DIMITRI PROTONENTIS | Broadcast Journalist & On-Air Personality

About Dimitri

I’m Dimitri Protonentis, a Brooklyn kid who ventured out to Los Angeles for his dream school, that infamous Southern California lifestyle, and somehow ended up finding exactly where he wanted to be — on air.

At USC, I started behind the scenes because, truthfully, I didn’t get the part right away. So I did the not-so-glamorous stuff — lugging cameras, working in control rooms, serving as a board operator and livestream manager in radio, and working behind the scenes on USC’s daytime talk show. I was never shy about wanting to be on air, though. I kept talking about it, kept showing up, and hoped somebody would eventually give me a shot. They did.

When it came time to audition, weather just felt right. It gave me room to be myself, and I liked the challenge of making it interesting — because let’s be real, when you’re forecasting 72 and sunny in Los Angeles for what feels like the hundredth time, you better give people another reason to keep watching.

That mindset eventually became Weather Worth Watching, a segment I created and hosted while also reporting, working as an MMJ, producing, interviewing, and trying to get experience across just about every side of broadcasting I could. Somewhere along the way, people on campus started recognizing me as “Dimitri the Weatherman,” and hearing that they actually enjoyed watching became one of the highlights of my time at USC. It was the first time I really felt what it meant to connect with an audience — and I wanted more of that.

Having the privilege of wrapping up my time in Los Angeles as the sole intern at KTLA 5 News was one of the most meaningful parts of my experience there. Being in that newsroom every day pushed me to grow, gave me a closer look at how a major-market operation works, and made me even more certain that broadcasting is where I want to be.

That’s really the kind of broadcaster I want to be — someone who can inform, entertain, and give people a reason to stay and come back for more.