Inspired by music and his parents’ love of it, Shoua “MRRNB” Lee, Green Bay, founded MRRNB Films (pronounced “Mister R&B”) with the intent to be able to make his own music videos to supplement his singing.
Lee was highlighted in the Entrepreneurs of Color Spotlight series, which highlights entrepreneurs of color to empower and support their businesses. It is sponsored by the Appleton Public Library, ColorBold Business Association and UW-Madison Division of Extension.
“What got me started was influence from my mom and my dad,” Lee said. “I kind of self-taught myself music first then I said ‘You know what? With an artist being a singer, you need music videos and always something on social media.’ Any artist coming up, they needed a visual.”
The drive to create his own music videos instead of paying someone else to do it moved him to attend school to start learning video production. Lee enrolled in Northeast Wisconsin Technical College.
In fall of 2020, Lee took his business seriously and found resounding support from friends and family. His support network in pursuing his production company consisted of fellow singers, visual producers and audio engineers.
MRRNB Films started to take off after he took the business seriously. Opportunities started to roll in from colleagues and classmates that he still continues to work with.
“Word-of-mouth, friends and family — that’s where it kind of started,” Lee said. “It started blooming when … during school, I met a lot of great colleagues that were in digital media technology with me as well. Working with each other, helping each other grow and learn is the biggest thing.”
Video production is not his only grind — he has three jobs currently outside of MRRNB Films. First and foremost is being a full-time dad, a part time merchandiser at Red Bull and a wedding videographer and photographer on weekends.
Scheduling is how Lee keeps his four avenues under wraps. He cannot narrow down what he is most proud of so far in his career.
“I’m not bald yet so I’m managing, I’m happy,” Lee said.
Lee’s plans are still in the works. His current entrepreneurial efforts has him in videography and photography, but moving to a bigger city to expand his market is his goal in the next five years. He wants to move to LA soon to hopefully shoot on movies, for larger companies and famous acts.
