Hernando is mixed race (Haitian/Filipino) and was born bi-coastal (New York/California). A champion speller and voracious reader, he became emancipated from his parents at age 15. He cut class for the movies, studied photography, and architecture. He earned his BA at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television with an emphasis in Theater Directing. His thesis, bash: latter day plays by Neil Labute was incredibly well-received. During his undergraduate years, he made student films, staged plays (Othello, Lie of the Mind), and worked extensively for Double Feature Films (Pulp Fiction, Out of Sight, Django Unchained). After graduation, he headed back East to work on Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center. He has worked in production offices (Charlie Wilson’s War, Margot at the Wedding), on-set (Perfect Stranger, Lipstick Jungle) and in the Talent Department at WME Entertainment for clients Ben Stiller and Sacha Baron Cohen.
Hernando also studied Swedish Film at Lund University in southern Sweden and was a 2010 Screenwriting Fellow in Film Independent’s Project:Involve. Currently, he is a 2nd Year Masters Candidate at USC's School of Cinematic Arts where he received the Dana and Albert Broccoli Award for Filmmaking Excellence. Additionally, he has been selected for 2012's Reykjavik International Film Festival's Talent Lab, where his short, The Perfect Marriage, was in competition.
He has just completed his feature film debut, Last Look.
Los Angeles-based, he is currently at work on his 2nd feature, The Darcy Project, a finalist for the 2013 Sundance Screenwriters Lab.
