John Whoriskey Jr.: Rochester Native Helps Movies Get Made

Rochester native John Whoriskey Jr. has made quite the name for himself in the film industry and may have something to do with why we're seeing Hollywood in our backyard more often recently.

Ever wonder how Hollywood films find places to shoot? They have location scouts or location managers. Well, that's been Whoriskey's title for some years now and his resume is pretty impressive.

The Old Rochester Regional High School alum has over 30 movies and TV shows under his belt.

He has worked on big-screen films such as Ted and Boston Marathon bombing documentary Stronger.

He has a passion for what he does, but it's hard to pick favorites.

Ray Fuschetti

"Many of them have been incredibly special to me in so many different ways," he said. "From the first real major studio movie I worked on as a locations PA, Ted, to one of the most heavily iconic Boston location-filled films of all time, Black Mass, to having the opportunity to hang out with Boston Marathon bombing survivor Jeff Bauman and all of the real-life characters during the making of Stronger; the list goes on and on.

"Many of them hold a special place in my heart."

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Whoriskey has been living in New York City for a while now but comes home pretty often to work on projects, which allows him to see family and share what he does with loved ones. A pretty neat perk to his job if you ask me.

He has also worked on tv shows such as Gotham, Dexter: New Blood and

What's neat about John's story is he can recall the days of scooping ice cream at a creamery in Acushnet when he was younger and credits the strong support he had of the SouthCoast teaching community for being able to find his passion and learn so much early Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

"I'm honestly just really proud to be a kid from a small town in a community like ours who was able to grow up with such strong support from the local teaching community," Whoriskey said. "To not only go on to make a full-time career out of working in the entertainment industry but also to do it years later right here, basically in my own backyard, basically at will, is a dream come true in and of itself."

We first introduced you to Whoriskey when word got out about a big-budget movie coming to town. You might remember Paramount+ film Finestkind taking over parts of New Bedford and Fairhaven earlier this year and, yes, you can blame Whoriskey for some of the well-known spots that end up in the film. Academy Award-winning writer-director Brian Helgeland, a New Bedford native, had been planning the film on and off for 20 years.

As far as what's next for Whoriskey, he said he is passionate about music and is releasing a song called Haunted House and hopes to dip his feet into the music world.

He also is working on another project in Utah but we have a feeling he will be back in the area soon.