Texas Crew Productions

HORROR.

Series Premiere - Dec 20th @ 11pm | 10c

HAUNTINGS.

#HASHTAGS.

Learn More
BRUCE.

Ripley's Believe it or Not!: Hosted By Bruce Campbell - June 9th @ 9pm | 8c

BELIEVE IT.

OR NOT!

Learn More
MISSING TWINS.

The Disappearance of The Millbrook Twins - Saturday, November 23 at 7 p.m. ET/PT

A 30-YEAR MYSTERY.

A NEW INVESTIGATION.

Learn More
WELCOME

New Series Staring Christopher Garetano - Premeires 8.11.19

TO OUR

STRANGE WORLD

Learn More
FRIDAY NIGHTS.

Go inside the locker rooms and behind the scenes with the most high profile High School Football teams in America.

PRIME TIME.

FOOTBALL TOWN

Watch Now
DREXLER.

ESPN'S 30 for 30: Phi Slama Jama

OLAJUWON.

BENNY?

Learn More
OBAMA.

2018 NAACP Image Award Winner - Outstanding Documentary (Television)

HIS WORDS.

HISTORY.

Learn More
ALCATRAZ.

Alcatraz Escape: The Lost Evidence - A 2-HR Special

Learn More

THE ESCAPE.

LOST EVIDENCE.
A CRASH.

The Disappearance of Maura Murray - A Six-Part True Crime Series

7 MINUTES.

SHE'S GONE.

Learn More
STRANGER THINGS.

The Dark Files - A 2-HR Special

FOR REAL.

Learn More

about

our work

clients

casting

scroll down

8940 Research Blvd. Suite 200 Austin, Tx 78758
p:
e: info@texascrew.com

ABOUT TCP

Texas Crew Productions shoots and produces television content for clients around the world. TCP opened its doors 25-plus years ago as a crewing company for clients such as 60 Minutes, The Olympics on NBC, MTV, and the NFL Network, and has grown into a full-service production company that today has run hundreds of complex productions, bringing ideas from concept to network premiere and earning more than 20-Emmy Awards in the process. From documentary to reality to live TV, from long-form series and specials to branded content and music videos, TCP offers a wide variety of premium experiences in the production landscape. Some examples of work we’re most proud of includes: the NAACP Image Award-winning 2-HR Special The 44th President: In His Own Words, a first-person documentary special on President Obama’s presidency which aired on HISTORY; Esquire Network’s celebrated docu-series Friday Night Tykes; the Emmy-award winning Ironman World Championshipon NBC; ESPN 30 for 30’s Brian and the Boz and Phi Slama Jama; VH1’s ATL: The Untold Story of Atlanta’s Rise in the Rap Game; HISTORY’s 2-HR Special Alcatraz: Search For The Truth; Oxygen’s 6-part true crime series The Disappearance of Maura Murray; and Fox Sports’ Super Bowl feature on Texas Football.

THE CREW

Click on the image to learn more about each member of Texas Crew Productions

David Karabinas

CEO

DAVID KARABINAS

CEO

David is a principal and co-founder of Texas Crew Productions in Austin,TX. An Emmy and NAACP Image Award winning producer, David has managed, overseen, budgeted, produced, directed or coordinated literally thousands of television productions around the globe. In 1996, David took over operation of Texas Crew, Inc, a production services company based in Austin, TX. Over the next seventeen years David would help turn Texas Crew into one of the premiere production service companies, providing production services for eight Olympic Games, including the first ever global Olympic Torch Relay in 2004.

In 2012, he co-founded Texas Crew Productions with the launch of TCP's first series Friday Night Tykes on Esquire and the YouTube’s Original content channel Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls at the Party. Recent Executive Producer credits include History’s award-winning documentary The 44th President: In His Own Words (2017 NAACP Image Award), Oxygen’s Disappearance of Maura Murray, Esquire’s Emmy-nominated series Friday Night Tykes: Steel Country, and NBC Sports iconic Ironman World Championship. Other notable projects include ESPN’s 30 for 30 films Phi Slama Jama and Brian and the Boz, and History’s Alcatraz: Search for the Truth and The Dark Files.

