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JT Barnett is a producer and director from the State of Texas and is most known for his ongoing work with T.V. star Joe Exotic. Most people don’t know that Barnett’s ‘Tiger King’ sizzle reel and pilot was created with the help of Danny Cotton from WorldStarHipHop. Cotton is the current Chief Operating Officer of WorldStar and had worked closely with Joe Exotic before his global popularity from the record-breaking Netflix docuseries. Barnett worked with Cotton for many years and attributed a large portion of his success to the opportunities from those endeavors. Barnett recalls, “Danny put me in front of Diddy, and he put me in rooms with legends such as Waka Flocka, Jeezy, Jadakiss, Scarface, Styles P and so on.”
With the news first broken by Forbes, JT Barnett, Joe Exotic, and Donna Bayers from Louisville, Kentucky, have been developing another true-crime docuseries, ‘House Invasion’ with music mogul Jonathan Hay, who was bound and duct taped in a home invasion in the ‘Mallard Crossing of St. Matthews’ suburban neighborhood. Filming for ‘House Invasion’ took place in the following four major US cities: Brooklyn, Dallas, Los Angeles and Louisville. Barnett is also a curator on the R.U.S.H. Music / Fat Beats Records release, ‘House Invasion: Original Soundtrack Album’ with Joe Exotic and William Moseley of Kingmaker Music.
Barnett is also in post-production of ‘The Hart Legacy’ special with pro-wrestling star Teddy Hart, who Barnett states is “the next Tiger King.” This project dispels some of the controversy and rumors surrounding the famed wrestler and focuses on the history of the wrestling industry while exposing some of its secrets.
Barnett’s works aren’t exclusive to just streaming and television content. He has also embarked on a journey in independent filmmaking many years ago. His first commercial feature, ‘Scarecrow Bandits,’ is being produced with Price Productions. Keli Price produced the No. 1 Apple T.V. movie ‘Bandit’ with Mel Gibson, Josh Duhamel, and Elisha Cuthbert. ‘Scarecrow Bandits’ is a quasi-fictional tale following the story of a group of bank robbers who hail from Garland, Texas and the unconventional undercover agent who is tracking them down. It’s based on events Barnett wrote in collaboration with his close friend and business partner, Chris Sko, from ‘Just Say No 2 Sko’.
Barnett is a field producer on ‘Cheaters’ for Reality T.V. architect Bobby Goldstein. He produced the show for several decades under Bobby’s expert tutelage. Barnett is slated to produce the 23rd season with current host Peter Gunz from ‘Love & Hip Hop.’ ‘Cheaters’ is one of the oldest Reality TV shows and was born out of a time when the reality genre didn’t really exist outside of MTV’s ‘The Real World’ or Fox’s ‘Cops.’ These fast-paced, non-scripted productions would prove to be a good training ground for the demanding world of true crime that Barnett has thrived in.
Barnett worked on the upcoming docuseries, ‘You Can’t Erase Me’ with creator Tony Wesley, N.W.A founder of D.J. Yella, J.J. Fad from Eazy-E’s Ruthless Records, along with many other historical hip-hop legends. This series tells the untold stories of the infancy years of gangster rap and hip hop. Barnett is also an executive producer with Jonathan Hay and Kingmaker Music on Joe Exotic’s musical release, ‘Jungle Rhapsody: A Tiger King Experience.’ Fans can start getting excited for ‘Tiger King 3’, which is due to be released in 2024.
Whether you are into true-crime or scripted art, Barnett is preparing for awesome title bouts that are sure to entertain, educate and stand apart in a world of cookie-cutter art. Behind the camera, JT Barnett has the eye of the tiger.
