Through each of those experiences, Obma has come to understand that making one’s way in Hollywood requires diligence, tenacity, and a winning attitude. He may not be famous quite yet, but he’s been a gainfully employed actor for 15 years. With optimism intact, Obma continues pursuing his big break. And he has real-world role models in actors like Steve Carell, Kathy Bates, Bryan Cranston, Viola Davis, and Morgan Freeman, who were all in their 40s when they made it big.

Now, with a new series project he’s put together himself, he’s that much closer to joining their ranks.

ACT ONE: BACKSTORY

One of four children, Obma — who grew up in La Crosse and Fond du Lac, Wisconsin — felt early on that he didn’t have much to offer, leading to a fair amount of self-doubt.

“All of my siblings were more successful athletes than I was, which is quite revered in small towns,” he says. “I also come from a family of rather exceptional people — my brother is an orthopedic surgeon, my younger sister is an anesthesiologist, and my older sister is an immigration attorney. I just didn’t relate to being the perfect doctor or lawyer. Instead, my throughline for how I can understand the characters that I’ve so naturally been able to play is if the characters are quite flawed.”

Though Obma’s talents weren’t necessarily valued where he grew up, things began to shift when his high school Spanish teacher, Julie Proffitt, recognized that he had a gift for languages. “The fact that Mrs. Proffitt so openly shared her belief in me encouraged me to apply myself in a whole new way, and now I fluently speak a variety of languages,” he says. He not only speaks flawless Spanish, but he also knows French, Russian, German, and his most recent challenge — Welsh. He found Russian and Welsh the most difficult to learn.

His aptitude for accents rises to the level of a superpower. “Accents are something I really enjoy — they bring me to life,” Obma says. “When putting together an accent, I find that I change the way my mouth is shaped, which then causes me to carry myself differently — it’s all connected.”

Obma’s talent for languages and accents has boosted his career. “You’ve got to find out what your essence is and give that to the world,” he says. Courtesy of Hans Obma

Zeroing in on what one wants in a career can be an arduous venture. Despite his own ups and downs, Obma recognizes that not everyone gets the opportunity to go after the life that they’d always wanted. “Early on, I heard someone say that you’ve got to figure out what your essence is and give that to the world,” he says. “More and more, sharing the core of who I am is central to my work as an actor: to speak my truth.”

Justin Markofski ’02, Obma’s college roommate and close friend of 22 years, has a clear vision of what makes him a standout in the sea of celebrities. “Hans takes a special interest in others and goes out of his way to remember things about people that will make them feel seen, special, and cared for. … He is teachable and pragmatic. This combined with his diligence has helped to cultivate his skills as an actor within a unique niche.”

Obma consistently receives high marks from most anyone he interacts with. Kathleen Culver ’88, MA’92, PhD’99, director and professor at the UW School of Journalism and Mass Communication, got to know him when he was a student double majoring in journalism and Spanish, and they remain in contact to this day.

“I first met Hans when he took our introductory boot-camp class, Mass Media Practices,” Culver says. “I remember him being a fan favorite of his classmates. Hans has a joyous soul, a big heart, and tremendous talent. He’s someone who gets along with everyone and always strives for the best outcomes for all, which is so important in fields like ours, because they so often rely on teamwork.”

ACT TWO: GETTING INTO CHARACTER

Relocating from Wisconsin to Los Angeles in 2008 was a culture shock and a career gamble. But Obma knew that if he didn’t try, he would regret it. “Once in LA,” he says, “I felt like I’d gotten to this place where there really were thousands of doors to opportunity, but so many of them were closed with signs that said, ‘Don’t knock.’ It wasn’t a welcoming feeling.”

If you’ve ever watched Vampire Diaries, The Rookie, Narcos: Mexico, or For All Mankind, you’ve seen Obma playing a variety of characters. And getting those roles took time and hard work. Arriving in LA with no acting credits, he soon realized that he needed help defining the areas where he had something unique to offer. “While specializing in foreign roles, I also worked out how to play criminals and found that I have the capacity to play mentally ill characters quite naturally,” he says.

Finding a renowned acting coach was key to acquiring the confidence and skills necessary to move forward. “Working with David Rotenberg was a foundational time for me,” he says. “I would send him tapes of different monologues, to which he would offer notes. For several months, I did villain after villain, and he told me that I need to play bad guys. And now, I know how to approach those types of roles in a way that I didn’t before.”

Shortly after working with Rotenberg, Obma booked a handful of roles in close succession. First, he got to portray a Revolutionary War hero on TURN: Washington’s Spies, which was a French-language role. Around that same time, he was in an episode of NCIS: New Orleans playing a German master villain, quickly followed by a Hungarian bad-guy role in Get Shorty.

Another one of Obma’s early successes was booking a prime-time role on Criminal Minds. He found being on set exhilarating. In 2018 and 2019, he earned a role in the fourth and fifth seasons of the Breaking Bad spinoff, Better Call Saul. “Even though my character, Adrian, was rather secondary,” he says, “that job helped pay for a couple years of life.” He also enjoyed the opportunity to interact regularly with lead actor Jonathan Banks, who played hitman and fixer Mike Ehrmantraut.

Meaningful experiences, career wins, and good friends kept Obma in LA full-time for 12 years before he moved back to Wisconsin in 2020. Among those friends was fellow actor and mentor Shun Lee, who helped him recognize that he didn’t have to apply everyone’s advice or have every social media account. And he didn’t have to accept every role.

“When I first moved to California, I had the rather erroneous thought that anyone who’d been here longer had something to offer that I ought to consider,” he recalls. “But many of those I interacted with were coming from a place of defeat and jadedness. Through my time with Shun, I came to recognize that if you have wisdom and apply it consistently, that is what will likely lead to positive results. The best advice tends to focus on the possibilities and how to pursue them effectively.”

As Obma’s career began to take off, so did his confidence and reputation, earning him a place in the final season of the comedy series Grace and Frankie. He was a Norwegian candy smuggler — Hummer Von Vuckinschloker — opposite Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. That same year he portrayed an evil scientist in WandaVision with Elizabeth Olsen and Kathryn Hahn.

“Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda were gracious and complimentary, which meant a lot, and I now carry myself differently because of the way things went on that set. The same holds true for WandaVision, which was a victorious experience where they kept giving me more and more to do because they were happy with what I was creating with my character.”

Most recently, Obma played a principal role in May December, directed by Todd Haynes and starring Natalie Portman. “Both Natalie and Todd were gracious, and it gave me an opportunity to firmly plant my feet and work with an Oscar-winning actress and an Oscar-nominated director,” he says. “I could have walked into that film and fallen flat on my face, but working with Todd and Natalie, instead of falling, I flew.”

