Craig Santy

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Craig Santy (born March 26, 1969) is well-known in the world of television as one of the pioneers of what is today called reality TV.

Craig Terrence Santy was born in Staten Island, New York, the son of Mr. Craig Michael Santy and Rita Lynn Considine Santy.

Craig attended primary and middle school in upstate New York, in the suburbs outside of Syracuse, New York. (With very short stints in Herndon, Virginia (Kindergarten) and Greece, New York (3rd grade.)

From a very early age Craig showed talent in the areas of music and theatre and from the age of 6 was regularly featured in community and school productions.

At the age of fifteen, Craig was recruited to attend Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan.

While he had previously played clarinet and string bass, it was his singing talent, and stage presence that were most valuable to the young and growing vocal department at the school. Craig was the youngest Baritone to be a full scholarship recipient at the school in 1985. And in his second year, he was the youngest male singer to compete as a Finalist in the Academy's prestigious Concerto Competition.

Craig left the academy prior to graduation in 1987 to pursue professional training in Opera at the Manhattan School of Music in NYC.

While in New York Craig Studied with Beverley Peck Johnson and Gabor Corelli. Craig was also invited to participate in Master Classes hosted by Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti at the Juilliard School. While in NYC, Craig was fortunate to meet Nello Santi, a conductor who frequently made guest appearances conducting Italian Opera favorites at the Metropolitan Opera. Santi paved the way for Craig to travel to Florence, Italy for language studies, and then on to Rome for vocal coaching.

Craig also studied in Santa Barbara, Ca with French opera great Martial Singher at the Music Academy of the West.

After years on the road, working and studying, Craig returned to the United States, and began Academic Studies at the University of California at Irvine.

In the spring of 1992 Craig graduated with a Bachelors in Science. Having some success as a writer, publishing travel and business articles, Craig decided to pursue his new passion for writing, and was accepted into Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, where in 1993 he received his Masters in Journalism, along with the 1993 Photojournalist Award for his outstanding coverage of the February 26th bombing of the world trade centers in NYC.

Craig's first assignment out of school was as a photojournalist for the Los Angeles bureau of United Press International. While with UPI Craig was issued White House press credentials and covered the funeral of Richard Nixon, where Craig photographed Presidents Ford, Carter, Regan and Bush, as well as acting president, William Jefferson Clinton. Craig would cover Clinton, and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton several more times as they returned to Los Angeles throughout his presidency.

Craig also covered the Oscars in 1994 and 1995, as well as the Source Awards, the Minority Media Awards and the Golden Globes. Several prominent court cases were assigned to Craig, as the pool reporter, including the Menendez trial, the Reginald Denny trial, the Heidi Fleiss trial and the O. J. Simpson trial.

Craig's big break came on December 22, 1993 when Craig scooped the Michael Jackson molestation story, releasing previously unknown details about the star, and an ongoing investigation into sexual misconduct by the Santa Barbara's DA office and the Sheriff. Following his stint at UPI Craig returned to NY, where he began working for an experimental new television project with other Columbia Grads entitled, I-Witness. The ground-breaking gritty series put small format cameras in the hands of journalists, and invited them to make long form pieces on any subject of their choosing. Craig's first project was to document the life of a rural Militia group in Utah. The resulting work was so compelling, CBS later decided to invite Craig to co-host a special edition of 48 Hours where a condensed version of the 3 hour documentary was shown. A second project took Craig to the rural mountains of North Carolina, where Craig documented the lives of numerous Down Sydrome children living with adopted parents.