Mortimer "Blaze" Philbert, Sr.

Mortimer M. Philbert, Sr., AKA Blaze, the President & CEO of High Profile Entertainments & Productions, Inc., is on a mission to not only build a business, but to build and empire! The acronyms of High Profile Entertainments & Productions, Inc. is "H.P.E.P.", which proudly and honorably stands for "Helping People Entertain People". We can truly say that both of these statements are absolutely true when it comes to this business owner!

Mr. Philbert, originally born in Trinidad, came to the United States in his youth and has always carried a dream with him to be in the entertainment industry in some way shape or form. Being a foreigner, now living in the rough streets of Brooklyn, New York, he was to say the least, a bit of an odd ball. As the streets were filled with gang bangers, drug dealers and thieves, Blaze often spent countless hours of his day in his childhood room, on the second floor of their apartment building, overlooking the crime filled streets. He occupied his time by teaching himself how to play the keyboard, would sing, and even took tap and modern jazz dance lessons. As rough as the streets were, Mortimer had actually gained some admiration and respect from the gangsters on the street corners as they would stand around and listen to him perform in the safety of his room. Blaze reported that often, some of the gang bangers would even request for him to play for them and perform solo vocals on the streets and would be an encouragement to them in opening up their world to the arts. In addition, Blaze went on to pursue a short career in acting, appearing in a Coca-Cola commercial, an Afro-Sheen commercial and was the winner for the category of Male Spokes Model on Star Vision, hosted by Doc Holiday of Sony Records, which was a version of Star Search that catered to residents of Virginia in the late 1990's.

As he got older, Blaze made his way out of Brooklyn, but never lost the dream and vision of what is now High Profile Entertainments & Productions, Inc. As he built on his dream, Mr. Philbert often performed in live shows, but after so many colleagues came to him for advice, he quickly came to the conclusion that he would move his position from being on stage to being behind the scenes and became the manager to groups such as Kolaborashion, Emerge and Ladies of Distinction. Blaze went on to to be featured in a live performance show at The Ritz in the early 1990's along side the award winning vocal group, Pure Soul.

Working as a well established and successful manager, Blaze now was booking shows where his artists were opening for major names such as Patti LaBelle, Boyz II Men, Dru Hill, and on top of that, his groups performed at a benefit show in honor of the first African American Navy Seal Diver, Mr. Carl Brashear. Hard work and determination were something that Blaze was no stranger to. In the height of his career during this time, Blaze was a single father of three boys, held a full time government job, and still traveled up and down the coast, weekly, to close deals with venues in states such as Georgia, Alabama, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida and Delaware, just to name a few. Blaze's boys were used to this life and were accustomed to supporting their father's dream by going with the flow, sleeping in cars, and traveling from state to state the evening before Blaze had to return to work and the boys had to go back to school. There were many times where Blaze would go with no sleep for days, just to be sure things were taken care of. If that weren't enough, daily, talents would be at Blaze's doorstep before he even got home from work, and would be in his home, recording through the night.

After some time, Blaze left Virginia and took a job in Maryland, which separated him from his talents and networks. For years, Blaze was contacted by so many venues, friends, and artists who begged and encouraged Blaze to get back into the business of music and managing. After some time, Blaze moved back to Virginia, and began High Profile and Entertainments & Productions, Inc. again, but this time, went from a sole proprietorship to an LLC, and eventually to a corporation. Seeing so many people who he had previously managed before completely drop out of performing, Blaze felt a sense of guilt, but he soon set a new goal and determination to help these same talents, and many more to come, to live their dreams and be the platform that inspired them.

Blaze and his team went on to perform benefit shows at the Hampton Veterans' Medical Center in Hampton, Virginia, catering to veterans who are unable to leave the facility due to multiple illnesses, including being placed in hospice, amputees, and drug rehab, as well as catering to Children's Hospitals for mentally challenged children, just to name a few. Mr. Philbert continues to bring shows to the hospital and has often been quoted as saying, "for the people who cannot go to a show, we bring the show to them."

Years later, Blaze has continued on with High Profile Entertainments & Productions, Inc., and although having to slightly change lanes due to the impacts of COVID19, Blaze, the company and his team are still going strong! Live shows have subsided due to COVID19 restrictions and working hard to maintain the safety of their health, however, High Profile Entertainments & Productions, Inc. is now stepping in to scoring for feature films, including indie film titles such as CONNIE, a psychological thriller/horror film, Raw Power, a motivational story based on true events, that is the first ever movie filmed about Powerlifting, and is now working on the theme song and scoring for a brand new, intended for Disney show entitled Junior High Daze. High Profile Entertainments & Productions, Inc. is also working with a vocal duet who is recording their first album in the High Profile Studio, which is a gospel album, and then will move on to a love song album. If that wasn't enough, Blaze has also started his own podcast show called HPE Live! Within two months time, HPE Live! has now been globally distributed on nine platforms, including Google Podcasts, Pocket Podcasts, Spotify and so many more.

Over the years, Blaze has continued to be a major influence in not only the music industry, but also in the black community, by pushing values, integrity, morals, support, guidance, and opportunities to people who may not otherwise get a chance to be heard, be seen, or perform on stage. We are so excited to see where High Profile Entertainments & Productions, Inc. will be in a year from now, and are looking forward to seeing the High Profile Entertainments & Productions, Inc. name on the big screen!