Christian Picciolini

Early life and education

Picciolini was born and raised in Blue Island, Illinois, the son of Italian immigrants. His father was a hair salon owner and his mother is a restaurant owner. At age 14 in 1987, Picciolini was recruited to join the Chicago Area Skinheads (CASH) by the group's founder, Clark Martell. Two years later, after Martell had gone to prison for a second time, Picciolini became the group's leader at age 16. He facilitated a merger between CASH and the Hammerskins, a more violent and well-organized white supremacist skinhead organization.

He would go on to head the white supremacist punk band, White American Youth (W.A.Y.) and, eventually, a hate rock band called Final Solution. Final Solution was the first American white power skinhead group to perform in Europe. The concert was held in a former cathedral in Weimar, Germany, attended by 4,000 people, and was made up of several other white supremacist bands. In 1994, Picciolini opened a record store called Chaos Records where he often sold white power music. He officially renounced ties to the American Neo-Nazi movement in 1996 at the age of 22.

Picciolini attended DePaul University later in life earning a degree in international business and international relations.

Career

Picciolini founded another, non-racist punk rock band called Random55 after leaving the white power movement. The band toured with Joan Jett in the mid 1990s. In 1999, Picciolini began working for IBM. He eventually left IBM to start his own record label, Sinister Muse. Sinister Muse is part of the broader entertainment firm, Goldmill Group. Picciolini managed Flatfoot 56, a Celtic punk band from Chicago and The Briggs, a Los Angeles punk band.

After graduating from DePaul University, Picciolini spent time writing his personal memoirs, Romantic Violence: Memoirs of an American Skinhead, about his experience as a youth involved in the early American white power skinhead scene. In 2010, he co-founded Life After Hate, a peace advocacy and counter-extremism consulting group, with former neo-Nazi, Arno Michaelis. That same year, he took over as the executive producer and general manager of JBTV, a music-themed television program and entertainment media network based in Chicago. Picciolini is responsible for changing the show's basic format, securing a national distribution deal with NBC, and earning the show multiple Regional Emmy Award nominations. He would stay at the show until 2012.

In 2011, Picciolini spoke at the Summit Against Violent Extremism (SAVE) in Dublin, Ireland which was presented by Google Ideas and the Tribeca Film Festival. Also in 2011, Picciolini served as the executive producer and film director for the Smashing Pumpkins' DVD re-issues of Gish and Siamese Dream. He also served as the producer for The Frantic's music video for "Blackout Brigade" and, later, as the producer for Dead Town Revival's music video for "Johnny." Picciolini had previously served as producer for The Frantic's music video for "Audio & Murder" and for Dead Town Revival's music video for "The Rain."

In 2013, Picciolini contributed to The New York Times Best Seller The New Digital Age, a book written by Google Chairman, Eric Schmidt and Google Ideas Director, Jared Cohen. Picciolini released Romantic Violence: Memoirs of an American Skinhead in April 2015. Over the course of his career, Picciolini has contributed to a variety of nationally broadcast programs as a subject matter expert, commenting on issues related to far-right, white supremacist extremism. Most recently, he appeared on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley and on Anderson Cooper 360° on CNN where he discussed the Charleston church shooting. He has also recently appeared on Chicago Tonight on WTTW, The Afternoon Shift on WBEZ, NewsMax TV's MidPoint with Ed Berliner, Al Jazeera, WGN Radio, and The Adam Carolla Show. He has also been profiled in online publications like Vice and The Blaze.

Awards and recognition

In his role as executive producer of JBTV, Picciolini helped the show earn 5 Regional Emmy Award nominations (three in 2010 and two in 2011). The show won an Emmy award in 2010 for their motion graphics. Picciolini was also nominated for a Regional Emmy Award in 2010 for his role as co-director of Flatfoot 56's music video, Courage.

In 2016, Picciolini won a Regional Emmy Award for his role as executive producer and director of ExitUSA's "There is life after hate" anti-hate campaign.