First Big Break

Chris Albrecht on becoming President of Original Programming at HBO

Jason Alexander on performing in "Jerome Robbins Broadway"

Jason Alexander on being cast in The Seinfeld Chronicles, the pilot to Seinfeld

Robert G. Anderson on being rejected by television news stations as an on-air correspondent, and realizing he could be a producer

Dick Askin on his first job in television

Rona Barrett on breaking into television

Samantha Bee on auditioning for and being hired as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Rick Berman on his early days in Los Angeles going to work at Warner Bros. and Paramount

Sharon Bialy on how she got her start in casting

Allan Blye on how a call from Tom Smothers led to him moving to the United States from Canada

Yvette Lee Bowser on deciding not to go to USC law school after college and moving into comedy writing instead -- on A Different World

Kevin Bright on his first job after graduating from Emerson College

David Brinkley on being hired by NBC Radio

Connie Britton on being cast as "Heather" on Ellen

Harvey Bullock on coming to write for The Andy Griffith Show

Vince Calandra on his big break into entertainment - getting a job in the CBS mailroom without having an Ivy League degree

David Canary on his first big TV role on Peyton Place, playing Mia Farrow's doctor

Jim Cantore on being hired by The Weather Channel

Charles Cappleman on becoming a stage manager at CBS

Josie Carey on being hired by WQED before the station went on the air

Glenn Gordon Caron on getting his big break at NBC - the unaired pilot The God Squad

RuPaul Charles on his breakthrough hit song "Supermodel"

Roy Clark on his first television appearance, on the local series The Hayloft Conservatory of Musical Interpretation

Kevin Clash on going to work on Sesame Street full time

Alf Clausen on being a copyist for The Carol Burnett Show  and various feature films

Barbara Corday on pitching a series with Barbara Avedon

Pierre Cossette on the first music shows he produced

Ron Cowen on the first play he wrote, "Summertree", which was championed by his college professor Jerome Lawrence, developed at the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, and optioned by Lincoln Center before being made into a movie

Douglas S. Cramer on working at Procter & Gamble

Ann Curry on being hired by NBC News, and on moving from reporting to anchoring

Jane Curtin on being cast on Saturday Night Live

Greg Daniels on writing for Not Necessarily the News  with Conan O'Brien

Tony Danza on getting his first acting job on Fast Lane Blues

Bill Davis on his first job at the Canadian Broadcasting Company

Elias Davis and David Pollock on their first big break as writers for Pat Buttram on the radio

Thomas Del Ruth on his working as an assistant cameraman at 20th Century Fox and learning his way around a camera

Vin Di Bona on his first television job at WBZ in Boston and becoming a director

Ramin Djawadi on his big break -- composing music for a fight scene in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Louis Dorfsman on meeting CBS President Frank Stanton and being hired at CBS

Betty Cole Dukert on how she came to join Meet the Press  as a producer

Rebecca Eaton on her first producing job, on an arts magazine show on WGBH radio in Boston

Jeff Fager on his first job out of college, at the NBC affiliate WBZ in Boston

Edie Falco on how she got her first agent

Julian Fellowes on writing the feature film "Gosford Park" for director Robert Altman

Tom Fontana on how he came to write for St. Elsewhere  after being discovered by Bruce Paltrow and Blythe Danner

Ray Forrest on his first job as a junior radio announcer and why he finally joined AFRA (the precursor to AFTRA)

Albert Freedman on his big break - writing for Groucho Marx on You Bet Your Life

Harry Friedman on moving to Los Angeles and being hired to write for Hollywood Squares

Chuck Fries on going to work for Ziv Productions and moving to California

Sandra Gimpel on her first big job: as a dancer in the Fred Astaire movie "The Pleasure of His Company"

Paul Michael Glaser on getting cast in Love of Life,  appearing in the feature film "Fiddler on the Roof" and being put off by acting in film

Lesli Linka Glatter on being tapped by Steven Spielberg to direct Amazing Stories, and on shadowing many directors on that show

Gary David Goldberg on his mentor, Nate Monaster

Carl Gottlieb on being hired to write for The Summer Brothers Smothers Show

Walon Green on meeting David Milch and going to write for Hill Street Blues

Hal Gurnee on his first television job, at the DuMont Television Network as a page

Danette Herman on her first television job on the Dick Clark series Where the Action Is