ACT THREE: SILVER LININGS

When the pandemic began in early 2020, it offered opportunities to slow down and look at things from an entirely different angle — adopt a pet, make your own sourdough, learn how to knit. For Obma, it was a chance to delve deeply into practicing languages and accents. He also read The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron, which inspired him to write.

“I came up with an idea for a television series that would feature a main character, Joseph Gard, who’s a sensitive man from Wisconsin,” Obma says. “He’s an MI6 interpreter who speaks many languages and uses different accents, which is perfect for me — a dream role.”

Once he felt he had written a successful pilot — A Question of Service — Obma decided to go a step further and fund the entire project himself, all during COVID. What came after is something he couldn’t have predicted.

After submitting his 20-minute proof-of-concept film to 11 film festivals across the U.S. and the UK, he came away victorious, winning eight times in his category. For a first-time writer, it’s an incredible feat.

So, how do these triumphs translate into a series getting picked up by a streaming platform?

“Once I’m ready to start reaching out to producers, I’ll share all that we’ve achieved thus far,” he says. “Then, I’ll pair that with the excellent bookings I’ve had as an actor. My hope is that it will all add up to something they may want to invest in. I’m eager for a 10-episode series, to avoid making choices that don’t ring true, and to work with people who are passionate about crafting quality stories.”

Obma maintains a generosity of spirit in everything he does, including how he views his college experience as a key to his career. He is a fourth-generation Badger, which is a great source of pride for him.

“I love the idea of people from the Badger state succeeding,” Obma says. “I like that the UW has been part of the experiences for so many important people in my life, too. I love that a person can come from Wisconsin, attend UW–Madison, and go do anything in the whole wide world. I think that’s very exciting.”

Almost as exciting, perhaps, as being on the verge of the role of a lifetime. •

Pogorzelski: “Any art form that influences so many people deserves to be preserved, studied, and understood.” Courtesy of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

A screening of Bambi changed Michael Pogorzelski ’94, MA’96’s life, setting him on a course to become one of the country’s leading film preservationists. He was four years old.

“It was a devastating experience,” says Pogorzelski, director of the Academy Film Archive in Los Angeles. “I remember crying in the theater when Bambi’s mom dies. But I was fascinated and couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. I came out of it just wanting more.”

A film nerd — as Pogorzelski calls himself — was born. And for a member of that club, UW–Madison in the 1990s was paradise. The university had one of the nation’s best film studies programs, and Pogorzelski immersed himself in the culture. He reviewed movies for the Badger Herald, processed student films, and worked as a projectionist for campus film societies.

“The UW gave me all the tools I’d need to know how to fix things that can go wrong with film,” he says.

Pogorzelski moved to Los Angeles with the idea of becoming a screenwriter. Instead, he landed a job as an archivist at the Academy Film Archive, which preserves, restores, documents, and exhibits films as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Interested in a home movie by director Alfred Hitchcock? Or a Thomas Edison film loop from the 19th century? The Academy Film Archive is the place to find these treasures, along with more than 200,000 other items that AMPAS has collected since the 1920s.

Pogorzelski soon worked his way up to director of the archive, charged with preserving significant contributions to movie history. His career has had its grungy moments, like digging for reels of film in donors’ basements. But it also has its glamorous ones, such as strolling down the red carpet at the annual Oscar ceremony.

Best of all for Pogorzelski is the chance to indulge his love of film restoration, using skills he developed at UW–Madison. With the latest technical wizardry, he makes classics like How Green Was My Valley and All the King’s Men look and sound as good as they did when originally released.

It’s a mission perfectly suited to someone who recognized the cinematic power of Bambi as a preschooler.

“Movies have proven themselves to be more influential than any other art form,” Pogorzelski says. “And any art form that influences so many people deserves to be preserved, studied, and understood.”

Aliens, gunslingers, and singing street gangs: Mirisch created movies that helped shape American culture. Jeff Miller

“From the time I was very young and saw my first film, I thought, what a wonderful way that might be to spend one’s life,” says Walter Mirisch ’42. “But like most young people, I thought, that is so far distant from my present world I don’t know how I can ever manage to accomplish that.”

For Mirisch, that “present world” was a poor adolescence in New York City during the Great Depression. In 1940, his father, a Polish immigrant, finally gave up on his struggling business, and the family moved to Milwaukee. Mirisch, then a student at the City College of New York, dropped out to join them. A chance visit to Madison inspired him to resume his education at the UW, where he majored in history and debated a future in law or graduate studies. He made his decision when the history chair told him no university would ever hire a Jewish scholar. Mirisch left Madison for Harvard Business School.

A heart murmur kept him out of the navy, but Mirisch was still eager to serve his country during World War II. He moved to Burbank, California, to work at a bomber-plane plant and write technical articles to share knowledge with other military manufacturers. After the war ended, though, Mirisch immediately turned his attention to his original passion: the movies.

His brother had connections that led Mirisch to his first job at Monogram, a low-budget studio that shot movies in as few as eight days and for as little as $100. Right away, he began to nag his boss for a chance to make a movie of his own. “My argument was simply that I could do it better than the people who were then doing it,” he says.

It didn’t take long for Mirisch to get his big break, and by age 29, he was running production at Monogram. The 1956 science-fiction classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers was his first substantial success, and in 1957, Mirisch and brothers Harold and Marvin formed the Mirisch Company to produce films for United Artists.

The Mirisch Company became a dynamo in the 1960s. Three of its movies won the Oscar for best picture: The Apartment (1960), West Side Story (1961), and In the Heat of the Night (1967). Mirisch also produced The Magnificent Seven (1960), a big-budget action movie that ushered in a new era for westerns.

Mirisch has won numerous awards, including Hollywood’s top honor for producers and a humanitarian award. But one that holds special significance for him is the honorary doctorate that UW–Madison bestowed in 1989. “[Wisconsin] gave me what I felt was a marvelously well-rounded education that gave me a background to deal with all kinds of subjects in what later became my career in filmmaking,” he says. Mirisch was also instrumental in founding the Hollywood Badgers, a group that connects young UW alumni to careers in movie-making.

During a visit back to campus, then-chancellor John D. Wiley MS’65, PhD’68 joked that Mirisch should write a book about his memories of Hollywood. “I have written a book. It’s in my closet,” Mirisch replied, and Wiley told him, “Well, you know, we have a press here.” In 2008, the University of Wisconsin Press released Mirisch’s memoir, I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History.

In all, Mirisch has produced 96 films and television episodes, along with dozens of documentary shorts, television specials, and other projects. His pictures have garnered 87 Oscar nominations and 28 wins. Most recently, he served as executive producer on the 2016 remake of The Magnificent Seven.

