‏Troy Bogdan‏

Troy Bogdan started his career in the film industry on a fluke, answering a help wanted ad in the newspaper in the Spring of 2012,"Farmer needed for a major motion picture." He applied, and got booked as a featured background farmer for a scene in Gus Van Sant's,"Promised Land."

Troy is an organic farmer by trade, and has been growing organic garlic, vegetables, fruits, and other assorted crops, with his wife, Sharon, and daughter, Indiana, for over 20 years, establishing their farm business, Pure Earth Organic Farm, LLC in 1993. Troy is also a beekeeper and keeps several hives of honeybees on the farm.

Troy really enjoyed the excitement of the film set. He got to work with an entire herd of dairy cows, and enjoyed meeting Matt Damon and Hal Holbrook on set. Troy and Hal shared a moment in the makeup trailer, as they were both getting camera ready, and Hal asked Troy, "Is that beard real, or did they put that on you?" Troy replied, "It's real," and Halbrook retorted, "THAT'S BEAUTIFUL!"

One of the highlights of his first day was the food. Not only was the catering and craft service top notch, but for about an hour in the middle of the day, everything shut down, and the production brought in a local ice cream company, and everybody went into a big barn, where they had a full-service sundae bar set up, and everybody got to eat ice cream and relax for a while on that very warm Spring day!

Troy enjoyed his first day on "Promised Land" so much, that he went home, told his wife how much fun he had, and she said she wished that she could try it, so Troy called the casting director to see if she could, and both Troy and Sharon, worked two more days on the set. Sadly, Troy's featured role with the cows was left on the cutting room floor, but you can still see him, and his wife, for a few seconds in the final cut of the film, outside of a school chatting with other towns-folks before one of the town hall meeting scenes.

Troy's next project was as a background soldier in the independent film "The Wind is Watching." He was upgraded to do a few lines, and his role became "Battalion Leader." When he wasn't working in front of the camera, he volunteered to work behind it as a set production assistant.

Troy kept doing background roles in both films large and small, and eventually, he started auditioning for speaking roles, and has acted in several supporting roles in a variety of student and independent film projects.

He has continued working a variety of behind the camera jobs as part of the film crew. In addition to being a production assistant, he has also worked as a grip, gaffer, and working in the camera department doing his favorite job on set, Second Assistant Camera. Troy really loves working with the camera equipment, and being in charge of the slate/clapboard, and being where the action is, next to the camera! His most memorable assistant camera gig was in the Fall on 2015, where he was 2nd AC on "Kiss Me Goodbye," which was shot on celluloid film, Super 16mm. This was the first time Troy ever got to handle Kodak & Orwo motion picture film, and really enjoyed the experience.

Another great experience was when he was a production assistant for the show "American Pickers." Troy met up with the crew in rural Maryland while on a pick, and assisted the crew as they loaded antiques that were purchased into a 26' box truck. Troy, along with one other member of the crew, took turns driving the truck from Maryland to the Antique Archaeology store in LeClaire, Iowa, where they unloaded precious antiques to be sold in the store. They even made a stop at Frank Fritz's personal home/garage to unload more items, and then they drove down to the Nashville store. That was a wonderful gig, as Troy loves to travel and see new things, and he likes history and antiques too.

Troy has even tried his hand at producing/directing, and would like to eventually make some films on his own. He is currently developing a screen-play that he hopes will come to fruition some time in the future.

Troy lives in Western Pennsylvania, and bounces back and forth between his home near Pittsburgh, AKA "Hollywood East," and his farm near Lake Erie, AKA "Hollywood North."

So far he has worked in Pittsburgh, Erie, Cleveland, Baltimore, New York, Maryland, Iowa, Tennessee, and all over rural Pennsylvania & Ohio, and looks forward to working in more locations around the country, and possibly even the world.