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Third-year graduate film directing student Patrick Perez balances full-time study with serious di

Patrick Perez fumbles through his wallet looking for his business card. He fumbles not in a nervous way, but as if unsure which card to offer. The Columbia University alumnus turned high school teacher is also a Spanish translator, film writer/director/producer and, finally, a full-time UCLA graduate student in film directing.

He settles on a card scripted with “Migrant Filmworks,” a self-started film production company – probably because his newest cards have not yet been printed. But those would read “MyNetworkTV: New Media Director.”

The third-year graduate student has been in charge of directing the online content for the first two shows of Fox’s newest television undertaking. “Desire” and “Fashion House,” two shows that premiered in September, are 65-episode Americanized soap opera adaptations of Latin-American telenovelas.

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• Perez's work can be seen online at the MyNetworkTV Official Website

“I’m directing spec segments for fans that you can only find on the Internet,” Perez said. “So, for example, there (are) confessions on the Internet where the characters are talking about what they’re going through and how they feel.”

At mynetworktv.com, fans can see their favorite characters from “Desire,” a drama set in a high-class L.A. restaurant, confess their deepest secrets and divulge the juiciest gossip about events that unfolded in previous episodes. Fans of the drama “Fashion House,” which focuses on the ruthless fashion industry, can check out segments such as “Designer Downloads,” where characters offer advice for maintaining the most up-to-date fashion styles.

“Fans love the online material,” Perez said. “It lets them see their favorite stars any time they want. I know Donna Feldman, who plays Gloria in ‘Fashion House,’ has been receiving fan mail based on the Internet content alone.”

The content has been so successful, in fact, that the head of programming for MyNetworkTV has decided to incorporate “Designer Downloads” into the actual series on prime-time TV.

Perez is happy with his success at MyNetworkTV,

where he originally took work as a Spanish translator.

But that job is only one of many stepping-stones toward the work he really aspires to do – directing multicultural feature films.

Along with his work at MyNetworkTV and UCLA, Perez co-hosts the radio show “The Pocho Hour of Power” on 90.7 FM. But he is also developing his own feature film – an urban comedy which has attached actor Bobby Lee (“MADtv”) and a producer of the film “Y Tú Mamá También.”

“I got a piece of advice early on,” Perez said. “And that was, if you want to be in the film industry, study other things. You need to be knowledgeable in literature, history and art, because you aren’t getting jobs based on your knowledge of film alone.”

Perez took the advice to heart when deciding to study anthropology as an undergraduate, and since insists on taking advantage of every opportunity that comes his way.

However, the filmmaker’s extra commitments have ultimately given him less time to prepare his UCLA thesis film, a decision some of Perez’s peers might find unwise.

“(Many film students) have this one goal, which is to direct a short and get it in Sundance and their career (will) take off from there,” said Julie Ann Sipos, former UCLA visiting film and television professor. “So a lot of them aren’t able to think out of the box in terms of curriculum that might enhance their ability to work after graduation, in case that very rare dream doesn’t happen for them.”

Despite his true passion for directing fiction films, Perez took Sipos’ course in nonfiction television production in which he coproduced a nationally televised half-hour episode for “UCLA: Next.”

“In the process of teaching, I really got very few students from (the directing) program because their course of study is very narrow and a lot of their goals are fairly narrow,” Sipos said. “But not everybody, no matter how talented they are, is going to get out and get the attention of a studio.”

Perez was one of the few directing students who saw the task of producing nonfiction material as a great opportunity.

“You (have to) keep all your plates spinning and one of them will hit,” Perez said. “Being a well-rounded, broad person will help you get more work.”

It was the material he produced in Sipos’ class that earned him a College Emmy in 2005. And it was that award that eventually gave him the ammunition to convince the president of MyNetworkTV that he was ready to direct content.

“It’s all about the connections,” UCLA film and television Professor A.P. Gonzalez said. “(Perez) is a perfect example of that. He started just by translating and now is directing the online pieces. Soon he will get a chance to direct an actual episode. With that he’ll have TV episodic experience and might get TV episodes for other networks.”

Perez’s quest for Hollywood continues to only be more successful.

“I’m quite sure I’ll be going to him for a job someday,” Sipos said.

And so Perez can only watch as his already-large stack of business cards grows larger, and his already-impressive list of job titles gets closer to the one he really strives for.

In the meantime, MyNetworkTV might not want to bother printing that “New Media Director” business card. By the time it’s ready, Perez will probably need a new one.