Audiences watching a movie or television show are immersed in the actors, the sets, the storytelling and the spectacle unfolding onscreen. Behind every production, a sophisticated operational network works seamlessly to keep everything running, supporting the creative vision at every step
That is the world Alex Bair ’16 helps power every day.
October is National Arts and Humanities Month.
The UCF College of Arts and Humanities graduate works for Cast & Crew, a company operating at the intersection of entertainment, finance and technology. While the company is often described as a payroll provider, its work extends far beyond paychecks, helping productions manage labor compliance, workforce systems, production accounting and the increasingly sophisticated financial infrastructure required to support film and television at scale.
For Bair, the role has become an unexpected way to combine two sides of himself that never felt entirely separate: creativity and complex systems of thinking.
“It’s really the culmination of these many different modalities coming together that makes you a complete person,” he says.
That mindset has shaped nearly every step of his journey.
Lessons Passed Down
Long before Bair entered the entertainment industry, stories from his grandfather helped shape how he viewed work, education and opportunity.
His grandfather participated in a work-study program connected to Henry Ford in Detroit, balancing classes at night with work during the day. Students were expected not only to study and work hard, but to demonstrate discipline and financial responsibility by saving part of their wages.
Those stories stayed with Bair growing up.
The lesson was never simply about earning a paycheck. It was about curiosity, continuous learning and building a meaningful life.
That philosophy would later guide him through an industry constantly evolving through technology and innovation.
Finding Direction at UCF
Bair originally attended another state university before transferring to UCF after his grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, allowing him to be closer to family.
Majoring in theatre, he immersed himself in storytelling, communication and performance. The experience sharpened his confidence and taught him how to think creatively, adapt quickly and communicate clearly across different environments.
At the time, he did not envision a future in fintech or entertainment infrastructure.
But looking back, he sees how those experiences prepared him for exactly that kind of work.
“People think they have to pick one thing and stay in one lane forever,” Bair says. “But your experiences build on each other.”
The arts, he says, taught him far more than performance. They taught him how to navigate ambiguity, connect ideas and understand people, skills that became invaluable in the professional world.
The Business Behind Entertainment
As productions have grown increasingly complex, the entertainment industry has become deeply reliant on sophisticated financial and technological systems operating behind the scenes.
Through his work at Cast & Crew, Bair helps support the financial backbone of film, television and theater productions, from payroll and production accounting to the intricate web of budgets, contracts and labor agreements that make creative work possible.
While many people see intimidating systems and technical jargon, Bair is drawn to understanding how the pieces fit together. He discovered he had a natural aptitude for the operational and fintech concepts shaping the industry, finding a career where technology, finance and creativity intersect.
Rather than viewing entertainment and business as separate worlds, Bair sees them as inseparable. Behind every performance is an invisible infrastructure that allows storytellers to create.
Today, those systems continue evolving rapidly through automation, digital platforms, artificial intelligence and large-scale workforce technologies. Bair operates in the middle of that transformation, helping support the infrastructure behind productions across the entertainment landscape.
A Different Kind of Career Story
Looking back, Bair hopes students understand they do not need to have every detail of their future perfectly mapped out.
He welcomes each experience as another layer to who he is. Instead of treating new opportunities as a tradeoff, he approaches them as a new scene in his unique story.
The arts and technology. Creativity and finance. Storytelling and systems. In an industry increasingly shaped by innovation and constant change, that openness to learning may be more valuable than ever.
“I don’t think you need to have it all figured out,” he says. “I think you have to love something.”
