Lionel Richie, Barry Manilow, Carole King, Tower of Power, Bernie Mac, Sam Kinison, Andrew Dice Clay and hundreds of others. As he grew into his later teens, Rich decided to follow in his families’ footsteps into fashion, going into modeling and graduating from Barbizon Modeling School in Chicago. After graduating, he soon made his way into acting, writing, directing and eventually producing full feature films, shorts and commercials.

In between developing film projects, Rich found himself always wanting to help struggling up and coming talent because he understood not only how hard it is to break into the entertainment and fashion industries, but also how much dishonesty surrounds these businesses. All the while Rich started working with his youngest daughter, who eventually became one of the best known runway models in the United States at just nine years of age. Modeling schools soon started to take notice of Rich’s training techniques and he was asked to act in a consulting role with their instructors. It wasn’t long before he was being noticed by many professionals in the fashion industry and was being chosen by independent designers and fashion events to help them cast for major fashion shows. At about this time Rich was also asked to start speaking at Film Schools and Modeling Schools.

Over the course of these experiences Rich realized that more and more modeling students who graduated from modeling schools didn’t know what to actually do after they graduated. Rich also realized there are many girls out there who have huge potential but can’t afford to go to modeling school, and that’s when he realized that he had another passion in addition to filmmaking - finding a way to help up and coming trained models along with untrained girls take their careers to the next level.

"There’s no such thing as perfection, but if you don't aim for it, you won't even get close.”. Quote: Rich Celenza