Morris reexamines the infamous case of a former army surgeon convicted of his family’s murder in 1979. Nubar Alexanian

The five-part documentary series A Wilderness of Error, which first aired on FX last fall, stars Oscar-winning filmmaker, author, and former private detective Errol Morris ’69 of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The series was directed and executive-produced by Emmy Award–winner Marc Smerling and is based on Morris’s New York Times best-selling book of the same name. It examines the infamous case of former army surgeon Jeffrey MacDonald, who was convicted of his family’s murder in 1979. The documentary shares multiple viewpoints and addresses the various narratives around the case that challenge the ability to find the truth.

FX Networks

“What’s really interesting about the MacDonald murder case is how many, many, many people have gone back over this,” Morris says at the start of the first episode. “It’s a case that resists definitive explanations. Wandering in that wilderness of conflicting evidence and interpretations, of mistakes, of errors.”

In September, the Hollywood Reporter noted Morris’s and Smerling’s past true-crime works: “If anybody is qualified to discuss the genre and its capacity to bring about justice, but also maybe its ability to obscure facts in a sea of storytelling artifice, it’s these two.” The article says the documentary is “a must-watch for true-crime devotees.”

Morris’s past work includes films such as The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, The Thin Blue Line, and Gates of Heaven. FX’s A Wilderness of Error is streaming on FX on Hulu.

So goes the lede in Larry Sloman’s 1975 article for Rolling Stone, written just three years after he’d graduated from the UW with a master’s degree in sociology. Over the ensuing decades, Sloman has continued to chronicle counterculture milestones with uncommon panache as a reporter, ghostwriter, and all-around character. As seen in the Netflix documentary Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese, Sloman, embedded as a reporter on the singer-songwriter’s 1975 tour, earned the nickname “Ratso” from Joan Baez because he reminded her of Dustin Hoffman’s hustler in Midnight Cowboy.

After writing On the Road with Bob Dylan, Ratso went on to coauthor bestselling memoirs by Howard Stern and Mike Tyson. Distinguished by his six-inch goatee and raspy New York accent, Sloman occasionally works as an actor and has appeared in such movies as the 2019 indie thriller Uncut Gems. Last year, the Queens-born hipster released his debut album, Stubborn Heart, at the age of 70.

Looking back on his eclectic body of work, Sloman credits the UW as a formative influence. “Madison was a lot of fun,” he says. “I gravitated immediately toward criminology and deviance, which really informed what I do, because everything I’ve written about is to some extent filled with deviant subject matter.”

Supported by a full scholarship, Sloman showed up in Madison in August 1970, the day before Sterling Hall was blown up. “Coming from New York, you think you’re at the epicenter of the antiwar movement,” Sloman says. “But my first night in Madison, I heard this loud bang and thought it must be a car backfiring. I wake up in the morning and see the paper: the Army Math Research Center had been bombed. That was my introduction to Madison.”

A few days later, Sloman talked his way into becoming music editor for the Daily Cardinal. He interviewed a wide array of artists, including Liza Minnelli and Merle Haggard.

In late 1972, he and jazz musician Ben Sidran ’67 launched the late-night show The Weekend Starts Now on Madison’s NBC affiliate. The live broadcast featured C-grade horror movies and weekly “sermonettes” delivered at three in the morning by “the Reverend L. J. Sloman.”

“I wore a straw hat and a clerical collar over a Hawaiian shirt,” Sloman says, laughing. “I’d sell condos in the Holy Land, crazy stuff like that.”

Left to right: Playwright-actor Sam Shepard, Larry Sloman, Bob Dylan, and cinematographer David Myers confer in 1975 on the Rolling Thunder Revue tour, during which they were filming the movie Renaldo and Clara. Ken Regan

After earning his master’s, Sloman moved back to New York, where he shared an apartment with folksinger Phil Ochs while filing freelance articles for Rolling Stone. One afternoon in 1974, he spotted Bob Dylan behind the wheel of a car parked in front of an Elizabeth Arden hair salon. “I go over to him and say, ‘Hi Bob, my name’s Larry, and I’m a writer for Rolling Stone.’ Immediately, Dylan’s wary, throwing me this attitude, so then I said, ‘By the way, I’m Phil Ochs’s roommate.’ And Dylan just melts.”

Dylan warmed to Sloman’s subsequent review of Blood on the Tracks. One year later, Sloman showed up at an after-hours jam session in Greenwich Village where Dylan and his entourage were testing out songs for the impending Rolling Thunder Revue tour. As dawn approached, Sloman recalls, “We all got into this cherry-red Cadillac 1973 convertible. Besides the fact that he had numerous drinks, Bob is not a very good driver to begin with, so we’re swerving all over the Village. We wind up at the Kettle of Fish [bar], and Bob says to me, ‘Why don’t you cover the tour? I’d rather have you do it than anybody else.’ ”

Describing his rapport with the famously press-shy Dylan, Sloman says, “I think one of the reasons Bob appreciated me is that I had that New York swagger, that New York attitude. On the tour, I’d tell him, ‘Come on man, you’re just a Midwest Jew. You’re not a real New York Jew like me.’ And he loved it!”

Following the publication of his Dylan book, Sloman penned a history of marijuana culture called Reefer Madness, then cracked open a new chapter of his career by ghostwriting Howard Stern’s 1993 memoir, Private Parts, and its sequel, Miss America.

“Here’s a guy who’s so brash and confident behind the mic, and such a brilliant interviewer, yet he was really insecure and had a lot of issues,” Sloman says. “We included a lot of personal stuff in the second book, like his obsessive-compulsive disorder. Howard is just as much a neurotic Jewish workaholic as I am. And he deserves every ounce of success he’s achieved.”

Sloman went on to write a Harry Houdini biography before embarking on an especially memorable collaboration with boxer Mike Tyson that yielded the 2013 bestseller Undisputed Truth.

Sloman (left) poses with Emily Jillette, boxer Mike Tyson, and magician Penn Jillette. Sloman collaborated on an autobiography and a memoir with Tyson. COURTESY OF LARRY SLOMAN

“He had such a great story, from rags to riches to rags again,” says Sloman. “When Mike was in prison, I mailed him a copy of Nietzsche’s autobiography Ecce Homo.” Years later, Sloman flew to LA and pitched his ghostwriting skills to Tyson, now out of prison. “The meeting’s over, I’m halfway out the door, and Mike calls out, ‘Ratso, did you send me that Nietzsche book because you thought I was Superman?’ I said, ‘No Mike, I sent you Ecce Homo because it helped me through some tough times, and I thought it might help you.’ And he goes, ‘Thank you, Ratso!’ That’s when we bonded.”

After spending most of his career telling other people’s stories, Sloman found his own voice as an artist a couple of years ago when he started writing songs with Brooklyn musician Vin Cacchione and singing them in the studio. “My idea was to do a tribute album to myself, featuring my famous friends. Never in a million years did I think that I would be the vehicle for these songs.”

