Alums Journey from Caracas to Hollywood Goes Viral Andrea Ferrero B.M. '21 reflected on how persistence, luck, and YouTube videos landed her a gig with Adam Sandler's production company.
By
Nick Balkin
March 2, 2022
Andrea Ferrero B.M. '21 and Adam Sandler
Image courtesy of Ferrero
When Andrea Ferrero B.M. '21 took to Twitter last week to share her story of passion and perseverance, her aim was to inspire people, to show others that dreams really can come true. A few hundred thousand retweets, likes, and comments later, it's safe to say that her message struck a chord.
If I told you that a few years ago I was in my room in Caracas watching his movies, Ferrero tweeted, would you believe me if I told you that [he's now] my boss? Her boss, pictured in an attached image with Ferrero and her Fender Stratocaster, is Adam Sandler-yes, he of Billy Madison, Uncut Gems, The Chanukah Song, and more. Ferrero and Sandler are both beaming.
For Ferrero, there's a lot to smile about these days. Since graduating from Berklee, she's been making a living as a professional musician in Los Angeles, where she currently works as a music consultant for Netflix and Sandler's Happy Madison Productions.
While her life may seem charmed, Ferrero's journey from growing up in Venezuela, a country wracked by years of political and economic turmoil, to where she is now was anything but assured. The crisis in Venezuela was horrible, she wrote. My dream seemed further and further away.
That dream, for as long as she can remember, was to pursue a career in music. She didn't grow up in a musical household, she says, but her parents, who gave Ferrero her first guitar at age 10, always supported her talent and interests. She played the instrument constantly and later started performing in the choir of a local church. Eventually, she was sharing stages with popular Venezuelan artists such as La Melod a Perfecta and Sixto Rein.
A lot of my idols, like Mike Stern, Steve Vai, John Mayer, and many more, went through those classrooms. It was unreal to think that I'd ever get to have a lesson with one of them.
Andrea Ferrero B.M. '21
Ferrero knew that in order to take her playing to the next level, she needed a formal music education, and her goal, since age 12, had been to attend Berklee. A lot of my idols, like Mike Stern, Steve Vai, John Mayer, and many more, went through those classrooms, she said. It was unreal to think that I'd ever get to have a lesson with one of them.
For several months leading up to her Berklee audition and interview, she practiced religiously, wrote original music, and watched movies only in English to soak up as much of the language as she could. When audition day finally arrived, it was held virtually, and Ferrero had to overcome a few false starts due to her poor internet before finding a connection stable enough to complete the event. I wanted to give my best in those 15 minutes, she said, to show them who I was and my wish to do something great with my music.
Want to Take Your Guitar Playing to the Next Level?
Berklees Guitar Department helps you find your voice on the instrument through a curriculum that balances technical skill and artistry.
Her hard work paid off. A few months after the audition, she received two letters from Berklee, one informing her that she had been accepted to the college, and another offering her a full scholarship. But despite the tuition award, she still couldn't afford to pay for travel, food, and other expenses. So she launched a crowdfunding campaign, promoting her story through regional media outlets to help bring awareness, and capital, to the campaign.
Like many international students, once Ferrero made it to Boston, she struggled to adapt to a new city, culture, and learning environment. But she would eventually settle in and find her place as a contemporary writing and production major. She studied guitar with John Mayer's former teacher, Tomo Fujita, who'd become a key mentor for her as she learned about everything from improvisation to the most effective way to practice.
I knew about Tomo before coming to Berklee. He was already a huge inspiration to me. I used to watch his YouTube videos and dream about being in one of them, said Ferrero. I think it was my first week at Berklee when I met him. We played together, recorded a video, and now that video has almost a million views!
Watch Ferreros video with Tomo Fujita:
An active performer during her time at Berklee, she said that one of her most memorable experiences in Boston was playing in a Singers Showcase tribute to Aretha Franklin alongside Chuck Rainey, the Queen of Soul's longtime bassist.
Two years ago, she received a message from Sandler's team. The actor-comedian was filming a new movie in Salem, Massachusetts, half an hour north of Boston, and he was looking for a local guitar teacher for his daughter. Ferrero wasn't able to participate in the lessons due to the demands of her school schedule, but Sandler, who'd watched and been impressed with Ferrero's YouTube videos, invited her up to Salem a few times to jam and hang out on the set where they were filming his movie. He loves music and is a very talented guitar player, Ferrero said.
They stayed in touch long after the movie had wrapped filming. Ferrero regularly sent Sandler videos of her performing, and he'd respond with feedback or ask her for tips on how to improve his own playing. Then, a week before the start of her fifth semester, Ferrero got a call from Sandler inviting her to intern with his company, Happy Madison Productions. Determined not to miss the opportunity, Ferrero dropped all of her Berklee classes and hopped on a plane to Los Angeles.
During the three-month internship, she supported the company&
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Alums Journey from Caracas to Hollywood Goes Viral Andrea Ferrero B.M. '21 reflected on how persistence, luck, and YouTube videos landed her a gig with Adam Sandler's production company.
