Biography

Thomas Essig is an American film producer, musician, actor. Thomas was the drummer in the Pittsburgh band The Prestons for a few years until his job with McKesson as a Robot Tech took him to NY in 1999. In 2022, his filmmaking/music career allowed him to move back to the Pittsburgh area where he has family, longtime friends, and an undying devotion to the Pirates. He is now involved in the Pittsburgh film community. In 2005 while living in Hudson, NY, the opportunity to act in live theater was offered to him. He spent a couple of seasons performing in upstate New York at the Rhinebeck Centre of the Arts. Noteworthy, he had a prominent role in the first run show, War Games, A World War II Memoir by Sam Hall. He has on screen credits as well. The film career stems from being a musician, specifically a drummer from age 6. His interest in writing and recording music began in the 80’s. Tom states. “Recording on a Tascam 424 4 track cassette recorder was the greatest experience in learning the art of audio engineering. Imagine recording a whole band, including a drum set on 4 tracks and then make it sound good sonically.” By the 2000’s he was playing multiple instruments, writing, and recording in the spare time from his job in robotics. In 2017, he started his production company SSYY Productions Inc. (Stick Shift Yaya’s). Yes, there is a driving story to the name. Thomas's career in film began in 2017 with the production of his short film Drive. (A film that was created around 16 minutes of his music.) The Director of the short (Alex Knapp) asked Thomas if he would help him get his first film made. During the production of that film (Go/Don’t Go) in 2018, Tom began getting educated in the art of filmmaking. That education continued into 2019 during production of his first film, Something Divine. Something Divine has won 6 awards including the prized Telly Award for Feature Documentary. The film releases worldwide March 27,2026 on Amazon, Apple TV, Roku, etc. In May of 2025 he was a panelist forthe Global Entertainment Showcase at the French Riviera Film Festival during the Festival de Cannes. Executive Producer for the critically acclaimed feature film “Go/Don't Go”. Released 2021. Co-Executive Producer for the award-winning short “Through the Stars”. (2023) Actor, Film Score and Audio Engineer for a Pittsburgh production “The Monte Carlo”. Written by David Ogrodowski, Directed by Jamie Lockhart. Release sometime in 2026. In the early stages of production is Tom’s new film “I’m the Drummer”. A true story of an incredible lifetime of circumstances to find the truth.