Spencer Devlin Howard

Spencer grew up within sight of the nightly fireworks show at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. His life has been shaped by the vision, glamour, and hard work of telling stories with a camera. There’s magic in moviemaking, epic scope in serialized television, and intimate connection in short-form videos. The relationship we have to the moving image is still in its first steps: only a hundred years old compared to the millennia we’ve been telling stories. There’s still so much that we can learn about ourselves.

Being one of those weirdo awesome homeschooled kids, Spencer had a lot of free time on his hands. He got an early start when he commandeered the family VHS camcorder and, like many kids with access to these tools (including an early editing bay consisting of two VCRs hooked up to each other), recreated scenes from his favorite movies: Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Singin’ in the Rain, The Shining, The Producers, The Hunt for Red October, Groundhog Day, and Modern Times. In addition to those early influences, Spencer was a devoted follower of George Carlin’s long and varied career, Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s series, Vladimir Nabokov’s serpentine wordplay, Bill Watterson’s reflections on childhood and friendship, and Eddie Izzard’s onstage wardrobe.

It was at UC San Diego that he met his constant collaborators and friends, forming The West, a creative partnership that bridges the gaps between live and filmed performance, uses a multidisciplinary approach to storytelling, and always tries to fit in a fart joke someplace.

He works as in podcasting. When he grows up, he wants to be either Walt Disney or Werner Herzog. There is no in between. Here’s his portfolio.