- As a child Troy was often called "Donahue" by a lifelong friend of his Dad's. The nickname was a nod to actor Troy Donahue from "A Summer Place" movie fame.
- Troy was born on his Mom's exact pregnancy due date, weighing eight pounds and eight ounces.
- The first video & film industry award that Troy won was a Crystal Communicator Award in 1995 for "City Gospel Mission", a series of commercials for a Cincinnati based homeless shelter.
- Troy is the owner and founder of Inertia Films, a production company based in Atlanta, GA.
- Troy worked as a cameraman on one of the first reality television shows "Real Stories of the Highway Patrol" from 1994-96. During this time he shot 212 days of ride-alongs (and an additional four days of re-enactments) with the Highway Patrol/State Police in Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Louisiana and Georgia. Work from this show largely helped Troy purchase his first camera package.
- Has served as a short-term, Christian missionary traveling to several countries including Brazil, Greece, Mexico, Honduras, and Uganda.
- Favorite television shows while growing up were The Brady Bunch, Leave It to Beaver, Gilligan's Island, The Andy Griffith Show and Hogan's Heroes.
- Is a 1982 high school graduate of Nansemond Suffolk Academy in Suffolk, Virginia.
- Is a 1986 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, majoring in Mass Communications with a specialty in advertising.
- Has run a full marathon (Atlanta Marathon) and five half marathons (Georgia Marathon, Richmond Marathon and the Miami Marathon 3x).
- Has worked (4) Super Bowls. (2000, 2001, 2013 and 2019).
- Has won two Southeast Emmy Awards for his Cinematography work, as well as two National Capital Chesapeake Bay Regional Emmys.
- Directed and produced "Liberty & Slavery", a documentary about America's Founding Fathers being champions of liberty, and yet at the same time slave-owners. The documentary was produced through Troy's production company, Inertia Films.
- Attended Atlantic Christian College in Wilson, NC for one year in 1982-83. The college is now known as Barton College.
- Worked as a bag boy in high school at Big Star Grocery in Suffolk, Virginia.
- Grew up a Baltimore Colts fan until, in 1984 the Irsay family-- that owned the Colts, moved the Colts to Indianapolis in literally the middle of the night. After this experience, Troy's favorite team became the San Francisco 49ers.
- Troy has Meniere's Disease in his right ear. However, as of 2017, Meniere's Disease in Troy is now in remission.
- Thought for 35+ years that he was the first person in his family to ever attend college. However while checking some family history, discovered that his paternal Grandfather's brother had attended college in the first part of the 20th century.
- Is a born-again Christian.
- Began working professionally behind the camera in video and film production in 1987. For the first couple of years of his career, his father apparently thought Troy was an actor. When Troy would tell his father to watch a specific TV show that he'd shot, his father would comment, "I watched the entire episode and didn't see you once.".
- Was born at Obici Memorial Hospital in Suffolk, Virginia on May 7, 1964 at 4:55 PM.
- Was a church deacon at Ponce Presbyterian Church (formerly known as St. Paul's Presbyterian Church) in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia from 2011-2019.
- Lists Alfred Hitchcock and Billy Wilder among his favorite directors.
- In the late 1980's appeared in a few TV commercials and corporate videos portraying a doctor and medical examiner.
- Screened his documentary "Liberty & Slavery" at the Virginia Film Festival on November 3, 2016 in Charlottesville, Virginia. After the screening, Troy was able to have lunch with two high school classmates whom he hadn't seen in 25+ years.
- Won "Best Feature Documentary" for "Liberty & Slavery" at the Full Bloom Film Festival in Statesville, NC in September 2016. The award came with a prize of $250.
- Has worked shooting stories at (4) Super Bowls, (9) NFL playoff games including (2) NFC Championship games, several National League Divisional Series, National League Championship Series, and the World Series.
- As of January 2024, he has worked at 88+ NFL games during his career. Troy has seen 30 of the current 32 NFL teams play in person. The only NFL teams Troy has not seen play in person are the Detroit Lions and San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers.