Sloman changed his mind after he brought the demo to his friend Hal Willner, whose producing credits include Lou Reed, Tom Waits, and Lenny Bruce.

“I go to Hal’s studio and say: ‘Tell me if I should be singing this song?’ I play it for him. Hal lies back, eyes closed. Song’s over, he opens his eyes, leans forward, and goes, ‘What are you waiting for?’ I took that as a yes.”

Sloman’s career has spanned reporting, ghostwriting, and acting. In 2019, the Queens-born hipster released his debut album at the age of 70. William Beaucardet

This year, Sloman has played his singer-songwriter role to the hilt while promoting Stubborn Heart. He performed on the Outlaw Country Cruise in the Bahamas alongside Kris Kristofferson and Lucinda Williams. There’s more to come, if Sloman has his way.

“It’s not like I’m going to be Adele or anything,” he muses. “But if I can just keep putting out albums and having fun, I’d love to keep doing it.”

Stewart consulted with Katherine Cramer for his tale of a political clash in small-town Wisconsin. Getty Images

Three years ago, comedian Jon Stewart was planning to write and direct a movie about the clash between Democrats and Republicans in small-town Wisconsin. How could the New York City native bone up on political culture in a Midwestern battleground state?

Step one was to read The Politics of Resentment, in which UW–Madison political science professor Katherine Cramer ’94 shares her conversations with rural Wisconsin residents about their mistrust of the liberal establishment. Step two was to ask Cramer herself for a tour of the state.

In December 2017, Cramer drove around Wisconsin for 10 hours with Stewart and his assistant, introducing them to people she interviewed for the book. Stewart made use of what he learned to create Irresistible, a comedy scheduled for release this year. In an attempt to win back the heartland, a Democratic strategist (Steve Carell) gets involved in the mayoral campaign of a retired Marine colonel (Chris Cooper) who stands up for undocumented workers in his conservative Wisconsin town.

Stewart’s tale of the Badger State was filmed on location in … Georgia. Still, thanks to Cramer, the movie is steeped in Wisconsin research.

Looking at movie history from that angle yields an impressive list of films, from the early sound era to the present. UW actors have starred in cinematic classics and collected Academy Awards, although statuettes don’t necessarily indicate their finest work. As we all know, the Oscars can pick the wrong winners or overlook greatness entirely.

So what do you say we judge greatness for ourselves? After a monthlong binge on alumni films, I hereby offer my own awards for the best Badger performances of all time, including one that’s only 10 seconds long.

Fredric March 1920 in A Star Is Born (1937)

Fredric March (with Janet Gaynor) can still make you laugh and cry in A Star Is Born — not bad for an otherwise dated melodrama. Courtesy of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

Fredric March is UW–Madison’s biggest movie star, winning Oscars for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Best Years of Our Lives. He came up empty-handed for A Star Is Born, but his performance as Norman Maine stands the test of time better than his more celebrated roles. It can still make you laugh and cry — not bad for an otherwise dated melodrama.

Norman is a matinee idol on the skids. The soulless Hollywood studio system has turned him into a scotch-guzzling buffoon — though, as March plays him, an unusually charming one. He gets you rooting for his relationship with Esther Blodgett (Janet Gaynor), an aspiring actress so angelic that she melts his hardened heart. Along with making love, Norman and Esther make jokes, and surprisingly good ones for a couple careening toward tragedy. March had the perfect touch for such repartee in the golden age of screwball comedy.

The actor was renowned for his versatility, and he flaunts it in A Star Is Born. Norman is comic, tragic, and everything in between: from cynical to vulnerable, bumbling to debonair. When he wades into the Pacific Ocean for the ultimate self-sacrifice, you hate to see him go.

Meinhardt Raabe ’37 in The Wizard of Oz (1939)

In The Wizard of Oz, Meinhardt Raabe (third from left) makes an unforgettable impression in a mere 10 seconds on-screen. Courtesy of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

No one would describe The Wizard of Oz as “a Meinhardt Raabe picture.” But as the coroner of Munchkinland, Raabe makes an unforgettable impression in just a few seconds on-screen.

Raabe’s scene represents a turning point in Dorothy Gale’s Technicolor journey of self-discovery. Her flying Kansas farmhouse has flattened the Wicked Witch of the East, and she’ll earn heroic status if the Munchkins can confirm the villain’s death. Did you ever notice that The Wizard of Oz, though illogical in the extreme, is obsessed with standards of proof? Dorothy requires a broom to prove the other witch’s defeat. Her fellow outcasts need trinkets to prove they have brains, heart, and courage.

In Munchkinland, proof falls to Raabe’s character. Fitted out in a pointy beard and purple scrolled hat, he could have been simply ridiculous. But Raabe lends the character a stately presence as he displays the all-important death certificate, mouthing a line as famous as any by Humphrey Bogart: “She’s not only merely dead, she’s really most sin-cere-ly dead!”

With that one moment of glory, the game UW actor secured himself a place in movie history.

Agnes Moorehead in Citizen Kane (1941)

Agnes Moorehead anchors a heartbreaking scene in Citizen Kane. Courtesy of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

Snow falls outside a modest boarding house. Young Charles Foster Kane stands by his Rosebud sled, throwing a snowball. The camera pulls back until an imposing figure enters the frame: Charles’s mother, Mary (Agnes Moorehead), who tenderly calls to him out the window.

Moorehead anchors a heartbreaking scene in perhaps the greatest movie of all time. Mary has come into money, and she believes that sending Charles away from home is in his best interest. We see from her son’s tears — in a wrenching closeup — that she is mistaken. It’s a wound that will never heal, even as Charles grows up to be a renowned newspaper tycoon. Is it any wonder his dying word is “Rosebud”?

Writer-director-star Orson Welles suffered a similar trauma in his own childhood, so you can bet he thought long and hard about whom to cast as the wonderful, terrible mother. In her brief time on-screen, Moorehead conveys Mary’s mixed emotions with a gulp, a sigh, and an almost imperceptible quiver in her voice. The portrayal is all the more moving for the actor’s restraint.

Moorehead lived for a time in Wisconsin and loved the UW, donating her papers to the university. She led people to think she had a UW degree but actually attended only one session of summer school. For the purposes of this article, though, let’s go ahead and call her a Badger.

That allows for a magnificent boast: UW–Madison has a claim on Citizen Kane.

Gena Rowlands x’51 in A Woman under the Influence (1974)

We meet Mabel (Gena Rowlands) in motion. Preparing for a date with her husband (Peter Falk), she packs off the kids, paces from room to room, smokes, sings, whistles, mutters. Director John Cassavetes’s tracking camera can barely keep up with her — until date night falls apart and an ominous stillness sets in.

