How a North Hollywood Skater Boy turned his passion into a Multifaceted Empire.
All Mikey Alfred wanted to do was make movies about skateboarding. At just 12 years old Alfred started his skateboarding and media company, Illegal Civilization. Mikey and his friends started off just filming skateboarding videos around NoHo and posting them on YouTube. Now, at 26-year-old Alfred has written and directed films such as North Hollywood (2021) starring Vince Vaughn and Miranda Cosgrove, as well as co-producing Jonah Hill’s debut film Mid90s (2018), and short films starring the late Mac Miller. Skateboarding being the basis of all of his films of course.
Alfred had a bit of leverage in his aspirations to enter the film industry. His mother was the personal assistant of American film producer Robert Evans -“Uncle Bob” to Alfred- who is best known for his work on The Godfather and Rosemary’s baby. Evans took Alfred under his wing and made sure he was well-versed in the works of the industry “Mikey is the first kid I knew who reminded me of me” said Evans.
Alfred has always had his focus on two things: film and skateboarding. Alfred attributes this success to his ability to focus, “I feel like devoting your life to one thing is so important. I see a lot of people doing a million things and not getting far in any of them. Focus on one thing, get some traction then start to do more.” -and more he did!
Illegal Civilization gained more popularity after collaborating with Tyler, the Creator for the production of Cherry Bomb The Documentary. When Tyler first met Aldred through former Illegal Civ member Na-Kel Smith, he thought Alfred was a bit weird, “At first he wouldn’t talk; he would just always be filming” Tyler said. Eventually, Tyler warmed up to Alfred’s filming and would call for Alfred to capture their moments, “After a while, we would be like, ‘Film this! Film this! Film this!’”.
Alfred went from just filming his friends skating around NoHo to touring with Tyler, the Creator, Frank Ocean, YG, and more. Additionally, he went from handing out Illegal Civilization t-shirts to kids around his neighborhood to having IC shirts stocked in Zumiez and Urban Outfitters.
Mikey Alfred and the rest of the Illegal Civilization team still post their charismatic skateboarding videos on YouTube, but Alfred has big plans for the future of IC, “I’m trying to set IC up so that it’s a production company like HBO. We can host content, we can create content … whether that’s movies, TV, sports, whatever you need, we got it.”