Chip Rives

President

CHIP RIVES

President

Chip Rives was practically born at the Houston Astrodome. Certainly grew up there, and endured many of his most cherished life’s experiences there. It was also there, in this multi-colored national treasure, where his passion for sports – and storytelling – truly emerged. And, unfortunately it’s also where, as a kid he learned that if he wanted to be involved in sports, it wasn’t gonna be on the field. So he began writing.

In 2015, his life came full circle when he produced and directed MLB Network’s 8th Wonder of the World – a documentary honoring 50 years of Houston’s iconic Astrodome. Before, and after, he’s gone on to do other awesome things in and out of the sports television world.

He’s won Six Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award and an NACCP award. His numerous broadcast documentary credits include ESPN 30 for 30’s Brian and the Boz and Phi Slama Jama, History’s Alcatraz: Search for the Truth, Discovery’s Ghosts of Bataan, CBS Sports’ History in the Astrodome and History’s The 44th President: In His Own Words.

He also produced and wrote the critically acclaimed Jazz documentary film, Chops.

His latest productions include the History Channel special The Dark Files, Oxygen’s The Disappearance of Maura Murray, NBC Sports’ Ironman World Championships and NFL Network’s Football Town.

Currently, he’s still reveling in the glory of the 2017 Houston Astros World Series Championship, while over-seeing production on an upcoming series for Travel Channel.

Eric Begley

Principle

ERIC BEGLEY

Principle

Eric Begley

Terry Stewart

President TCPS

TERRY STEWART

Principal

A 12-time Emmy Award winning Director of Photography and Producer with over 40 years of experience in television, Terry has traveled to more than 80 countries around the world covering major news and sporting events for the most respected broadcasters in the industry.
Terry was the Executive Producer and Director of Photography for the 1996, 2002, and 2004 Olympic Torch Relays where he was responsible for developing and supervising all of Texas Crew’s broadcast services.

Terry has been a Director of Photography for:
2 ESPN 30 For 30’s- “Brian and the Boz” and Emmy award winning “Phi Slama Jama” • Over 85 Ironman races including 26 Ironman World Championships • 9 Olympic Games • 7 Super Bowls • 7 World Series of Poker Main Events • 6 World Series • Over 30 features for HBO “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” since it’s inception in 1995 • 60 episodes- Executive Producer and Director of Photography for Emmy nominated “Friday Night Tykes” • History Channel’s “Alcatraz: Search For The Truth” • ABC News and Sports including 20/20 • CBS New & Sports including 60 Minutes • NBC News & Sports including Dateline • Over 100 ESPN features • Over 75 Olympic Profiles for NBC & CBS

Rick Cikowski

Principle

RICK CIKOWSKI

Principle

Rick is a director and editor and one of the principles at Texas Crew Productions. Rick has directed some of today’s biggest names in music, sports and entertainment including Bruce Campbell, 50 Cent, Q-Tip, Kid Ink, Pitbull, Ludacris, Gary Sinise, Tyrese Gibson, Grandmaster Flash, Kobe Bryant, Jae Crowder and Lawrence Timmons to name a few.

He was also recently editor on History Channel’s highly acclaimed 2-hr special Alcatraz: Search for the Truth and was executive producer, co- director and lead editor on Real Change: Artistsfor Education which aired on CBS in 2 1 . Rick was also the editor for Behind The Music: Ludacris and BTM Nicole Scherzinger.

Rick was co-producer and lead editor on the PGA Nominated theatrical documentary Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story.

Cikowski’s internationally aired work has led him as far as India where he worked with the Dalai Lama on HBO’s Little Monk. He has also cut shows for various networks such as Shark Week’s Day of the Shark for Discovery Channel, Amazing Animal Inventions for Animal Planet, Dangerous Beauty for MSNBC, History’s Mysteries for History Channel, and La Esquina, a weekly series for with hip hop star Pitbull. Cikowski’s talents have made him a key resource for HBO, CBS, Fox, MTV, Travel Channel, The History Channel, ESPN, PBS, and Showtime.

