Station Manager/Founder: Thomas Dadourian
“Making film provides a great deal of problems; TTV is a place for people to solve these problems together” -TD.
Thomas Dadourian loves film. He loves making film. He loves organizing film. He loves being in and shooting film. He loves spending time with other people that also love film. He founded Triton Television to create a place where people who also love film could aggregate their passion to grow as young filmmakers.
Thomas Dadourian began his career in film before he could walk. He appeared on numerous commercials, TV shows, and films including Stuart Little, JAG, A Vow to Cherish, Malcolm in the Middle, and many others. At the age of 10, he joined SAG and began to hone his craft in theatre as well as in film. Quickly jumping from Publicity Manager to President of the South Pasadena High School Drama Company, he helped to re-establish the organization while winning numerous awards at theatre festivals including first place in Contemporary Humorous at the Fullerton College Theatre Festival, and attended Yale’s Summer Theatre Conservatory for actors. In late high school, after attending the USC School of Cinema Summer Directing and Producing class, his interest began to shift away from acting as his thesis film, “Brothers in Arms,” was selected to showcase his class during the end of summer festival. This passion was further pursued through work as an Office Assistant doing script coverage at Scott Rudin Productions, a production intern at Lifetime Entertainment, script consultant at Overbrook Entertainment, and as a production assistant for numerous films in Hollywood.
Did I mention Thomas wanted to be a doctor? Arriving at UCSD in 2007, Thomas enrolled in honors chemistry (although he was a Theatre Major in Revelle) and jumped at the opportunity to work in a number of labs including V.S. Ramachandran’s Center for Brain and Cognition. Having fenced since early middle school, he picked up his blade and joined the UCSD fencing team where his friendship with Patrick, a childhood fencing buddy, was rekindled. Though busy, he did not give up on his passion of film, he organized the Live Events for SRTV (Student Run Television), UCSD’s defunct TV station. Through a series of life changing events, Thomas was asked to become Station Manager in an attempt to save the decaying organization, but the station was beyond repair. Thomas recounts, “that was definitely the most difficult environment I have ever worked in, everyone had their own agenda and the reputation prevented me from getting the assistance I needed from faculty and students.” In early Winter Quarter of 2010, (Thomas was Station Manager for only a quarter, yet had established the largest amount of on air content since it’s reopening in 2006) through a series of unfortunate, but life-changing events, the station was shut down.
Thomas saw this as an incredible opportunity. With the love, support, sweat, and tears of
Dan Liu, Patil Varvarian, and Parham Moini, Thomas wrote the charter for a new film studio/ television station from scratch and pitched it to AS. As winter quarter came to a close, AS passed the new charter and Triton Television was born. This experience made me realize where my true passion lay and I dropped all thoughts of becoming a doctor and jumped headfirst into film. Since then the station has grown tremendously; we’ve done work for MTV-U, the White House, Red Bull, Amp, San Diego Magazine, UCSD organizations, and countless other San Diego companies.
We still have a long way to go, but we have assembled quite an incredible team with a bright future. I hope you enjoy our content as much as we have enjoyed making it. If you’re interested in film/television/management/business/the industry in general or if you just want to say hi, please feel free to stop by our studio anytime!
Cheers, TD
