Avildsen was raised by his mother and grandmother in an apartment in Maryland. His father, Academy-Award winning director John Avildsen (Rocky, Lean on Me, The Karate Kid) was estranged from the family. Deciding that he would benefit from the structure Randolph-Macon Academy provided, his mother and grandmother sent him to “The Hill” in the seventh grade. Avildsen would attend all the way through twelfth grade, as both a boarding cadet and a day student.
While his transition was a little rocky – he recalls that there was some bullying because he was small for his age, and the only seventh grader on the tennis team at the time – there were two things that helped him to fit in. First, he could beat anyone at the video games Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter; and second, the older kids always wanted to borrow from his music collection.
By the time he graduated, he was senior class president. Avildsen continued playing tennis throughout his time at R-MA (under the watchful eye of teacher and coach, Mr. Eric Barr), served as captain of the chess team, and became a senior yearbook editor. His senior superlative? “Life of the party.”
Avildsen said he learned many things at R-MA, even beyond the “strong academics” – he particularly recalls R-MA teachers Mr. Barr and Mrs. Armstrong – things like independence, team building, discipline, accountability, and social skills. “You learn to appreciate things other people take for granted,” Avildsen noted, as well as “respect for the armed services,” and to “appreciate your choices, and your freedom to make those choices.”
Following graduation, Avildsen decided to go out of state for college, to begin exploring the wider world. He enrolled at Georgia Tech, studying History, Technology & Society, and attended for a full academic year. When he turned 18, however, his father was no longer required to support his education, and he decided to pursue music as a career rather than mount up student loan debt.
While singing lead vocals for the band Reflux (signed by Prosthetic Records in 2004) Avildsen also worked as a temp at a booking agency. As he started building his own business as a concert promoter and tour booker, social media was on the rise. He noticed that bands were starting to gain followings on MySpace, instead of radio – but record companies either hadn’t noticed, or didn’t understand, and were continuing to offer groups “draconian” deals. He knew he could do better.
When Reflux’s guitar player decided to attend the Atlanta Institute of Music, Avildsen moved to LA to launch his own career, booking bands on tour independently. In 2006, he founded his own record label, Sumerian Records, designed “by artists, for artists.” With the trust he had built in the music community, it has only grown, with bands like Asking Alexandria and Smashing Pumpkins signing on.
Avildsen turned next to another passion: film. “Once I’d gotten Sumerian to a certain level, it was very natural,” he said. Avildsen has written, directed and produced two feature films, What Now (2015) and American Satan (2017); and created, written, and directed an independently-produced TV show, Paradise City – starring Black Veil Brides’ lead vocalist Andy Black, Bella Thorne, Drea de Matteo, and the late Cameron Boyce – as a spin-off sequel to his second film. In an interview with emmys.com, Avildsen describes Paradise City as “a human story about unorthodox families. Almost everything in the script is taken from real-life things that I or the cast have experienced.”
His next project: transforming rock-and-roll magazine Hit Parader into a production studio for TV, film, live events, and more – starting with a set of reality competition shows, No Cover and Roadie Rage, in addition to Paradise City.
What’s next for Avildsen? The sky is the limit. Even with staff working remotely due to COVID-19, he says 2020 has been one of his biggest and busiest years ever, with new projects and exciting albums.
In the meantime, Avildsen offered R-MA cadets this advice: “Everything you’re doing now will affect the rest of your life. Use what you’ve learned to get a head start…[R-MA] will benefit you if you allow it to.”