• Sunday, September 30th, 2007   STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE   

PERSONALITY PROFILE: GARY HUMINY

No Need For Celebrity Gossip

By Pearl Tisman Minsky

     Gary Huminy, co-founder and executive producer of Quest Media Entertainment, Inc., credits the inception of his current career to one of his college professors at Kingsborough Community College, where he was a broadcast management major. He needed one more credit to graduate and his professor suggested a directing class. Ultimately, it led to Quest, where he produces "PROFILES", a celebrity interview program, which can be seen on channel 76 and NYC TV channel 74. It can also be viewed in 71 New Jersey cities.

    What is Quest Media?

It's a full-fledged digital production company that produces commercials, television shows and event productions that was formed in 1989 with my partner, Mickey Burns. We started with "Special Edition", an entertainment news magazine show. Disappointed that so much entertainment footage had to be cut, Mickey and I decided to create a half-hour celebrity interview program called "PROFILES" IN 2000. We have done 176 celebrity "PROFILES" to date with many celebrity guests coming up.

What makes your interviews different from those on gossip television shows?

Publicists are glad to work with us and their celebrities enjoy sitting down with us because, for one thing, we have made being prepared a priority for the show. We do extensive amounts of research in preparing for each interview. The celebrities always appreciate it. We're not looking for gossip and don't want to abuse our guests.

Who are some of the famous people who have been interviewed?

Dick Cavett, Eli Wallach, George Foreman, Davy Jones, Mary Wilson, Federico Castelluccio from "The Sopranos", Joan Rivers, Air Supply, Billy Ray Cyrus and Joan Collins, who was one of my favorites. There was Cindy Adams, who started out kind of stiff, but then relaxed for a great interview. We were very proud to get an interview with Maya Angelou for "Special Edition", and then a year and a half later she gave us a full sit down on "PROFILES".

Can you tell us any interesting stories about some of the people who were interviewed?

Most people don't know that Carol Channing used to do impressions when she was young and that she has African ancestry. "Nobody ever wrote that about her because, once again, "Nobody ever asked".

Take us back to the time when you took the directing course at Kingsborough. What occurred between then and the start of Quest Media?

Well, never directing before, I chose a short play, "The Restaurant", by Dan Greenberg, and put it together with casting, sound, lighting and music effects, turning it into a half-hour play with a "Twilight Zone" twist. It got great reviews and became a hit. Someone mistakenly received credit for the play in the school's newspaper. I went to the editor of the paper who agreed to correct the error. To my surprise, he asked if I ever did photography. I hadn't done much, but started to take photos and eventually became photo editor. From 1992 to 1995, I anchored and produced news segments on a show called "Island View". Some of the stories that we, as a team, covered consisted of in depth interviews with former Mayor Ed Koch, Borough President Guy Molinari and also Rudy Giuliani, who we sat with for an hour before he became mayor.

What do you see in the future for Quest?

To continue to provide satisfying service for our clients as well asproducing other television programs along with videotaping major events. The ultimate goal would be to have our show picked up by a major network. Currently, it is represented for worldwide syndication. Additionally, we look forward to producing the next 100 episodes of "PROFILES".