Greg Ellis spent his career tackling quarterbacks in the NFL, but now he's the quarterback of his own media production company in Addison.
The former Cowboys defensive end is the founder and CEO of Play Now Enterprises - a full service studio.
Ellis' company produces photography, audio, and film.
"The one stop shop, that's what we classify ourselves as, the one stop shop," Ellis said. "We're a good size studio, we're not the little small one. But we're not the huge, great big one that costs a whole lot of money to go in there to do anything, neither."
"We find a good little niche for us, that people come in and they get served. They appreciate what we do," he said.
After nine years of building his company, Ellis is taking on his biggest project yet, a movie.
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He's making a film featuring the great Dallas Carter High School football team, a squad famous for what they did on and off the field.
Ellis says she was drawn to the project after researching the team and seeing video of one of the high school players wearing gold jewelry and signing a letter in a hot tub.
"I thought this kid was in college getting ready to go to the pros and they said 'no, that was one of the high school kids.' I'm like that's an extreme lifestyle for a high schooler to be in the hot tub signing his letter of intent to go to college, that's an NFL kind of move, if you will. And then you've got the bad decisions that they made."
Veteran actors Charles Dutton and Vivica A. Fox headline the cast of "Carter High."
The film is in post-production and Ellis is hoping for a 2015 release date.
The former football player believes this is only the beginning for Play Now Enterprises and he's proud that his hard work is paying off.
"It's been, so far, a dream come true and I would encourage people, pursue your dreams. It's not always about how much money you can throw at something, but do you have the passion and the drive to do it? And if you have that, that's an excellent start and you just have to roll up your sleeves and drive in there."