In A Woman under the Influence, Mabel veers between manic and depressive, struggling to live up to the conventional roles of wife and mother. The movie is a monument of independent cinema, and Rowlands delivers one of the great Oscar-nominated mad acts of the 1970s — right up there with Peter Finch in Network and Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver. Even Mabel’s loyal spouse is forced to admit, “I don’t understand what she’s doing.”

Viewers don’t understand what she’s doing, either. It’s like trying to make sense of Ophelia’s Act IV raving in Hamlet. Nevertheless, you can’t take your eyes off Mabel as she baffles family and neighbors. The intensity in her expression — teeth bared, nostrils flaring — speaks volumes about her troubled marriage.

Cassavetes treasured improvisation, and Rowlands (his real-life wife) is nothing if not spontaneous. You never know what her character will do next. Even in a movie with virtually no plot, she keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Don Ameche x’31 in Things Change (1988)

Don Ameche (left, with Joe Mantegna) may not say much in Things Change, but his silence is golden. Courtesy of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

Don Ameche was a glamorous movie star in the 1930s and ’40s, followed by a long dry spell. He made a comeback in the ’80s with Cocoon, winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. But his outstanding late-career achievement came in Things Change, an existential buddy movie by playwright David Mamet and children’s author Shel Silverstein. Ameche stars as shoeshine man Gino, who reluctantly agrees to take the fall for a gangland murder. Before the trial, the mobster (Joe Mantegna) assigned to keep an eye on Gino bends the rules by letting him enjoy a last weekend of freedom in Lake Tahoe. Then, as the title has it, things change.

At 80, Ameche retains his dapper mustache and leading-man stature. He gives Gino a regal bearing in spite of his humble station in life. You have no trouble believing that this simple laborer could be mistaken for a Mafia kingpin in Tahoe — a plot point that might have strained credulity but for Ameche’s subtle performance.

The actor works his magic with minimal dialogue. As fortune has its way with Gino, he responds with little more than a widening of the eyes or a furrowing of the brow. Ameche may not say much in Things Change, but his silence is golden.

Joan Cusack ’84 in Addams Family Values (1993)

Joan Cusack received Oscar nominations for second-banana parts in Working Girl and In & Out, but her shining moment came in a movie she dominates. Though Addams Family Values is packed with comic scene-stealers (Anjelica Huston as Morticia, Raul Julia as Gomez, Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester), Cusack outdoes them all as a gold digger from hell. Imagine Marilyn Monroe from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes crossed with Cruella de Vil.

Hired as a nanny, Cusack’s Debbie drops like a (blonde) bombshell into the topsy-turvy Addams household. In this gothic netherworld, inspired by Charles Addams’s New Yorker cartoons, gloomy is good and beautiful is bad. Even among the extravagantly wicked family members, however, Debbie stands out for her perversity. She sets her sights on Uncle Fester, who, while repulsive (“Fester means rot,” he helpfully explains), is also rich. Cusack puts everything she has into the devilish one-liners, playing against type as Fester’s femme fatale.

The best word for her performance might be “dreadful.” In the Addams universe, that’s the highest compliment.

Carrie Coon MFA’06 in Gone Girl (2014)

Margo (Carrie Coon) and Nick (Ben Affleck) are sarcastic twins with a taste for board games. Game-playing of a deadlier sort sets Gone Girl in motion, beginning when Nick’s wife (Rosamund Pike) goes missing under mysterious circumstances.

This potboiler is a psychological mess. Affleck and Pike can’t make sense of their characters’ relationship, which wobbles between love and hate to satisfy the demands of an improbable cat-and-mouse story. The one actor who emerges with dignity intact is Coon, who draws on her UW theatrical training to create a consistent character.

Margo is written as a mere contrivance, arriving on cue to deliver or react to new information. But Coon brings so much more to the role. In a movie where neither of the main characters warrants our sympathy, she’s the stalwart sister anybody would want during a murder investigation/media circus/con game. She takes the character beyond sarcasm to authentic desperation and despair. Remarkably, she even makes an emotional connection with Affleck — no mean feat given his determination to smirk through every plot twist.

Coon has distinguished herself on stage and television while earning relatively small parts in movies. Gone Girl suggests that this talented Badger is ready for her star turn.

Saint Judy is a film made by many Badgers. Directed by Sean Hanish ’90 (below) and executive-produced by Kelly Kahl ’89 and George ’80 and Pamela Hamel, it tells the true story of Judy Wood, an immigration lawyer who helped establish protections for women in U.S. asylum law.

Around the time of the film’s premiere in March, Hanish — an economics and communication arts graduate — participated in Q & A sessions with Kelley Conway, the UW’s chair of the Department of Communication Arts, and Sara McKinnon, a UW associate professor of communication arts. Hanish learned of the story from a friend who had interned for Wood, according to the Capital Times. “I got a chance to get to know Judy and see what she is about,” Hanish said. “Judy is fiercely optimistic, relentlessly optimistic.”

Sean Hanish Emma Eldred

Hanish was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for his 2014 debut feature film, Return to Zero. In addition to the Writers Guild, he is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Producers Guild of America and has his own production company. Kahl, president of CBS Entertainment, and George Hamel, co-owner of Hamel Family Wines and a 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, are both communication arts graduates.

Saint Judy, which stars Michelle Monaghan, Leem Lubany, and Common, is available for purchase on Amazon Prime, iTunes, and Google Play.

In the age of peak TV, more is more.

We can watch our favorite shows anywhere, anytime, and on any number of devices. And that’s a boon for the people full of ideas who are always aiming to give us new material, from YouTube videos to prestige dramas.

“There are all these incredible writers to tell their stories and so many more places to tell them,” says Jenny Fritz ’95, comedy development executive for ABC Studios and part of the teams behind shows including Black-ish, American Housewife, and Speechless.

UW–Madison alumni are plentiful among the creative forces at broadcast networks, cable channels, and streaming services. We caught up with some of them to find out more about the past, present, and future of TV.

Josh Sapan ’75

President and CEO, AMC Networks Inc. (AMC, SundanceTV, IFC, WeTV, and BBC America)
Known for: Killing Eve, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead

Appointment TV when you were a student?

Laugh-In

College lesson that still resonates?

Running the New Utrecht Film Society, where we showed American classics and foreign films; acting in the Broom Street Theater; and writing for a literary publication called El Quixote, edited by the Late Morris Edelstein.

First job in TV?

Working a teleprompter machine on a soap opera.

What are you binge-watching right now?

Killing Eve on BBC America.

Go-to device to watch shows?

In order of priority: TV, iPad, phone.

What do audiences want most?

Storytelling with great narrative qualities.

Most important element of a good show?

Characters and story that capture what is essential about human beings.

Libby Geist ’02

Vice president and executive producer, ESPN Films and Original Content
Known for: ESPN Films 30 for 30 (including O.J.: Made in America)

Appointment TV when you were a student?

