By 2019, James Severe had rebuilt his life from the ground up.
After serving two years in prison, he’d come home determined to make it work. And that he did, with his two jobs, all while playing college football, and maintaining solid grades. He was juggling everything while on parole and had pretty much mapped out a clear path toward a career in sports and entertainment. Then, in an instant, it all unraveled. One traffic stop sent him right back behind bars, and it wasn’t because of anything he did wrong.
“That really broke me,” Severe says. “It took everything out of me – my ambition, my drive, my belief in myself. I had just done two years in prison, came home, hit the ground running, and then ended up right back inside over something that wasn’t even my fault.”
At the time, Severe couldn’t see it as a system error. He internalized it as just his reality. “I just thought, ‘This is my life. I’m Black, I’m formerly incarcerated, I’m a convicted felon — this is just the type of stuff that happens.'”
For a while, Severe let the dream go. He stopped looking for opportunities, and unfortunately stopped believing anything good could happen for him. Then the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports and Entertainment at Long Island University came along. “That was the first thing to really knock on my door and pull me back into thinking about my future again,” he says. “Looking back now, I guess you could call that a sign from God.”
He discovered the school the way most of us who are chronically online discover things these days — social media. When he saw Roc Nation was launching a school, the decision was immediate. “It’s Roc Nation. It’s a new school. For me, there wasn’t even a question — I knew I had to be there.”
But getting there was just the beginning. Severe had to rebuild himself completely, going back to basics that worked before his world fell apart. “I kind of just went back to what got me here in the first place which was having a plan and keeping education as my number one priority,” he explains.
His strategy was to show up to class every day, sit in the front, stay engaged and build real relationships. “I was intentional about the people I interacted with because I knew networking was just as important as grades,” Severe says. “That combination – focusing on school, staying present, and surrounding myself with the right people – that’s what carried me through parole and kept me locked in on my goals.”
What Severe really wanted from Roc Nation School was access. To be in rooms with industry professionals and normalize his presence in spaces where real decisions get made, and the school delivered exactly that. “They put us in front of real professionals, and after that, it was on us to make the most of it,” he says. “Being in those rooms consistently, hearing from people actually doing the work, and getting that exposure through my classes — all of that built my confidence.”
A pivotal moment came when Michael Rubin from REFORM spoke to students. Severe stood up during Q&A, not to ask a question but to thank Rubin for his work. It was the first time he’d ever publicly shared that he’d been incarcerated.
That vulnerability opened unexpected doors. His sister introduced him to Second Chance Studios, a nonprofit that trains formerly incarcerated people for media careers. Initially resistant (because he was still focused on becoming a sports agent), something told him to try it.
“It was a fully paid program, nine to five, with benefits, mentorship, and real industry opportunities. We got to work with companies like MTV, Netflix, and Spotify,” Severe explains. The program didn’t just teach technical skills but revealed talents he didn’t know he had and led to his first job at MTV as a promo graphics producer.
Meanwhile at Roc Nation School, Severe was documenting everything, bringing his camera daily, filming students, building a portfolio. He even got a $10,000 grant for a docuseries following classmates who’ve achieved major success – like Cece who’s now on Netflix, or LJ who’s in the studio with Usher.
“That experience showed me I could do more than I ever imagined,” Severe says. “I thought I was going to be an NFL agent, but Second Chance Studios opened my eyes to an entirely new world.”
Today Severe works full-time in Roc Nation’s TV & Film division. “It makes me very proud, honestly. To be able to say I work at Roc Nation – especially knowing how tough it is to break into this industry – it’s a big deal for me,” he says.
The kid who played every sport and dreamed of being an NFL agent is now creating content and moving through TV and film rooms with confidence. “The opportunity is there,” he says. “If you seek – you shall find. You really have to apply yourself though. I applied myself and I’m very proud of myself.”
If you’ve ever been down (and I’m talking, really down), then you know that sometimes the system fails you. But, then there are instances like Severe’s where sometimes that failure becomes the foundation for something bigger than you ever imagined.