Max Votolato’s fascination with Los Angeles began with watching the city play the background in Hollywood movies and TV shows. He wondered and fantasized about the real life taking place in that sprawling suburban landscape. As a teenager with a giant map of LA county hung on his London bedroom wall, cities like Arcadia, Sherman Oaks, Carson, Studio City and West Covina seemed like exotic fantasy places. Votolato’s reading of the books “Los Angeles: Capital of the Third World” by David Rieff, Mike Davis’ “City of Quartz” and the columns of journalist Erin Aubry Kaplan set the wheels in motion for Votolato to find and tell his own LA Story. These were some of the original influences for Freeway City.

Born in South London, Max began filmmaking at an early age. He studied film and video throughout high school attending the media program at British Record Industry Trust School for the Performing Arts.

Max made his first forays into production on the set of the ABC series “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles”, where he once stood in as Young Indiana Jones’ hand double for a close-up shot, and by playing one of the child gods of Valhalla in the Monty Python film “Erik The Viking”.

As a student, Votolato worked on numerous documentary films for London’s Channel Four. He also worked for MTV Europe directing segments of the reality series “Models in the House”.

A graduate (with honors) of the prestigious Film and Video Program at The London College of Printing and Distributive Trades. His thesis film project, 'The Brother from Another Borough,' was screened at London's National Film Theatre and The Institute of Contemporary Arts. Another of Votolato's projects, the documentary 'Graffiti Forever,' was the subject of a case study analysis in British author Iain Sinclair's book 'Lights Out for the Territory: Nine Excursions in the Secret History of London.'

Max has lived in Los Angeles for 14 years. He’s worked at staff jobs for The Broder Webb Chervin Silbermann Agency (now part of ICM), MGM and Paramount Pictures. His credits include “Transformers”,  “World Trade Center” and “Hotel for Dogs”.

In addition, Votolato was the acting documentarian and Director of Video Operations for television industry legend Michael King’s famed All American Heavyweights boxing program. Votolato documented several years of the heavyweight training camp leading up to the 2012 London Olympics.

Votolato was Associate Producer, Cameraman and Co-Editor on five seasons of the police reality series “On Patrol with the Santa Barbara PD”. Most recently Votolato served as Unit Manager on the Fox television series “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey”.