Hermitage native Michael Speck is living out his dream in Los Angeles, working in the entertainment industry.

“I knew I wanted to get out here and get in this business,” Speck said from his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills.

A 1994 graduate of Hickory High School, Speck, 33, has been working his way through the world of television since moving out west in the summer of 2005.

He’s now a post-production coordinator for the new CBS sitcom “Accidentally on Purpose,” featuring former “Dharma & Greg” star Jenna Elfman.

It’s a long way from his childhood and teen years, when Speck and his friends made goofy home movies to make people laugh, with skits about “Star Wars” and “Transformers” modeled after “Saturday Night Live.”

“Back then we were just having fun. I never thought of it as a career,” said Speck, son of Pat and Ron Speck of Hermitage.

It wasn’t long before he realized he wanted to get seriously involved in the entertainment business. Speck completed a film workshop in 2001 in California and in 2004, earned a communications degree from Clarion University.

Between those years, he worked in the video department of Giant Eagle, Hermitage, probably the first job he had that was related to entertainment. He enjoyed talking to customers about his favorite movies and recommending the best titles.

During his time at Clarion, Speck had an internship working with Kevan Yenerall, one of his professors who ran for state senator at the time. Speck helped with his campaign and made a commercial for him that ran on local television.

He also made some short films, including “Psycho Chicken” and its sequel, all the while planning to move to Los Angeles after graduating from Clarion.

Along the way, Speck spent a lot of time learning different computer software programs for video editing, motion graphics and special effects. He’s self-taught and considers video editing his strong point.

“In every project I try to learn something new,” he said.

Summer 2005 came, and Speck made the move from Hermitage to California with a solo, cross-country road trip that lasted five or six days.

“It gives you a lot of time to think,” he said of the drive.

He was working for Target at the time and was able to transfer to a new store the company was opening in the Northridge area of Los Angeles. He also found a pretty decent apartment with good roommates.