A dedicated reggae fan from a young age, Oliver began his lasting relationship with Jamaica like many Americans—through the island’s music. Friendships with fellow students of Jamaican heritage in high school ultimately led Oliver to visit the island, where he established a recording studio in a Kingston suburb in partnership with a local artist. Frequent trips to Spain and other destinations throughout his youth gave Oliver a global perspective on life and an unquenchable thirst for experiencing new places and cultures.

Later, a masters program in journalism at Columbia University took Oliver back to Jamaica with a film crew to shoot Coping with Babylon, a chronicle of contemporary Rastafarian philosophy that has appeared in international film festivals around the world and as part of an exhibition at the Smithsonian titled “Discovering Rastafari.”

Oliver has worked as a video editor, ornithologist, and financial writer, and currently works as a correspondent for mergermarket, a Financial Times Group publication, in Latin America.

For more information on Oliver’s film production company, check out www.sonerito.com. Visit his website, www.moonjamaica.com, for links to recommended lodging and services and up-to-date events coverage in Jamaica.