Built on Grit and Heart: How Joseph Merhi Created a Hollywood Powerhouse

In this inspiring episode of Built for This, Carly sits down with Joseph Merhi, the Syrian-born filmmaker and entrepreneur who co-founded PM Entertainment alongside her father, Rick Pepin. Starting with $400, a high school diploma, and a dream that began at age twelve, Joseph went on to help build one of the most prolific independent studios in Hollywood — producing more than 100 films and TV projects for major networks and international distributors.

Joseph shares how he went from dishwasher to restaurant owner, then sold everything to make his first film — a comedy that flopped — and how that early failure became the foundation for everything that came after. He talks about meeting Rick, learning the craft side by side, and how their complete lack of ego created a company culture where hundreds of people found their footing, launched their careers, and felt like family.

From writing scripts in a weekend to selling films at Cannes, from dreaming up wild stunts to running a 60,000 square foot studio, Joseph opens up about the chaotic, hilarious, and deeply human journey behind PM Entertainment’s rise. This episode is a tribute to legacy, leadership, and the magic that happens when two people say yes to each other and decide, “Let’s make a movie.”

Key Themes:

• Build Culture First — Skills Follow: Why Joseph always hired people for who they were, not what they had on paper — and how that created one of Hollywood’s most loyal and high-performing teams.

• Humility Scales What Ego Breaks: How Joseph and Rick ran a 100-film studio by listening, laughing, and treating every idea as valuable, no matter who it came from.

• Opportunity Is Something You Give: The reason PM became a launchpad for hundreds of careers — because Joseph and Rick constantly gave people chances to grow.

Memorable Quotes:

“We just treated everyone like family. And we knew our success was because of all the people.” “I would rather hire a great human being at skill level four than a difficult person at eight — we can train the skill, we can’t train the human.” “We never took ourselves seriously. That’s why we could create so much — we listened, we laughed, and we worked together.”

 

Links for Joseph:

Website: https://www.josephmerhi.com 

A special thank you to 

http://www.mm-u.ch and https://fokus-media.ch for the clips