Brad Bernstein

Chief Creative Officer

BRAD BERNSTEIN

Chief Creative Officer

Brad Bernstein is an Emmy and NAACP Image-Award winning writer, producer and director. He spent two decades producing in New York, Los Angeles and Miami before moving to Austin, TX in 2016. With the Texas Crew Productions acquisition of his Miami-based company, Corner of the Cave Media, Brad is now a principal at Texas Crew and serves as TCP’s creative director and executive producer. Brad currently serves as executive producer on TCP’s 4-part (4 x 60) crime series, which will air on Oxygen in April, 2019 and as EP on our Ripley’s Believe It Or Not series (10 x60) which is slated to air in the spring of 2019.

His work in 2017 included a number of series and specials including the NAACP Image Award-winning 2-HR Documentary Special The 44th President: In His Own Words for History; The Dark Files, a 2-HR conspiracy Special for History; a six-part crime series for Oxygen called The Disappearance of Maura Murray that aired six consecutive Saturday’s; and NBC’s Ironman.

Other notable shows in Brad’s past include Showrunning a two-hour documentary for History called Alcatraz: Search for the Truth; Directing, producing and writing ATL: The Untold Story of Atlanta's Rise in the Rap Game, a 90-minute "Rock Doc" for VH1 that details Atlanta's storied rise to the top of the hip-hop landscape; Working with Pras from the hip-hop group Fugees shaping his 2013 documentary Sweet Micky For President; directing, producing and writing Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story an independent theatrical documentary which premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and has international distribution; and serving as staff writer for VH1’s Emmy Award-winning doc series Behind The Music for over a decade and has also produced six episodes of the series, most recently BTM: Ludacris.

Jim Bowen

JIM BOWEN

President of Texas Crew LLC / Director of Photography

Jim has been in the video business ever since Macaroni invented the cathode ray tube.

Jim began his career shooting everything in black in the early days before they invented white. “Black was so much more expressive” before they insisted on our using white in the same scenes.

After excepting black and white as the new norm, Jim moved on to experimenting with single color Technicolor. “The single color at first was blue”, but that proved problematic with space movies featuring little green people. The industry settled on aqua as the standard single color, right after Elvis shot Blue Hawaii.

Jim got his first big break on the set of the Alamo with John Wayne. Although Bowen was just 8 years old at the time, Mr Wayne had Bowen clean the inside of the giant canon the Mexicans had in the movie. Bowen used his tiny hands to polish the inside of the canon while Wayne watched. “Best job done by hand” Wayne would exclaim.

After making a fortune cleaning the top canon for the Alamo, Bowen invested his discretionary income in his new restaurant, The Head On Rabbit. The restaurant featured fur and head on rabbit, and freshly cut fish fins. MGM ending up buying the restaurant, and Bowen was back in the movie business again.

Bowen was almost killed by the MGM lion when trying to clean the cat’s toenails with the same solution he used on the Mexican canon.

MGM let Bowen go, since there was only one lion, and there were tons of folks like Bowen.

Jim then joined KVUE TV in Austin, and started processing color film for the daily news reel. The tainted air from the film chemicals were so strong, Bowen’s looks began to change. He lost 10 inches in height and most of all his hair.

Going from 6’4” to 5’6” helped Bowen to be a more stealthy photographer. He now could get under most press scrums, and make even short reporters look tall. Since most of these vertically challenged TV anchors need to feel big, he was quite successful in this bubble-headed bleach blond business.

The rest is just history.

Nathan Warren

Nathan Warren

Director of Photography

Nathan came to us via the East Coast after finishing film school at Savannah College of Art and Design. He's been working tirelessly for 15 years to provide the best product possible using any and every tool available to him. He's passionate, devoted, creative and intent on fulfilling the vision of every piece he helps shape. Whatever your goals, whatever your vision, he'll do everything he can to work with you and create the visuals to make it a success.