I remember in the early years watching Jackass, which really shows how sophisticated my taste was back then. Later in college I watched The Sopranos and Friends. I remember thinking that I had to get to a friend’s house by 8 p.m. or whatever time it was so I could see those shows.

College lesson that still resonates?

I was a political science major, and what I learned from that was that I did not want to be a lawyer and I did not want to be a politician. My dad [Bill Geist]was working for CBS Sunday Morning when I was in college. I knew that he had a really fun career and that he loved what he did. He met interesting people. I always took my communications classes really seriously because, in the back of my mind, I knew that [television] was somewhere that I might end up, and now here we are.

First job in TV?

I spent summer 2001 and a holiday month interning at Late Night with Conan O’Brien in Manhattan. There were a lot of McDonald’s and Starbucks runs, but I would also sneak into the writers’ room and listen to them work. I looked at those writers and could not believe that the fun that they were having was a real career.

Go-to device to watch shows?

My television. I still watch plenty of DVR, and my kids, husband, and I watch a lot of Netflix.

Currently binge-watching?

The last thing I binged was Netflix’s Wild Wild Country. My husband teases me and says, “Oh, are you going to watch another dark documentary tonight?” People really love true crime right now, and I also do, but when there’s just no relief from it, I have to walk away. So I like something that’s entertaining and has great characters. I loved Big Little Lies.

What do ESPN audiences want?

I think in order to attract people initially, you need a big name or a big topic that will really reel people in — and then you show them that it’s really high quality or that there are contextual layers to the story. I love that element of surprise. People think they know a story, and then we can completely tell it in a different way or give details that audiences never knew about.

What will TV look like in 10 years?

I think the unscripted bubble will burst. There’s so much content out there that it’s really hard for anything to break through anymore. Eventually the “Let’s just do a ton of stuff and hope something sticks” model won’t be sustainable. So on the unscripted side of things, hopefully it will be fewer but bigger, which is certainly the direction we’re going in at ESPN. That, I believe, will ultimately be a more sustainable model.

Adam Horowitz ’94 and Edward Kitsis ’93

Writing partners and showrunners
Known for: Once Upon a Time (ABC)

Appointment TV when you were a student?

Kitsis: For me, Northern Exposure, Beverly Hills 90210, and Seinfeld

Horowitz: L.A. Law and Star Trek: The Next Generation

College lesson that still resonates?

Horowitz: David Bordwell’s class that we took together [Communication Arts 354: Film Genres]. He opened us up to so many different kinds of film.

Kitsis: That basis in film history really gave us a context for everything we’ve done since.

First job in TV?

Kitsis: I was an assistant to movie producer Joel Silver, who produced Lethal Weapon and The Matrix. And Adam was —

Horowitz: A post-production assistant. I helped the people who edited the film on a television series called Tales from the Crypt.

Go-to device to watch shows?

Kitsis: If we’re traveling or on location, iPad is definitely a go-to. But I think we’re so old-fashioned in how we watch TV. Maybe through Apple TV or an app, but we definitely both still like to sit on the couch and stare up at the TV.

Horowitz: On location, iPad. At home, Apple TV — on the TV on the wall, just like has been done for 90 years. Except for the Apple TV part.

Currently binge-watching?

Horowitz: Right now, we’re in preproduction on our show Amazing Stories, for Apple and Steven Spielberg. When we’re in this kind of intensity, I am mostly watching sports. But the last show I binged, my wife and I just finished Billions.

Kitsis: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Killing Eve. I couldn’t get enough of both of them.

Best part about being a showrunner?

Kitsis: The greatest thing is getting to wake up every day and ask the question, “Wouldn’t it be cool if … ?” To have an idea and then bring it to life … being a showrunner really allows us to guide that process.

What inspires your work in fantasy, horror, and science fiction?

Horowitz: The commonality is character-based storytelling. With inter-genre storytelling, in our experience, it really only works if you are telling grounded, human-emotional stories.

Justine Nagan ’00

Executive director, American Documentary; executive producer, POV and America ReFramed
Known for: Bing Liu’s Minding the Gap

College lesson that still resonates?

My filmmaking production class, which J. J. Murphy taught, is one. We were still shooting and editing on 16 millimeter, which I learned a lot from. The thing that I still think about from that class is the importance of critique and having an environment where people can hear constructive criticism and make their films better.

First job in TV?

I did every media internship possible. I worked for the Badger Herald. I interned for Michael Feldman [’70]’s public radio show, Whad’Ya Know? I did morning camera for the ABC News affiliate, but only lasted about three months. Getting up at 3:30 in the morning and moving one of the giant studio cameras around was a trip. Eventually I got the internship at Wisconsin Public Television, which taught me how to produce.

Go-to device to watch shows?

I use a Roku at home.

Currently binge-watching?

HBO’s Insecure, PBS’s Victoria, and, with my kids, MasterChef Junior.

How do you select projects?

We try to really program films that immerse the audience in a story and bring them in through characters who move you and pique your interest. We try not to tell people how to feel about things.

Why are documentary series so popular?

I think it’s because of what’s happening with scripted series. It’s been this monumental evolution in content storytelling. So I think it’s a natural evolution both creatively and financially for docs to go into multipart series.

Your approach to storytelling?

POV is 31 years old this year. For many years of POV’ s existence, the broadcast was the highlight of a film’s release and now it’s a highlight. We are really focused on broadcast, streaming, and community engagement.

Why are we seeing so many reboots?

Part of me wonders if it’s because it has been a crazy couple of years, and our country is so divided and fragmented — people want what’s safe, known, and comfortable.

Amy Zvi ’98

Executive producer and manager, Thruline Entertainment
Known for: I Love You, America, with Sarah Silverman

Appointment TV when you were a student?

In our sorority house, we always watched Friends on Thursday nights. One of my roommates had the entire My So-Called Life on VHS. I fell in love with that show.

College lesson that still resonates?

One of my favorite [classes] was Scandinavian Literature: The Stories of Hans Christian Andersen. These are children’s stories that had very strong political undertones. I guess we do see that in television now.

First job in TV?

I got my start at Bragman Nyman Cafarelli, a PR firm. I was an assistant for two publicists, and I straddled the talent side and the television side. I ended up becoming vice president, and I stayed there for 11 years.

Go-to device to watch shows?

At home, usually a smart TV. When I’m traveling, I’ll watch on my iPad.

Currently binge-watching?

Season two of Ozark — loved season one. I love The Handmaid’s Tale, The Americans, Game of Thrones. Killing Eve is next. I’m a huge Big Brother fan.

How did you react to being nominated for an Emmy?

