Osvaldo Hernandez

Ozzie Hernandez

Lead Digital Content Producer at UNC Charlotte
Education: BA in Theatre and Minor Film Studies, UNC Charlotte (2015)
Hometown: High Point, NC

Osvaldo Hernandez’s love of film began in the early 2000’s, when he got a camcorder. He started off filming family activities, vacations, birthdays and other activities.. Eventually, he was able to save up enough to purchase his first and very own small “point and shoot digital camera.” He and his friends then started making their own little “home movies,” reenacting fight scenes, “pretending to be Bear Grylls, Cash Cab, cops and robbers.”. 

In high school, Ozzie did not have a chosen career path in mind, but he was incredibly talented in throwing javelin. During his senior year, UNC Charlotte had expressed interest in recruiting him onto the track & field team. 

“This was the break that I was looking for and needed most!” he says. “I enrolled and started my college career in the spring of 2011 and right away I’m giving it my all (I’m first generation college student).”

At this time, there was no film degree at UNC Charlotte, so Ozzie decided to major in theatre and lean heavily on the technical side of it, with a film minor. 

Combining the theatre major and film minor gave him a well rounded and unique education, he says.

”While my education was great, I believe it was completely up to me and how I choose to utilize everything that I’ve learned. Everything from the connections, friends, people and resources that I had access to helped guide the direction of how and where I ended up today.” 

As a student, some of his best memories were from sitting in the dining hall at the student union with his teammates and just enjoying each other’s company talking and laughing after a hard day’s practice.

Currently Ozzie works in University Communications at UNC Charlotte as the Lead Digital Content Producer and oversees all video related efforts across the university. He started his career in video production in the Charlotte 49ers athletics department as an intern for two years before coming on full-time as an assistant. He served as an assistant for almost two years before stepping into the role of Director of Creative Video Services and overseeing all athletic department video needs for six years. 

“In all of my roles working in the video industry, part of my job is to push the levels of creativity and find new ways to do storytelling through video.” 

In Charlotte 49ers athletics, he worked on many amazing projects, including: 

  • a music video that featured Taylor Swift’s hit song at the time “Shake it off”
  • a video that gathered women in college sports and telling their true life stories and experiences thanks to title IX
  • a social media short-form project that featured championship rings won by UNC Charlotte’s Track & Field team a few years back. 

His advice for students: “The best advice I can give would be… Without a doubt, have fun while you’re in college but certainly get your work done and as you get closer to graduating, go ahead and start building that key group of friends and network that will be happy to help you get to where you want to get to. Surround yourself with smart people in different fields.”