Author (Leaving Atlanta, The Untelling, Silver Sparrow, An American Marriage)

By Dayna Wilkinson

“I was driving in Las Vegas when the call came. She said ‘hi, this is Oprah.’ I pulled the car over in a not-so-great part of town. People were tapping on my windows, and I was like ‘Go away, I’m trying to have the biggest moment of my life.’”

Before she wrote An American Marriage, Tayari Jones RAE '12, RF '12 had never been in the running for a major literary prize. “I never thought I would be, and that didn’t bother me,” she says. Now, An American Marriage is a New York Times bestseller, a 2018 Oprah’s Book Club Selection and a longlist selection for the National Book Award.

“I had a neighbor in Las Vegas who spoke very little English. We liked each other but communicated mostly with gestures,” Tayari says, “but after she saw the photo in Oprah’s magazine, she was banging on my door saying, ‘You know Oprah?!’ Part of the joy of being chosen for Oprah’s Book Club is that it’s an honor that’s legible to everyone.”

Agent, Producer, Studio Executive (CAA, The Aviator, MGM, Universal)

By Dayna Wilkinson

When people want to hear your opinion, you don’t sugarcoat it or manipulate them.  You tell them the unvarnished truth in a way they can absorb and embrace.

When Sandy Climan was growing up in the Bronx, no one would have thought Variety would later call him “the consummate Hollywood insider.” He was the kid who went to math camp, won science competitions and graduated first in his class from the renowned Bronx High School of Science.  

“I grew up in a lower middle class, white-and-blue collar neighborhood,” Sandy says.  “I hardly ever left the Bronx and, of course, there was no internet then. I went to the movies all the time and watched television incessantly, including great PBS programming like Masterpiece Theatre, Greek dramas and Athol Fugard plays. The only way for me to travel and explore other cultures was through books, television and movies, and they informed me about worlds I had never seen.” 

Orchestra Conductor, The Great Music Series & State of Art 

By Dayna Wilkinson

“I’m already in the hot seat as a twenty-eight year old conductor, but I feel incredible joy at the insanely high level of playing and extreme responsiveness of a professional orchestra.”

“Both my parents are professional musicians,” says Yuga Cohler AB '11. “My mother’s a violinist and my father’s a clarinetist so I took up those instruments—it didn’t go well.” Fortunately, those were minor bumps in the road for Yuga, who started studying piano and music theory at age three. By age twelve, his primary instruments were oboe and piano.

“Shortly after starting on the oboe, I went to a music camp called Greenwood,” he says.  “That’s when I first discovered people my age who took music seriously.  It became a social thing—people I liked were also playing music, which made me like doing it more. By the time I was in my teens, I realized music was really great.” 

Yuga was interested in many different musical genres. “I really got into Eminem, then the underground hip hop scene. Also J-pop, Top 40 and musical theater for a while. Plus I listened to tons of classical records from my dad’s collection.”

Anne Fulenwider '95 (Editor-in-Chief, Marie Claire)

by Dayna Wilkinson

What do Harvey Weinstein, Fashion Week and SXSW have in common? Add NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Ivanka Trump to the mix, and the mind boggles—until you realize you’ve entered Anne Fulenwider’s world.

As Editor-in-Chief of Marie Claire, Anne oversees all content for Marie Claire’s print magazine, website, tablet editions and brand extensions, including the partnership with Lifetime Television’s Project Runway.

“Writing was always the easiest and most natural way to express myself,” she says. “I interned at a Rhode Island magazine at sixteen and was editor of my high school newspaper. But I didn’t enter Harvard knowing what I wanted to do. My sense at the time was that other people were there because they were interested in one particular thing. I spent freshman year searching for what that one thing for me might be.

Alexandra Petri AB '10
(Playwright, Author, Washington Post Columnist/Blogger)

By Dayna Wilkinson

Photo courtesy of Trina Sobotka

“I love being able to communicate with people and tell stories. People ask, ‘why do you spend so much time writing?’ Well, why do you eat cake?”

Writer and humorist Alexandra Petri ‘10 had a happy but slightly unconventional upbringing. From the time she was a child, she traveled from Washington D.C. to Wisconsin to campaign for her father, former Congressman Tom Petri ’62, HLS ’80. “There were parades,” she recalls. “Lots of parades.”

Alexandra was always a voracious reader, but not of the books you’d expect. “When I was really young my mom (Anne Neal ’77, HLS ’80) said she’d either read me her old art history text book or a graphic novel of Othello with the unabridged text.  I chose the latter, and just loved it, though as you’d expect a lot of it went over my head. After that, we’d read King Lear and other works out loud.”

Claudia Weill '69 (Theatre, Film & TV Director, Girlfriends, thirtysomething, The Belle of Belfast)

By Dayna Wilkinson

Claudia Weill didn’t set out to be a director.  A first generation American, she grew up drawing and painting: “the arts were to my Swiss family what sports are to an American family, what you did on weekends.”  After her junior year in college, a summer job changed everything. “I was a PA on a documentary about the ‘Summer of Love’, 1967 in the Haight-Ashbury. I was happy to do anything, from taking publicity stills to casting and locations, dropping the director’s laundry off on the way to the film lab, making meals for fifty and interviewing folks on camera. It was way too much fun to go back to school after that summer.”

Dan Goor '97 (Co-Creator, Executive Producer, Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

By Dayna Wilkinson

“When I went to college I wanted to be a doctor and a comedian—like my idol Jonathan Miller, from the British comedy revue Beyond the Fringe.”

Dan’s twin interests can be traced back to his upbringing in Bethesda, Maryland down the street from the National Institutes of Health. “I’ve always been very interested in science and molecular biology,” he says. “I grew up with it—my Dad and everyone around us worked at NIH. Scientists describe what they do as stories, and I think that fostered my fascination with storytelling.”

His appetite for comedy emerged early. “My brother was a really talented pianist--he’s four years older. While he’d practice, I’d read Woody Allen short stories to him. We got hold of a video camera and spent hours making up sketch comedy routines and cracking each other up. We imitated what made us laugh on TV--Saturday Night Live, Monty Python, televangelists...”

Warren Hsu Leonard HLS '99 (Executive Story Editor, How to Get Away with Murder)

By Dayna Wilkinson

“If you want to write as your second or third career, don’t listen to anyone who says you can’t do it."

Warren Hsu Leonard wasn’t sure what he wanted to do after high school but he knew he wasn’t ready for college. "As an eighteen year old from a small town in Maine, I certainly didn't imagine I could end up in Hollywood.”

After taking some time off, Warren sold everything he owned and bought a one-way bus ticket to San Francisco. “The documentary scene there was amazing back then. I went to movies, interned for several politicians and worked for political and environmental causes.”

Andy Cadiff '77 (Director, HOME IMPROVEMENT, SPIN CITY, HOT IN CLEVELAND)

By Dayna Wilkinson

Andy Cadiff ‘77 has directed over 550 episodes of multi-camera television shows, including hit comedies such as Home Improvement and Spin City. He also directed the pilots of such shows as According To Jim and My Wife & Kids and three features. But he says he didn’t watch much TV as a child. “I don’t think I saw a first run network comedy until I was in my twenties.”

During his summers, he went to an all-boys camp in New Hampshire. “They staged Guys and Dolls when I was fourteen. I was a jock, not a theater kid, but we all auditioned—I was cast as the female lead.” Thus began his love affair with theater, particularly musical theater.