It’s a really exhilarating feeling, especially when it’s a show you’ve poured your soul into. I cried, and I called Sarah [Silverman] first, and told her, and screamed. At this time in history, both television-wise and political-wise, I think it’s a really important show, and I’m so proud of it.

Mary Rohlich ’03

Independent producer
Known for: Netflix’s Atypical

Appointment TV when you were a student?

24. I lived in Orchard Court with five other roommates, and other friends within the courtyard. We would always order Pokey Stix. I would make everybody be totally quiet and turn off the lights and not talk because you couldn’t pause the TV back then.

College lesson that still resonates?

I took a film production class — you had to shoot everything and edit it, and wear many hats. I was not someone who thought of myself as a director or a writer. I ended up making documentaries. My fears about not being able to do something led to what I really love doing and finding my path as a producer out here.

First job in TV?

I was a temp receptionist at MGM [Studios]. That led to an assistant position in development at MGM.

Go-to device to watch shows?

For my personal time, I still watch on TV. We use various forms of streaming: Amazon Fire, Apple TV.

Currently binge-watching?

Season two of Ozark. A Netflix show called Terrace House. It’s a Japanese reality show that has a small cult following out here. Just recently, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel — I was a little behind on that.

Universal lesson of producing?

Working with the writers and directors and doing everything you can to help make their vision come to life in a way that is safe and responsible — creating a good environment for them to be able to do their job.

Ben Relles ’97

Head of unscripted programming, YouTube Originals

Appointment TV when you were a student?

A lot of comedy. Thursday night lineup of Seinfeld and Friends. Staying up to watch Mr. Show at 12 a.m. on HBO. I remember thinking, “Simpsons is funny.” And Beavis and Butt-Head.

College lesson that still resonates?

In a journalism class, the creators of The Onion came in and gave us an hour of their time. They had so much passion for creating comedy that pushed the boundaries. They were so fearless in their comedy.

First job in TV?

In 2007, I made a video about Barack Obama called “I Got a Crush on Obama.” At the time, I was working at a marketing agency. That video got over 50 million views in the first couple of weeks, so I quit my job to start making YouTube videos full time.

Go-to device to watch shows?

I am watching a lot of television on my phone and a lot of YouTube on my TV. I have gotten in the habit of saving my YouTube videos in “watch later” playlists, and then watching them on TV when I get home.

Currently binge-watching?

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Big fan of that show. I binge-watch some of my own YouTube originals — Cobra Kai and a new series called Origin. Older shows, too, like The Leftovers. I ended up watching all three seasons with my wife in a weekend.

What are YouTube’s advantages in the market?

When a show idea comes in, we can get a quick sense of how much the topic or the talent resonates on YouTube. But more important than the data is understanding whether the idea itself feels like it’s something that’s original and can break through an environment where there’s thousands of original shows a year.

Carol Kolb ’95

Writer and producer
Known for: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Community

Appointment TV when you were a student?

We would watch Mr. Show, the sketch show. Before that, in high school, Late Night with David Letterman was my favorite show ever.

College lesson that still resonates?

I just loved going to college. I extended it out; I kept changing my major. I had an English degree, and I liked creative-writing classes. I got a Latin minor for absolutely no reason. I loved digging hard into a subject.

First job in TV?

I was a freelance writer with The Onion, which was in Madison at that time. I worked there for over 10 years. I was editor-in-chief, then I went over to the video department, and we had a TV show.

Go-to device to watch shows?

Apple TV, always. I watch Netflix and Hulu. I buy shows because I don’t have cable. I also get subscriptions, like HBO.

Currently binge-watching?

Ozark. For some reason, we’re on a Love Boat kick. I love BoJack Horseman — that’s my favorite comedy. Baskets — it’s so weird and so funny.

What is it like being a part of shows with devoted followings?

These aren’t the shows that win Emmys, but I don’t care about that as much as I care about people really caring about the show. I think it does provide some energy because you know that people love it.

Kelly Kahl ’89

President, CBS Entertainment

Appointment TV when you were a student?

We would head out to bars on Thursday nights, but it had to wait until L.A. Law was over.

College lesson that still resonates?

The introduction to the history of broadcast law and the early days of the broadcasting industry. The industry is changing before our eyes, and knowing what these laws are, and what they mean, can really help somebody navigate and understand what’s going on today.

First job in TV?

I was an intern at Lorimar Television. At that time, they made shows like Dallas, Knots Landing, Full House, and Family Matters.

Go-to device to watch shows?

Everything. I still think there’s nothing better than watching on a big TV, but I’ll watch on my computer, my iPad, and sometimes on my iPhone. It depends, really, where you are and what the circumstances are.

Currently binge-watching?

I’m watching a lot of CBS shows, Young Sheldon being one of my personal favorites. Also, a show on YouTube called Cobra Kai, a reboot of The Karate Kid that is also really, really good.

What will TV look like in 10 years?

I think we’re reaching the point where there are so many shows that curation is going to be important. Nobody can really watch all these shows. We’re probably going to plateau in terms of the number of shows — at some point, the economics get a little weird. The networks are still going to be around and will still command the lion’s share of the audience, because they’re going to do shows with big appeal. But there will certainly be pockets of personal shows.

Why is CBS doing reboots (such as Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum P.I.)?

CBS has a very rich history of shows, many of which people consider all-time TV classics. There’s material to be mined there, and there are shows that people kind of look fondly back at. With maybe 500 scripted shows coming out in any given year, anything you can do to get people to sit up and notice, or have some recognition of a show, is important. We feel like there are new stories to tell and contemporary themes that we can add to an older, beloved show.

Jennifer Carreras ’04

Vice president of comedy development, ABC
Known for: Single Parents

Appointment TV when you were a student?

Friends was still on the air. That was the show that we would watch religiously, as a group, all together, always.

College lesson that still resonates?

I took a class [on poet Emily Dickinson] that stood out to me in terms of storytelling. It wasn’t new media, and it wasn’t television or film — I was an English major. But that sense of discovering character and getting to know the details of beautiful storytelling stuck with me.

First job in TV?

Between my junior and senior year in college, I interned at Michael Douglas’s production company, Further Films. My first paying job when I came out to Los Angeles was as the receptionist at a literary agency.

Go-to device to watch shows?

There is a big part of me that still loves to come home and just put on the television. I watch big-screen TV as much as possible.

Currently binge-watching?

Honestly, oddly, a lot of cable dramas. We watched Killing Eve. We just finished The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which I thought was excellent.

What stands out in a successful pitch for a new show?

It has to have compelling characters. Funny is really helpful. I know that sounds like the obvious, but you do — you want a laugh, and for ABC specifically, it really needs to have some heart. The combination of comedy and heart is really important for us. That’s the television I like to watch, and I think that’s what we’ve had success doing.

How do you know whether a show is successful?

