Brian Rusch

Brian Rusch is a multi-media producer who got his start working in the fashion industry in Hollywood, California. He was born Brian Christopher Rusch in Elmhurst, Illinois and grew up in the small mountain town of Grand Lake. At 16, he moved to Recife, Brazil, originally as a foreign exchange student and then he stayed on longer then scheduled to launch his career in the fashion industry as a model. At the age of 22, Brian started working at American Rag, Cie. as the head of studio services. His job was to work with celebrities, costume designers and stylists on their projects and personal wardrobes. Brian left American Rag when famed celebrity stylist L'Wren Scott asked him to become her assistant. Recognizing that the work with L'Wren was somewhat limiting, Brian joined celebrity stylist Elizabeth Cowan when her previous styling partner moved on. Elizabeth and Brian became close friends and partners, working together for more than six years and partnering up as the Los Angeles based editorial team for Vanidad magazine. At Vanidad, Elizabeth handled the duties of fashion editor and Brian produced the celebrity features for the magazine. While at Vanidad, Brian secured some of the top names in fashion photography to shoot for the magazine including Dah Len, David Factor and David LaChapelle. In 1997, Rusch left Vanidad to create FashionTeen.com. FashionTeen was an online portal for teenagers and included the latest fashions from companies like Skechers, Diesel and H&M plus an exclusive celebrity content. Within three years, FashionTeen was host to more than one million visitors monthly and was featuring exclusive content with Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Nsync and Backstreet Boys. Brian sold FashionTeen in 2001 to one of its competitors. In 2003, Rusch formed the corporation Mega Muscle Productions. The company's focus was and is producing workout videos and other products featuring the company's core team of celebrity fitness models. In early 2004, the company launched Mega Muscle Models, a division of Mega Muscle and quickly signed some of the top fitness models in the world. Mega Muscle is credited with single-handedly creating the careers of America's top fitness models Derrick Davenport, Julian Fantechi and Lucas Walker, as well as breathing fresh life into those of legends Yvan Cournoyer, Lance LaMar and Dave Nathan. In addition to his work with models, Brian has been an influential supporter of up and coming photographers. Recognizing new talent, he has been responsible for launching the careers of photographers Bunker Monday, Burk Jackson and Eric Schwabel and for taking the work of photography legends Henning von Berg, Steve Henry and Dianora Niccolini to new levels. His work with Niccolini has been most notable as he re-discovered this photography pioneer and helped relaunch her onto the international stage with several books including a personal anthology, a series of gallery shows, and several pieces with a permanent home in the collection at the Library of Congress. Brian has launched several event productions including the Mega Muscle photography workshops and the Hot Shots photo competitions. Brian keeps the company in a constant state of evolution and because of this, Mega Muscle remains one of the top fitness production companies in the world. In 2007, Brian formed a partnership with yoga guru and life coach Alika Medeiros to produce a series of products featuring the ancient teachings of Alika's Hawaiian ancestors. The pair formed Malama International and the company has developed the Kilo Lani yoga programs, the Massage Made Simple programs and of course, the Aloha Life film. In the Fall of 2008, Brian partnered with musician Ried Kapo Ku to produce a series audio CDs featuring Hawaiian music, chanting and spirituality. At this writing, Rusch resides in San Francisco, California with his partner of more than a decade, two dogs and a cat.