Biografia
Sam graduated from Seattle Central College in 2003 with an AAS in Film and Video Communications. The next year, while bartending at Lake Wilderness Golf Course, he wrote the script "Bullets, Blood & a Fistful of Ca$h" for Thom Doty, a regular customer at the bar. He secured $25,000 to finance the initial production of the film and raised an additional $25,000 for post-production. The film, retitled "Ca$h," was sold at the Marche du Cannes by Shoreline Entertainment. During the festival, Akina met Slovenian director Mitja Okorn, and they began collaborating on multiple projects. In 2010, Akina wrote Listy do M. (Letters to Santa) for Okorn and Polish network TVN, based on an existing screenplay by Marcin Baczynski and Karolina Szablewska. Released in 2011, Listy do M. became the highest-grossing film in Poland over the previous twenty years. Together with his creative partner Jules Jones, Akina founded the production company Attackships On Fire, producing commercials for clients such as Dell Technologies while continuing his work with Okorn. In 2015, Akina and Jones co-wrote Planeta Singli (Planet Single) for Okorn and Gigant Films. The film premiered in 2016 and ranked as the second highest-grossing film that year. After the success of Planet Single, Akina and Jones signed an agreement with Gigant Films to co-write the sequels, which were filmed back-to-back in 2018. Following a visit to Poland in summer 2017, Akina was offered the director role for Planet Single 2 and later co-directed Planet Single 3 alongside producer Michal Chacinski. Both films were released within three months of each other. Planet Single 2 was the third highest-grossing film in Poland in 2018, surpassing Avengers: Infinity War, while Planet Single 3 ranked as the sixth highest-grossing film in Poland in 2019, behind Avengers: End Game. In 2019, Akina co-wrote and directed Mayday, which was released theatrically on January 10, 2020, and became the third highest-grossing film in Poland that year.