Ratings are still a discussion, but not nearly as important as they were before. Part of it is what the ratings are, but also viewer engagement across social media. There are a lot of different ways to look at things, to see how the audience is responding.

Jenny Fritz ’95

Comedy development executive, ABC Studios

Appointment TV when you were a student?

My senior year, the O. J. Simpson trial began. Television capitalized on this gruesome, sordid story — every channel was showing it. We watched Friends, we watched Seinfeld. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention ER.

College lesson that still resonates?

Professor Julie D’Acci [MA’71, PhD’88] — she talked a lot about character. That has always been my North Star. You start with good characters, you define them sharply, you give them unique characteristics, and people will want to invest in whatever it is they are experiencing.

First job in TV?

I was a summer intern at Creative Artists Agency. I pushed a cart and delivered mail, I listened a lot, and I asked a lot of questions that you can get away with asking when you’re in high school.

Go-to device to watch shows?

I sometimes watch cuts on my iPad and my phone, because that’s part of my job, and there’s an immediacy. But in terms of enjoying a show as a viewer, for me, it’s still television and in my home.

Currently binge-watching?

Ozark. I don’t watch more than two episodes at a time. I like to contemplate things, specifically if it’s drama or thriller. I watch a lot of the ABC lineup. Off network, it’s a tie between Amazon and Netflix, with HBO thrown in for whenever they actually do bring back Game of Thrones.

What do you love about your work?

I’m in television to tell great stories. The best of television should reflect what’s going on in our world, socially, culturally, even sometimes politically. To see yourself, or your neighbor, or your family reflected on television is very, very comforting and important right now.

Mark Banker ’95

Head writer, DreamWorks Animation
Known for: Netflix’s The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants

Appointment TV when you were a student?

I remember living in a seven-bedroom house with seven or eight guys. As a group, we never missed Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place.

College lesson that still resonates?

[Professor] Tim Allen, Integrated Liberal Studies. In the first class, I walked in, and he had Horton Hears a Who? on four screens. He gave an hour-long lecture on the biological impact of Horton Hears a Who?.

First job in TV?

While I was at Wisconsin, I started working for The Onion as an ad rep. Then Scott Dikkers [x’87], one of the owners, pulled me aside and said, “I hear you telling jokes around here. You should be writing for us.”

Go-to device to watch shows?

TV should be watched on a TV, in my opinion. I have a 65-inch, so it’s hard to beat that.

Currently binge-watching?

Ozark is one of my favorites. Better Call Saul. We just started Maniac. Just finished the first season of Fargo — little late to the party. Forever on Amazon — my wife was the flight attendant at the end of the pilot. The Handmaid’s Tale made me subscribe to Hulu.

What’s changed about developing animation for TV?

Streaming has become such a significant venue. DreamWorks Animation made over a billion-dollar deal with Netflix to provide 12 or more series. If you look back five years ago, Netflix wasn’t really even much of a factor. You had Cartoon Network, Disney, and Nickelodeon all slugging it out.

How does streaming influence your writing?

One of the mandates we had was to make our show mildly serialized. What happens on Netflix is you’re watching, it ends, and then five seconds later, a new show will start. They want to create a seamless viewing experience from episode to episode. We do try to write to reward people that are watching episodes back-to-back.

Lisa Heller ’90

Executive vice president of HBO documentary and family programming
Known for: The Jinx (2015 Emmy for best documentary or nonfiction series), The Sentence (2018)

College lesson that still resonates?

I took a TV production class that I remember vividly. For the whole semester we had to write, produce, direct, and star in a mashup episode of a show, and we did The Wonder Years. I remember it being shockingly hard to get a 10-minute piece of fake Wonder Years done. It was an amazing window into what it takes to make TV. I would also say that I took my first women’s studies class in Madison. Once I took that class, I found that I never looked at the world the same way again.

First job in TV?

I worked at Wisconsin Public Television. I was a grunt. I tried a little bit of everything. I did the teleprompter and ran it backwards once, during a live [show]. I powdered Dave Iverson’s nose. The job really made me realize what I was not good at.

Currently binge-watching?

Recently I watched five episodes of Succession in succession until four in the morning. The other thing my family is binge-watching is Veep, because my kid just discovered it. My son also just discovered The Office. So we’ve gone through every single season of that show. The other thing I really like is Better Things. It’s a working moms’ kind of show.

Go-to device to watch shows?

The binging on the older shows is done on a good old-fashioned television. Succession and Better Things I watch up close and personal via either a computer or an iPad on my belly.

Why are documentary series so popular?

I guess truth is having a moment, right? You just can’t write some of this stuff. It’s as dramatic, as exciting, as engaging and compelling as fiction. Real people are amazing.

What do you look for in a documentary?

It’s not a science. Curating excellence is not something that you can learn in the class. It’s something you feel. If I’m doing my job right, the films on our slate make you feel something and move you.

What will TV look like in 10 years?

Oh, I have no idea, but I can’t wait to see.

Why did you choose to attend UW–Madison?

I was a Wisconsin kid. My father was transferred to Beirut [Lebanon] for his job, so my sister and I were both born there, but I primarily grew up in Racine. And if you’re going to go to a state university, Madison was always the choice. …. I had this Egyptian professor in communication arts. His name is Badia Rahman. He was fantastic — very encouraging! He was one of the first to photograph through a beam-splitter, which both transmits and reflects light equally. This enables photography of two live objects simultaneously, which is pretty much the beginning of modern visual effects.

What’s the best thing about cinematography?

It’s a job that is highly creative, highly collaborative, and artistic, but it’s also rooted in technology. It combines all the things needed to create specific worlds for viewers. There are times when you’re on set, and you’re exhausted or conditions are miserable, and that’s when you remind yourself that there aren’t many people who get to do what you do, which is essentially going out every day and spending someone else’s money to put your ideas on the screen.

You’ve worked with a variety of directors. Whom do you best collaborate with?

There is no better job in filmmaking than working with David Lynch. Every day is an adventure. While attending [the UW], I saw Eraserhead for the first time at the Majestic. I was sort of shell-shocked by it, and I’ve been fascinated with David ever since. It’s that experience where you follow someone over the years, whether it’s a filmmaker or musician, and you get to know their work so well that you feel like you know them. Once I got the opportunity to collaborate with David, I felt like I knew his preferences because I had seen everything he had ever done.

What’s next for you?

I’m currently working on a film called Fonzo, which focuses on the last year of Al Capone’s life — his reckoning with his end of days, his life, and his family. … I am looking into directing at some point, but I have also seen what directors go through. It takes an incredible amount of time to get a project going. In my role as a cinematographer, I’m used to going into a job, and I’m in and out in three to six months — sometimes longer, if it’s a bigger film. However, when you direct, it’s two or three years, at least. So I’m weighing that whole part of it, too. I’m definitely looking around; let’s put it that way.