Trell serves as the Director of Communications and Talent Relations. In addition to working with artists/talent, record labels, publicists and managers, Trell oversees all branding for the Foundation, including press, digital and cause marketing related communications. He has more than 7 years experience across the arts, TV, music, technology, media. charity and the public sector, working with recognized brands and clients.

HOW WAS YOUR CHILDHOOD AND WHAT WAS GROWING UP WAS LIKE FOR YOU?

Trell: I’m from a very small town in South Carolina called Cassatt. Nobody’s ever heard of it and we have like one stoplight. If my parents were to describe me, they would say that I was a very curious, overly helpful and ambitious child. I can remember being small and going to the grocery store and I’d ask my mom for two quarters because there was a gum machine. The gum only cost a quarter, but she told me that she would catch me giving a random kid in the store another quarter. She told me, “That’s when I felt like you were kind of different.” I think that that passion for helping others followed me throughout my life. I grew up watching the local news because the news was on as we were getting ready for school. The news anchor told us how we should dress, where we should go, and where we should not go. That’s where we got all of our information from. I remember there was a moment where I was like, “You know what? I’m going to change the world and I’m going to do it by being that guy. I’m going to be on TV and I’m going to tell people how they can live their best life.” In elementary and middle school,  I would always write stories and tell people stories. A teacher stopped me and was like, “Hey, you need to look into broadcast journalism.”

I had no idea what that was and she explained it to me. I went to college mainly because my dad told me that I was going to apply to college or join the Army and there was no way I was going to the army.  I applied to some schools and I got into Winthrop University in Rockhill, South Carolina. Most people know because we are often the Cinderella team in NCAA Champsionship. I went for Broadcast Journalism and interned at NBCUniversal, which is the NBC Headquarters in Charlotte. I began to learn more and more about the news industry from the inside. I stayed there after my internship was over…I just kept showing up, the position opened up and they hired me. I started working as a broadcast feed producer where if a story was happening in Nebraska and a news station in New York wanted the story, I would feed it over the wire to New York. I’d get the tape from the station in Nebraska, record the part that New York wanted, put it in a separate tape, and feed that tape and send it to New York. I learned more and more about the news and learned it was very top down- the news director told people what they were going to put out and it felt very contrived and things were sensationalized. Being an adult and seeing all the things going on in the world now, my inclination was right.