Nathan has collaborated with ESPN, Fox Sports, Golf Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, History Channel and HBO to help create Sports Features (ESPN/ Golf), live sporting events (F1/ XGames, ARX), documentaries (History Channel's Alcatraz and The 44th President: In His Own Words), commercials (Ford/ Fox featuring the Dallas Cowboys), sports magazines (HBO Real Sports), and docu-series (Friday Night Tykes).

Greg Kubik

GREG KUBIK

Director of Photography

After starting with Texas Crew in 2013, Greg hit the ground running and has traveled around the world to work on a wide variety of projects.

Greg has worked on a everything from sports to docs to branded content. In 2017, he was ESPN’s prime-time college football DP filming at fifteen games, including the Rose Bowl and National Championship, and captured stylized footage for promos, in-broadcast elements, and features.

Additionally, Greg was a feature shooter at the 2016 and 2018 Olympics for NBC, is one of ESPN’s go-to DPs for everything from Monday Night Football to Sportscenter Features and DP’d the 2017 and 2018 NFL Draft opening teases. Has shot two 30 for 30 documentaries (“Brian and the Boz” and “Phi Slamma Jamma”), was a senior camera operator for 4 seasons of the Esquire Network series “Friday Night Tykes,” and consistently shoots for the Golf Channel, NFL Network, and Fox Sports.

Greg has also worked on projects for CBS 60 Minutes, CNN, NBC News, BBC, and Discovery, along with many other networks and a variety of branded and corporate clients.

Réne Jermal

Project Manager

RENÉ JERMAL

Project Manager

After graduating from University of Illinois at Chicago and a brief stint in the publishing world, René left her hometown of Chicago in pursuit of a career in film and network tv production. She quickly climbed her way up to Production Manager, working and living abroad, making her mark in fifty countries while covering everything from large-scale network tv programs to small-budget international features. Most notably, she worked seven years on ABC’s The Bachelor/ Bachelorette franchise and two seasons of Esquire’s Friday Night Tykes.

Ten globetrotting years later, René found her home in Austin, TX. In early 2016, she joined Texas Crew working directly with clients such as HBO, ESPN, Golf Channel, Showtime, Hulu and NBC, to provide the best filming experience throughout Texas and the world. René will ensure to book the best-fitting crew and gear, while organizing logistical needs to fit every type of budget. Her extensive expertise is in office, stage and field production, including early stages of development, prepping, scouting, permitting, budgeting, scheduling, locations, insurance requirements, transportation, aerial and helicopter needs, domestic and international travel with small and large crews, lighting, casting, assisting talent, management and hiring. This dedication led her to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Edited Sports Event Coverage for her work on NBC’s Ironman World Championship in May 2018.

Robby O’neil

Producer

Robby O'Neil

Producer

...

Christos Pathiakis

Lead Editor

CHRISTOS PATHIAKIS

Lead Editor

...

Jose (Sway) Suarez

Editor

JOSE (SWAY) SUAREZ

Editor

...

Jack Nystrom

Editor

JACK NYSTROM

Editor

...

Marie Vargas

Office & Social Media Manager

MARIE VARGAS

Office Manager

A rare breed these days in this burgeoning city, Marie Vargas was born and raised in The Live Music Capital of the World, Austin, TX. Marie has done everything from lighting and floral design to event management and hospitality, for media clients such as ACL Live Moody Theatre to iTunes SXSW to 512 Studios. Her past was paramount to her hiring, as very few other work experiences could have prepared her to take on the role of Office Manager at TCP, where the confluence of multiple shows, six egomaniacal principals and a red-headed Irishman named Robby evoke a steady stream of anxiety and chaos. While Marie is Texas Crew's newest hire, it's obvious to anyone who has crossed paths with her that she likely will be part of the TCP family for a very long time to come.

John McKallip

Audio

JOHN McKALLIP

Audio

...

Dio Traverso

Lead AE

DIO TRAVERSO

Lead AE

...

Jonathan Poritsky

Post Production Supervisor

JONATHAN PORITSKY

POST PRODUCITON SUPERVISOR

...

OUR WORK