Get ready Silicon Valley, there is a new name coming to streaming. Famous young producer Omar Parker is jumping into the OTT streaming world with a platform called Road Sofa.
Omar Parker was born in San Diego, California. His father was a Webby award nominated web designer. He passed away from cancer in 2021. Parker’s mother Ghida is a painter and artist. For college Parker attended Montana State University where he met Bridgett Parker, his college sweetheart and future wife. For a proposal, Parker got many of Bridgett’s favorite celebrities to help him ask for her hand in marriage. The helpers included Jon Taffer, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, & Heidi Watney.The two married in May of 2022 in San Antonio among a group of friends and family.
Parker started producing at the young age of seventeen years old. He founded a production company known as Egerton Crescent Productions in 2015 and worked on over forty titles over the next seven years. He is still producing with this company to this day. More recent titles include over five horror features with Michael and Sonny Mahal. Death Count, the recent release of the titles stars Michael Madsen and has been acquired by Gravitas Ventures.
In 2020, Parker got together with his longtime best friend Jonathan Gower and created a YouTube series and web platform called Captain’s Log. At the height of popularity they had over two hundred thousand subscribers and were able to host fan events with thousands of people. The fact that Parker admits this was a bored project of his says it all. He was able to draw in an audience of hundreds of thousands of people and create a seven figure business according to reports, as a hobby project while he was stuck inside. A few months ago the platform finally was absorbed by a competitor and now Parker and Gower have moved onto a new bored venture together. An upcoming book series called Providence.
Speaking of new ventures, Parker has also started Road Sofa. Road Sofa, an SVOD OTT platform powered by Vimeo, will launch in beta later this year to provide content specifically for young millennials and Gen Z in North America, Australia, and Greater Europe. Subscribers will be able to access easy-to-watch content curated by zoomers for zoomers. In addition to streaming content, Road Sofa subscribers will be able to access high end brands through the Road Sofa network. Parker has added a growing list of affiliates includes NordVPN, Skillshare, Pure Hemp Botanical, DaVinci, and Sneak Energy. All of this news has come after just a few months since the announcement of the platform’s existence. Many are expecting to see a full launch in December or January.
Parker’s presence in the streaming world may have interesting effects on its economy. No one else is really trying the same strategy that he is, but if he is able to actually get the Gen Z market he will have accomplished what few in Hollywood have so far. Keep an eye on this one if you have any fingers in the streaming OTT game.