Brian Krow came to West Virginia University on a soccer scholarship with ambitions to become a star on the field. It took a career-ending injury, a year of hopelessness and a call to West Virginia University’s School of Theatre & Dance for Krow to realize he was meant to shine elsewhere.
After his injury, Krow lost his scholarship and spent the end of his sophomore and entire junior year feeling sorry for himself and bouncing between majors. Nothing quite fit and by the time spring finals rolled around, Krow had called his father to let him know he was dropping out.
“I was like a lost puppy,” said Krow. “I had always had a plan, and now I didn’t. Both my Dad and I felt defeated and I didn’t know how to move forward from that.”
But before packing up for good, Krow made one last call to the WVU School of Theatre & Dance. Jerry McGonigle picked up the call.
“I remember meeting Brian like it was yesterday,” said McGonigle, professor of acting and directing. “I instantly knew he had passion and that he was desperate to direct that passion into a future he could believe in.”
As a rising senior, McGonigle let Krow know he had a lot of work to do. Krow would have to take classes over the summer and cram two years of classes into his senior year.
“I gave Brian an overwhelming class schedule because I knew if he could survive it, then he was in the right place,” said McGonigle. “He ended up excelling in every aspect of his experience with us.”
Krow worked like a dog during his years in the School of Theatre & Dance and held starring roles in multiple productions including “The Actor’s Nightmare”, “Little Bear” and Willam Shakespeare’s “MacBeth”.
After graduation in 1999, Krow decided against attending graduate school and headed for Los Angeles. There, he landed the starring role in the first Red Bull commercial and another in “My Big Fat Independent Movie”, sustaining himself for three years as a professional actor.
Krow became tired of the roller-coaster ride he was on as a professional actor, but wanted to stay in the entertainment business. He made the move to producing reality television, which at the time, was a new genre.
As he was wrapping a season of the World Poker Tour, Krow got a call from a friend who gave him an opportunity to produce ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”, a wildly popular show on ABC. He earned an Emmy nomination during the show’s “50 Shows in 50 States Tour”.
“It was during the ‘50 States in 50 Shows Tour’ that I was able to come back to West Virginia and be a part of the build here, and it was like coming home,” said Krow. “I got to see Jerry and his current students and plays, and it was very emotional. My life came full circle and it was due to Jerry allowing me an opportunity to grow as an actor but also as a man.”
After working on “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”, Krow took an assignment documenting Navy SEALs training and went on to win Realscreen Summit’s Global Pitch Contest for a show he created called “Frogwomen”, a social experiment to test the mental and physical fortitude of 24 of the nation’s elite females through the Navy SEALs training program.
Krow then merged his video production company into a defense contracting firm and spent time in Afghanistan documenting missions for the Joint IED Defeat Organization, which earned him several Television, Internet & Video Association Awards. Now, Krow and his wife own Krow Media, a Virtual Reality creative agency serving the real estate industry in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
Krow had never envisioned himself in the entertainment industry, but looking back on his career, he realizes it’s exactly where he was meant to be.
“I didn’t realize it when I was in school, but losing my ability to play soccer took away my stage,” said Krow. “I had always been a performer, just in a different way. When I lost the soccer field, I gained the theatre. I have WVU to thank for that – it propelled me into who I am today.”