- Thank you Michael.

And you know, when we're usually in these settings, it's to usually highlight a famous storyteller or a famous author.

Today is no different.

We are sitting down today with Marc Isaacs.

Marc is an actor, he's a journalist, he's a producer.

And you recently started taking a focus in screenwriting.

Is that correct?

- Well, it's been a number of years I've been doing that.

I've been dabbling.

I started with short films and I was in an acting class in LA where you could bring outside material, like Hollywood material or you could write your own.

And so I just started writing my own and then I developed that from short films into pilots and, and screenplays, feature films.

- So you're really like a jack of all trades pretty much.

- And a master of none, as they say.

- That's that's what we like to hear.

Well, thank you for coming out here and talking with us today.

I know Buffalo is not a quick trip.

True.

But you know, that's, that's not something you're uncommon to because you've traveled all over the country, you've done stuff in Houston, you've done stuff in Los Angeles.

And I wanna know, where did that journey begin for you?

- I moved outta New York State two days after 911 and I went to Houston and it was like going to outer space.

I never thought I would leave New York State.

I never thought I'd be somewhere else.

And I suddenly found myself in Houston working and taking on a whole different career, several careers there, ended up in Wisconsin, went to LA back to Texas, and then now back in New York State.

So I mean, I've definitely traveled a lot, but New York State is always home to me.

- I've been to Houston, I gotta know, what did you think of Houston from the television environment?

- I worked at a talk show and so oh my God, it was, it was, yeah, it was really cool.

'cause it was a talk show that, that ABC ran and ABC owned by Disney had put money into this show and was developing it as a national show.

When I came on board, it was the final year of the show before it got canceled.

So I got this, this great peek at what producing a potentially national property would look like.

And that meant flying in guests from everywhere.

I could fly in guests from LA, I could fly guests from New York, I would meet people like Destiny's Child.

Fashion designers, actors, that kind of thing.

And I was producing one of the five episodes every week.

And so I was working as a a full-time talk show producer, which I never would've guessed when I was doing news back in local stations in New York.

I never thought of myself as an entertainment or a talk show producer, but it was amazing.

- And you've been in TV stations like ABC, CNN, CBS, all the letters.

and it all, like I said earlier, it all begins here in the North Country.

You've even worked with WWNY, you started at, if I'm not mistaken, FSR in Ogdensburg.

And you've even done some stuff with Z-93.

So tell me a little bit about those experiences.

- I loved radio.

I mean, I grew up listening to the radio.

I grew up calling into the stations winning contests.

I won so many contests in high school that they, limited at that point, you couldn't win more than one every 30 days.

And my boss in at FSR got a job in 1996 at Channel 7 doing weather.

And I'm like, I wanna do what he's doing.

And so that became my transition into doing radio and TV.

But the real pivot was when they started the expanded morning show and they asked me if I wanted to produce.

I hadn't been a news producer, I hadn't done anything really with news, but I was a good writer and I knew how to learn TV writing.

And so they trained me to take over producing the, the morning news.

And I loved it.

It was very different than being on the air.

It's very different to be the person that's shaping the story, shaping the experience for viewers.

And that's what got me into doing news full time.

And you've - Gotta have some fun stories from the news that you are allowed to share on the air.

Are there any that you can share with us - From, well, actually my freelancing, there's a great story.

I was freelancing in Houston and this is the 60 minutes two piece.

I was there on site and I wasn't doing a story.

I was literally watching, overnight, watching a woman who was gonna be interviewed by Dan Rather in New York the next day.

So basically I show up at her house and I'm out there in my vehicle and her son is doing something in the garage.

And so I go up and say, "Hey, it looks kind of weird that I'm sitting out here.

I just wanna let you know I'm here with 60 Minutes too."

They invite me in, I stay inside the whole night and I'm talking to him, I'm talking to his mother the next day she flies out to New York and she's interviewed by Dan Rather for 60 minutes too.

Oh God.

Like it's that kind of weirdness that when you go into a job as a producer, you never know what you're gonna get.

You never know what environment you're gonna be in, what kind of people you're gonna be in touch with.

And it's kind of that excitement of, you know, the unknown.

You just jump in the deep end of the pool and go for it.

It's what makes this job so much fun.

Yeah, And - It's not just news you've done because I see you've, like, as you mentioned, you've been a weatherman, you were also a traffic reporter, but now you're starting to delve into a world of short films and if I'm not mistaken, documentaries.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

- Well, I started writing comedy shorts more than a decade ago, and I love writing comedy and I thought that would be something I would write a lot of.

I did write a comedy called First Timers, a short film that at Last Tech it's gotten 55 million views on YouTube.

