Alton Brown stated in an interview that he got started cooking while working as a film director. He directed several
music videos,
commercials, and
short films, but realized he was spending all of his free time
eating, reading
cook books, and trying new
recipes.
He decided that his real calling was to be a chef and so with the support of his wife he left the film industry and enrolled in
cooking school.
Once out of cooking school
Alton Brown realized that there weren't any fun
cooking shows on TV and that he could combine his two loves, film and cooking, and so the show
Good Eats was born.