Meet John
JOHN BUCKLEY
Where are you from originally? If not from LA, how did you end up here?
I am a born and raised Midwesterner, mainly from Michigan although spent a few years growing up in Indiana, then again in Indiana for undergrad at Butler University. I came out to LA for law school in 2014 and have remained in the greater Los Angeles area since, finally moving to the Marina Del Rey area in January 2022.
Tell us about your occupation.
I am an entertainment attorney working at United Talent Agency in the Motion Picture Business Affairs Department. I am equipped to negotiate movie deals, from writer/director/producer agreements to financing Indie films. However, most of my day to day work is with our internal Digital and Endorsement groups. This means I will help to negotiate influencer agreements and commercial appearances for our talent. This past year I negotiated talent deals for three different Superbowl commercials.
Why did you join Rotary and what is your favorite Rotary experience?
I suppose I officially joined Rotary when I became a member of this club, but I have been a Rotarian all my life. I have many Rotary experiences that would qualify here, but hosting youth exchange students growing up will always top the list. We hosted a Brazilian young lady named Dani who, like many who are part of RYE, was still learning the language (English) so there were plenty of comical moments where she came so close to properly conjugating verbs but was off slightly. She never got discouraged and could laugh at herself, which made for a much more enjoyable youth exchange all around. My all time favorite word from her was "quickly-er" which, the more we thought about it, made perfect sense with the rules of English! I will still try to fit that word in every now and then just as an excuse to tell the story and talk about Rotary in general.
What does your perfect weekend look like?
The email inbox does not ping once; I am caught up on work generally so do not have to do anything outside the work week. A board game night with friends or a beach day socializing, ending with some late night video games with my buddies from Chicago as gaming has allowed us to stay connected over the years. And ice cream. A perfect weekend must include ice cream.