Meet Paranormal Investigator and Producer, Kevin Otte.
Since beginning his film career while in school, Kevin Otte has worked in production coordination and management, directing and assistant directing, set construction, camera operation and editing. Kevin has accumulated more than 140 credits for his work on feature films, web series and now his latest docuseries project, Haunted Discoveries. This unreleased project is an eight-episode paranormal series starring Mustafa Gatollari and Brandon Alvis from Ghost Hunters. We interviewed Kevin to hear more about his new paranormal TV series, his personal experience with ghostly activity, and documenting EVP [Electronic Voice Phenomenon] on tape. Not only is Kevin a producer on Haunted Discoveries but he also appears in every episode. The paranormal investigators visit historical sites across Kentucky including the Grand Victorian Inn in Park City and the Old Stone Jail in Franklin, KY, and feature a new haunted location every episode. We caught up with Kevin over Zoom to find out more about Haunted Discoveries and his encounters with otherworldly beings.
How did you first get interested in Paranormal activity?
I grew up in Missouri in a small town and I remember riding around with family on gravel roads and telling ghost stories. I had this teacher growing up who would talk about this light that would travel across this field at nighttime with no source for it. I also have some family members who have had experience with [paranormal activity] it.
Before I moved to LA, I worked in the Sheriff’s Department in Missouri, and I started doing some side work for a private investigator. It was a husband and wife who had a paranormal team. They invited me one day to go on a weekend investigation to an old Victorian house built in the 1800s. During that investigation, I caught my first EVP and I have been hooked on the paranormal ever since.
For our readers who don’t know what EVP is, can you explain?
EVP stands for Electronic Voice Phenomenon and it happens when you are talking or playing on a digital voice recorder and when you play it back you hear other voices maybe answering your questions or interrupting your conversations. You won’t necessarily hear it in the moment, but you will hear it recorded on the recorder.
Have you ever had any unexplained occurrences in your own life?
One of the things that still sticks in my head today was being on the school bus in elementary school and I was looking out the window when we passed by this house with three girls standing in the window. They almost looked like triplets and they were a grayish color. That still sticks in my head until this day, and I was either in 1st or 2nd grade.
What brought you out to LA and The L.A. Film School specifically?
I originally moved to LA to get my degree in Kinesiology from Santa Monica College. I moved in with a friend who was already living out here with a few other roommates that were in film school. One of the roommates worked and The Los Angeles Film School and brought me in and showed me around. That was kind of all it took.
What did your path to filmmaking look like once you were in school?
I actually started getting my first film work during my second month of school. My roommate brought me on set where I met a first AD and we stayed in touch. He would call me for work on the weekends and I would still be able to go to class during the week. He did a lot for Break Media and then the producer for Break Media called me to do more work. I got involved in projects and started out as a PA, then an assistant coordinator, and moved into coordinator and line producing. In LA, I did a few independent features while I lived out there but mostly worked with web-based content.
How did you connect with the investigators behind Haunted Discoveries?
I met Brandon, who is one of the producers and host of Haunted Discoveries, shortly after I moved to LA. I was looking for people to connect with on paranormal stuff and became friends with Brandon, who also founded APRA [American Paranormal Research Association]. I knew Brandon was looking to start a research headquarters in an active location and that’s sorta how this whole thing got started.
Tell us a little bit more about Haunted Discoveries and what people can get excited about?
In this series, we wanted to do something different than what’s currently on TV. We really dive into the history of the places featured in the show. Brandon and Mustafa had just written a book that’s called Elements of a Haunting, and so we’re kind of incorporating different things and doing different experiments to see what elements create a haunting. Whether it’s environmental factors or other phenomena. We worked with a scientist, Dr. Harry Kloor, who is one of the only people to ever get two PhDs simultaneously in two distinct academic disciplines (chemistry and physics). We also had a guest investigator with us on a couple of episodes that is an aerospace engineer. The show’s investigations is focused on the scientific study of the unexplained. It’s currently in post-production and the crew hopes it will air sometime in the fall.
Thank you, Kevin Otte!
Follow Haunted Discoveries through Kevin, Brandon and Mustafa on social.