Recent Interviews

We have over 900 interviews in our collection, most of which are available for viewing online. See the most recently uploaded interviews below.

Ted Sarandos

Thu, 10/15/2020

In his two-hour interview, Ted Sarandos talks about growing up in Phoenix, his early journalistic ambitions, and his childhood love of television. He discusses how he began working at video stores and his post-college career at video distribution companies and overseeing revenue share deals. He talks about coming to the attention of Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, their first meeting, and how he came to be hired as Netflix’s Chief Content Officer. Sarandos discusses the company’s...

Dr. John Leverence

Fri, 09/18/2020

In his four-hour interview Dr. John Leverence talks about growing up in Kansas City, MO and the impact television had on him at a young age. He discusses pursuing a Masters in English and Literature from the University of Chicago and then receiving a PhD in Popular Culture from Bowling Green University where he also taught media studies. He discusses moving to California to teach at Cal State Long Beach in their Radio-TV department, and learning about the Television Academy from a former...

Tracey Ullman

Fri, 09/11/2020

In her three-hour-and-fifteen-minute interview Tracey Ullman talks about growing up in England and how she started doing impersonations as a kid. She discusses attending a performing arts school starting at the age of 12, leaving school at 16 to be a dancer in Berlin, and how she made the transition into acting. She details how she came to be cast in the improvised play “Four in a Million” and how that led to her being cast on a BBC sketch comedy show. She talks about her years as a pop star...

Sandra Gimpel

Thu, 08/13/2020

In her three-and-a-half-hour interview, Sandra Gimpel talks about growing up in Los Angeles and the influence her father, a gymnast, had on her, including inspiring her early interest in fitness and dance. She talks about beginning her professional career as a dancer, and how she came to dance in fifteen Elvis Presley movies. Gimpel describes the experience of working with Elvis, including the time that the casts spent together off-set. She then discusses how she came to work in stunts,...

Samantha Bee

Mon, 06/01/2020

In her two-hour interview, Samatha Bee talks about growing up in Canada, how she came to study theater in college, and leaving early to pursue a professional acting career. She discusses getting into sketch comedy in Toronto, and how that led to her audition for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. For The Daily Show, she talks about her first impression of Jon Stewart, her first assignment on the show, how she developed her persona, and on her favorite interviews and segments...

Sally Jessy Raphael

Mon, 01/27/2020

In her two-and-a-half-hour interview, Sally Jessy Raphael talks about her childhood, including an appearance on the show Quiz Kids as a girl and taking acting classes as a child. She discusses attending Carnegie Mellon University (then Carnegie Tech) before transferring to Barnard College, and moving to Puerto Rico when she married after college. She details her first on-air radio and television jobs, both in Puerto Rico, and subsequent jobs on-air in Miami. Raphael discusses moving...

Ann Curry

Fri, 12/20/2019

In her three-hour interview, Ann Curry talks about her childhood, and the impact her parents had on her worldview and her eventual career path, in particular her father’s advice to pick a career that would allow her to “be of service” to others. She discusses studying journalism at the University of Oregon and how a post-college internship at KTVL in Medford, Oregon led to her being hired as that station’s first female reporter. She talks about other local news positions she held and what...

Ron Cowen

Thu, 11/21/2019

In the fifty-minute solo portion of his interview, Ron Cowen talks about his childhood and early interest in theater, as well as his undergraduate and graduate education. He discusses how his UCLA professor Jerome Lawrence inspired him to begin writing plays and how, when he wrote his first play “Summertree”, Lawrence sent it to the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. He shares the significance of the O’Neill in his career, where he met writing partner Daniel Lipman, and how “...

Daniel Lipman

Thu, 11/21/2019

In the twenty-five minute solo portion of his interview, Daniel Lipman talks about his childhood and education at Boston University, where he studied directing and acting. He talks about his brief acting career, including a role in the touring production of “Godspell”, and how he began writing plays. Lipman then discusses being accepted into the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference early in his career, where he met writing partner Ron Cowen. He concludes by sharing what he enjoys...