David Sakaoghli

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been drawn to storytelling—especially through video. My journey began when I was just six years old, running around with a LeapFrog camera, filming my sister like I was directing a blockbuster. What started as playful fun slowly turned into something deeper: a passion that would come to define who I am.

In 2015, I discovered stop-motion animation and began experimenting with LEGO figures. That same year, I launched my first YouTube channel. A year later, my family moved to Rancho Cucamonga, and that’s when things really started to take shape. I started making live-action skits with the neighborhood kids, shooting improvised scenes in our backyards and local parks. It was during these early collaborations that I fell in love with the process of directing and the joy of working with others to bring ideas to life.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, my friends and I pivoted our focus and launched a gaming channel called Divizn. To our surprise, the channel took off—we built a community of almost 50,000 subscribers on YouTube, along with tens of thousands of followers on Instagram and TikTok. But in 2021, all of that came crashing down. A hacker wiped out our accounts and content. With high school looming and life pulling us in different directions, the group naturally disbanded.

I shifted gears and joined the wrestling team at Alta Loma High School. While that chapter helped me grow in other ways, my creative drive never really went away. It just simmered quietly until something reignited it. That spark came from an unexpected place—Talk To Me, a horror film made by YouTubers I had always admired. Around the same time, an AP English assignment asked us to explore our future careers. It hit me then that storytelling was still my true calling. I picked up the camera again and wrote my first horror short. That project went on to win an award at a film festival, which gave me the push I needed to keep going. Not long after, I co-founded Division Six Films, and we started producing a string of horror shorts that received great feedback.