I thought that was gonna be my avenue, but what I'm really drawn to are true stories.

And that comes from my news background is telling true stories.

And so as somebody who grew up in the North Country, I always thought like, what's kind of overlooked?

People don't know that we're here, they know of New York City, but they don't know about the North Country.

They don't know who we are.

So I started looking, even when I was in LA about how can I write about New York State people?

How can I write about people who are not famous, but have like this national or international story appeal?

And so I started writing stories about America's first supermodel who was institutionalized in Ogdensburg.

I started writing about pro football's first soccer style kicker who went to Ogdensburg Free Academy before joining the Bills.

So I started writing about people that, that are New York state products that were unheard of.

And that's really where I focus now - is it a true story?

Is it a person that's, that's set in New York state and it's something that people just don't know about.

- And there was something else I noticed on your IMDB regarding your family history.

You have First Nations relation, is that correct?

- Yeah, yeah.

So my, my biological father is Mohawk, so all of my Isaac's family is Mohawk from Canada.

In fact, my grandparents Cora and Willard were at the residential school, the Mohawk Institute often called the Mush Hole.

They were there.

And I'm currently trying to get their school records from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada.

So yeah, it's not like a, 10 generations back thing.

It's very immediate.

And I'm enrolled at Tyendinaga in Deseronto Ontario.

And can we expect to - Hear any of that family history and some upcoming projects you're working on?

- Most definitely.

I'm working on one one right now that's really highly personal with more of a biographical type of story about discovering who my family is and what they're connected to.

I've been doing a lot of research about it.

I'm gonna be going to both Six Nations and Tyendinaga later this year to talk to some people who are connected to my family or know, knew my family.

That one will be more of a documentary style.

I don't see necessarily turning that into a narrative film, a short film or a feature I wanna make that the documentary that is really close to my heart.

- I'm certainly looking forward to seeing that.

But there's also something else I wanted to highlight.

Something that I came across while I was looking you up was your background.

And there was something that stuck out to me.

You did a summer job as a drama counselor in Camp Loyaltown.

I see that smile on your face.

Yeah.

Because you mentioned that was, and I'm the single greatest job you've ever done.

Yeah.

And - Why is that?

I was in college studying theater and it in theater in college.

Like, it's very theoretical, even though you get to do plays, you get to act, you get to write things like that.

But to teach drama to kids and adults with special needs was so different.

And one of the most marvelous things I experienced was I would, I would have a class of, of teacher or teachers that were there with me and they were helping their students, you know, facilitate.

And there was one girl in the class that hadn't spoken all summer, hadn't said a word, completely nonverbal.

We didn't even know if she could speak at all.

And so in that particular class, we were singing songs, we were singing TV theme songs, and this is before the internet.

So we weren't like looking up on a phone, we were just remembering the songs.

And this one girl who was nonverbal all summer broke out and singing Popeye the Sailor Man.

And all of us just jaws drops.

And that's such a magical moment that you, that we created a point where her singing was accessible to her, her communicating something that she knew.

And that little bit of information just was so massive for us.

That's so heartwarming.

- Like coming from a background with special education, I know how big that can be.

And that's, that's super huge to hear and I can understand why that was the single greatest job you've ever worked.

So, you know, as we start to wrap up, I wanna ask you, you know, for people that are starting to get into this but don't really know where to start, what to expect, what's some advice you can give for young storytellers to - Get started?

Learn how to tell a story.

I mean, learn how people tell stories and then find ways, tell your own stories.

Because if you know how to tell your own stories, you can take them anywhere.

You can create a one person show, you can use it for an audition.

You can find material that, that resonates with you.

When I meet young actors, like I met some young actors last week at the Actors Expo in Buffalo, I gave them the same advice, like, learn who you are as a storyteller, what stories do you wanna bring to life?

What means something to you?

And follow your heart.

- And my last question for you today is, where can people expect to see you?

Now that we're in the 2026 year, happy New Year, where can people expect to see you this year?

- This year I'm gonna be hardcore pitching my feature scripts that are about New York state figures because I want those to be made into TV shows.

I want them to be made into feature films and I want them to be something that, that audiences not just in my home state of New York see, but audiences everywhere can see.

And where can people look for those?

Well, right now we've got a pilot that we're shooting or a proof of concept for a pilot that we're shooting and we're hoping to put that into some festivals.

So local festivals, local film festivals, ones around New York State and Ontario are probably the place that you're gonna see me show up with a lot of my material.

Well, Marc, I'm certainly - Looking forward to seeing that.

Folks be sure to check that out.

And Marc, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today.

We really appreciate it.

You're welcome.

It's a pleasure to be home, Luke.