Today we’d like to introduce you to Geovany Dias
Hi Geovany, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
If I were to summarize it all, I would say – my journey started back on a small island in the depths of the Amazon Forrest in Brazil, called Mosqueiro. No cars, no AC (can you imagine?), and a very precarious water supply system. My dad was a carpenter, and my mom a teacher; my days were divided between going to school and staying at home with my big sister, who basically raised me and taught me everything I know.
My sister, by the way, was the one who always showed me we should strive to be the better version of ourselves every day and should seek independence constantly, especially when your family can only afford so much.
At the age of 14, driven by the need for prescription glasses my parents couldn’t buy, I found my very first job as an apprentice at a retail store. In the same year, I was accepted at a public technical school where you graduate with both a high school degree and a technical diploma concurrently. I chose to study Telecommunications, and as part of the curriculum, I was required to do an internship at the end of the program at a company in the telecommunications industry. That’s how I – at the age of 17 – ended up working at TV Liberal, an affiliate of TV Globo, one of the largest commercial TV networks in the world.
Shortly after I turned 18, I was hired full-time and never left the news business since.
At 19 I was accepted at the Federal University of Para to study Journalism, which was kind of a big deal. Differently from the U.S., public universities in Brazil are 100% tuition-free, so competition is steep, especially because UFPa only offers 30 slots a year for journalism.
At 22, I switched networks and landed at RecordTV, where I stayed for a couple of years. While I kept working and studying full-time, I also started my first master’s degree program in Marketing and Advertising (because I had that much free time, right?).
My sister, once again, played a pivotal part in forging my path to what my future would be. When I graduated from college, in 2016, she gifted me a trip to Disney. We both came and while here, conversations ignited about a possible move. Later in the same year, we came to Orlando once again to check out schools and possible programs. That’s how I ended up studying Journalism at Valencia College in the Fall of 2017.
If you didn’t know, being an international student in the U.S. is extremely expensive. Even more so because, at the time, the currency was roughly 1-to-4 (meaning, $1 U.S. dollar was equivalent to $4 Brazilian reals, the country’s currency). So I had to do some gig work (operating a frying machine at a bakery in the mall for $9/hour), writing articles for newspapers for $25 each, and also working at Valencia College itself through a work-study program.
In 2018, I got married, and in 2019, I obtained my work authorization. Now, it was game-on – I wanted to reinsert myself into the real news business. Because of my producing experience, my first role in American television was – surprisingly enough – as a Senior News Producer at an ABC affiliate in Tallahassee, Florida. In the same year, I also managed to freelance as a foreign correspondent for Globo International (the same network where my career started).
In 2020, halfway through the first year of COVID-19, I moved to New York City, landing a job at PIX11, a CW/independent station in Manhattan – first as a part-time writer, then full-time writer, then becoming a news producer, launching a brand-new newscast that ended up nominated to the NYC Emmy Awards two years consecutively. Also, in 2020, I lost my sister to diabetes, which was a major loss and deeply affected me as a person.
Through my four years in NYC, I kept working as a foreign correspondent for Brazilian networks, while also reporting in English on immigration and community concerns in New York City to PIX11’s website. I also got a second master’s degree, this time in Communication Studies and Journalism, in 2022.
As I challenged myself with reporting in English, I decided I wanted to pursue more of that, so I started looking for a job as a full-time news reporter at English-speaking TV stations. Following years-long accent reduction training and speech therapy, I landed a job in Orlando at WFTV, Central Florida’s legacy TV station, where I proudly work as a general assignment reporter. Additionally, I am now an adjunct journalism professor at Valencia College, the same school I went to when I first moved to the U.S. in 2017, and that was quite the full-circle moment.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It was not, most certainly, a smooth road. Leaving a career behind in Brazil was a tough decision, but I knew that was the time to take the risk – given that I was 23, I would’ve had enough time to rebound once I came back from the U.S. – which was the original plan, just stay here for three years and go back.
Being able to be back on TV is also terrific, but by no means was it a simple move. Because of the way a broadcaster’s career is traditionally structured in the United States, which is very different from how it’s done in Brazil, it took me two years of speech training and restarting from the ground up in order to be considered for the job I currently have. From being a news producer to becoming a cashier and baking pastries at the mall, it’s been quite the ride.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m currently a general assignment reporter at WFTV Channel 9 in Orlando, Florida. I am also a professor at Valencia College, where I teach journalism.
As a news reporter, my main focus is telling the stories of the communities we serve. Of course, we end up covering some of the not-so-pleasant stuff – crimes, crashes, etc. – but nothing is more rewarding than sharing incredible stories of folks doing good in their community and helping one another.
I also have a deep connection with the immigrant community, so reporting on their stories and experiences is also a big part of my work, especially in the current climate in the U.S.
Some of my proudest work was done in New York City. I was the lead producer for the Pride Month coverage in 2022 at PIX11, which received the Serving NY Award granted by the New York State Broadcasters Association.
The newscast I created – PIX11 Weekend Morning News – was also nominated for the Emmy Award in the Best Weekend News category for two consecutive years.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
There are so many great ones, and most of them were with my sister, as she basically raised me. I remember spending afternoons at home helping her with homework and feeling super smart for understanding things from high school while still in elementary school, watching cartoons and dancing and singing by ourselves. I was so lucky to have her!
I also fondly remember a Christmas gift my mother gave me when I was five – a self-paced English course for children accompanied by a CD. I used to spend hours listening to it and following along on the book – that was my first memory involving the English language.
Lastly, I remember when I wanted to feel like a grown-up and take the bus with my friends to school – around the age of eight or nine – and my dad thought that was not safe but still did not want me to be embarrassed with my classmates, so he would take me to the bus stop and follow the bus until I arrived at the school – he’d do that on his bicycle because there were no cars on the island I was born and raised until the age of ten – to make sure I got to class safe. As I look back, I often see that as one of the simplest and most special acts of love someone has ever shown to me.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geovanydias01/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/geovanydias01
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geovanydias/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GeovanyDias01
