ABOUT THIS EPISODE
This episode features Monte, whose path to filmmaking took an unexpected turn after more than two decades in law and several more in real estate.
Born to a Guatemalan mother and a Texan father, Monte grew up in the rural hills near Napa, California. At 18, he left home to attend Claremont McKenna College, later earning a law degree from Harvard and a master’s in real estate from NYU.
Monte followed the traditional path into big law, but after a late-night philosophical debate, a flurry of notes in his iPhone, and an introduction to the screenwriting software Final Draft, everything changed. That moment led to the creation of *The Family Name*, an eight-episode drama series, and effectively another self-reinvention.
In "The Family Name", a revered New York real estate patriarch is tapped to chair a high-profile public safety initiative just as his company quietly begins to hemorrhage cash. When his lawyer daughter starts digging, she uncovers a shadow network of fixers and “security” vendors capable of fast-tracking permits, silencing lenders, and weaponizing philanthropy. As the Sterling family realizes the system using them could also destroy them, they must decide whether to expose the machine before it permanently rewrites their legacy.
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