- Did a radio interview with NPR's WABE 90.1 station broadcast on February 2, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia for his documentary "Liberty & Slavery: The Paradox of America's Founding Fathers".
- Troy loved watching the show "Hogan's Heroes" as a teenager. The show's original run ran from 1965-71 but Troy, born in 1964, watched "Hogan's Heroes" reruns for many years and still enjoys the show.
- Has worked as the media at playoff games involving the Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks.
- Is the only child of James Jackson Thomas Jr and Gladys Ann (nee Perkins) Burgandine.
- Considers the books of John and Romans his two favorite books of the Bible.
- As of May 2024, Troy has won (28) Telly Awards in his career.
- Lived in Richmond, Virginia from 1983-92. Attended Virginia Commonwealth University from 1983-86 majoring in Mass Communications with an emphasis in Advertising, graduating with a 3.75 GPA in his major.
- Has been a friend since 1984, and attended Virginia Commonwealth University, with musician Ash Beck of Den of Ashes fame.
- Has lensed projects with two U.S. presidents: Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush. Troy's work also includes interviews with Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Former Congressman Bob Barr and Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain, as well as Governors Brian Kemp and Ron DeSantis.
- Had a high school friend/college roommate named "Troy". To help with confusion, Troy Thomas was called "L.T." (Little Troy) and "Troy Dark" (because of his dark brown hair).
- In the late 1980's was a hand model for a few local commercials in the Richmond, Virginia television market.
- Troy once had one of his tweets shown on screen on the show "Gold Rush: Pay Dirt". The tweet was about "Gold Rush" gold miner Tony Beets. "Gold Rush: Pay Dirt" is a repeat of the previous week's "Gold Rush" show with additional footage and pop-up social media comments from viewers.
- Worked as a waiter at Chi Chi's Mexican Restaurant and the Chesapeake Restaurant in Richmond, Virginia while in college. Troy also worked as a busboy at the Bull & Bear Club at 901 East Cary Street in Richmond.
- Lost his father, James Jackson Thomas Jr, to lung cancer on April 13, 2018.
- As of January 2024, Troy has done live shots for television programs based in America, Iran, Russia, Italy, Israel, China, and Canada.
- As of January 2024, Troy has (8) Regional Emmy Award nominations, to go along with (4) Regional Emmy Awards. His Emmy Awards include both the Southeast and National Capital (Chesapeake Bay) regions.
- Has worked as a lighting cameraman extensively in the sports genre. Troy's credits include: "Good Morning Football", "Hard Knocks", "Inside the NFL", "MLB Central", "Fox Sports Live", "Inside the PGA Tour", "NFL Total Access", "MLB Tonight", "Sunday Night Baseball", "PGA Tour Sunday", "NFL GameDay Morning", "NFL Top Ten", "Golf in America", "Big Noon Kickoff", "A Football Life" and "NFL Thursday Night Football".
- Has worked as an ENG cameraman for Major League Baseball National League playoff games in 2010, 2012, 2013, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 covering the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros. Amazingly, Troy's hometown Atlanta Braves lost every playoff series he covered from 2010-2019. The Braves finally beat the Cincinnati Reds in the National League Wild Card Series in October 2020--with no fans in the stands because of the Covid-19 pandemic. This Braves playoff series victory broke a 19 year playoff series victory drought for the Braves.
- On October 16, 2018 Troy was a guest speaker to a business management class of juniors and seniors at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA. The hour long discussion focused on Troy's small business philosophy and ownership of Inertia Films since March 1993.
- As of January 2024, has worked as a cameraman at four Super Bowls: Atlanta (2000), Tampa (2001), New Orleans (2013) and Atlanta (2019).
- Worked 10 days for NFL Network covering Super Bowl Week at Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta, GA. During the lead up to Super Bowl Sunday, Troy covered live shots, press conferences, team arrivals, and breaking news from the Los Angeles Rams team hotel in Atlanta, GA.
- Troy is based in Atlanta, and covered dozens of Falcons games since 2000. However, the visiting teams that Troy has covered the most are the New Orleans Saints, Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
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