Lee Holdridge on a seminal career moment: his involvement in scoring the film Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Ellen Holly on being discovered as an actress by Charlotte Perry

Ellen Holly on appearing as "Stephanie" in the Broadway production of Too Late the Phalarope

Felicity Huffman on appearing on an ABC Afterschool Special called "Home Run for Love" when she was fifteen

Felicity Huffman on appearing on the Stephen King miniseries Golden Years, which she considers her first big break

Kim Hunter on playing "Stella Kowalski" in "A Streetcar Named Desire" on Broadway in on film

Suzuki Ingerslev on her big break -- working on Days of Our Lives, which she considers "boot camp" for production design

Ken Levine and David Isaacs on selling their first script, a spec for The Jeffersons

Al Jean on getting his first job in television

Geri Jewell on how a college friend inspired her to try stand-up comedy at the Comedy Store, which led to her breaking into television

Hal Kanter on his first big break writing for Eddie Cantor and other comedians on radio

Elodie Keene on editing Tales of the Unexpected for Norman Lloyd

David E. Kelley on meeting Steven Bochco and interviewing to work on L.A. Law

Kim Kimble on doing hair for the film B.A.P.S., which was her first experience working on a movie

Walter Koenig on being cast as "Pavel Chekov" on Star Trek and making the character Russian

Lucy Lawless on playing "Xena" on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys 

Norman Lear on how he schemed to reach out to Danny Thomas and write a bit for him that turned out to be his big break

Norman Lear on he and Ed Simmons beginning their career writing for Ford Star Revue

Eugene Lee on a pivotal moment in his career: doing set design for a theater in Madison, WI

Jack Lemmon on his first big break on the radio

Ken Levine and David Isaacs on selling their first script, a spec for The Jeffersons 

Barry Levinson on writing and performing with Craig T. Nelson on Lohman and Barkley

Hal Linden on making his Broadway debut in "Bells Are Ringing" with Judy Holliday

James Lipton on appearing on "The Lone Ranger" radio show at age 12

Susan Lucci on auditioning for the character of "Erica Kane" on All My Children and finding out she got the part

Stewart MacGregory on going to work for NBC television 

Gavin McLeod on the first Broadway play he appeared in "A Hat Full of Rain"

Robert MacNeil on how he came to work for NBC

Jodi Mancuso on how she started working as a hair stylist on Saturday Night Live

Barry Manilow on becoming the musical director for the local WCBS series Call Back

Martin Manulis on being hired by CBS

Rose Marie on her weekly NBC radio show as baby Rose Marie, and on touring RKO Theaters skirting child labor laws

John Martinelli on assistant editing The Lawrence Welk Show

Rue McClanahan on being cast by Norman Lear as "Vivian Harmon" on Maude

Barney McNulty on how he became involved with The Ed Wynn Show, where he first became involved in writing out cue cards

Eryn Krueger Mekash on attending Sandy Burman's makeup effects school, and how that led to her first job in the industry -- working for John Buechler

Al Michales on announcing local baseball and football games on the Hawaii Islands

David Milch on how he came to write for Hill Street Blues

David Milch on how he came to write for Hill Street Blues

Millie Moore on her first big break - working on the travelogue documentaries of Jack Douglas

Donald A. Morgan on his first job in television -- in the mailroom of KTTV -- and on how he became interested in lighting

Jan Murray on getting his big break -- working in the Catskill Mountains

Bob Newhart on his big break at the local Chicago Emmy Awards and recording his first comedy album

Bob Newhart on his national big break at the 1960 Emmy Awards

Laraine Newman on performing on The Lily Tomlin Special 

Edward James Olmos on being cast as "Martin Castillo" on Miami Vice

Lori Openden on getting hired as a secretary on Barnery Miller and getting interested in casting

Bernie Orenstein on how he got his start in show business: he dropped out of college after appearing in a University of Toronto show called "The All Varsity Revue"

Bernie Orenstein on how his first writing job on a Canadian variety show produced by Norman Jewison led to his moving to New York City and writing for Candid Camera

Lyn Paolo on how an initial job working at Film Consortium in commercial production eventually led to being hired by Sandy Martin as a stylist though she had no prior experience in production

Lyn Paolo on how she came to get her first job in a costume department on a television show, on the hugely popular Dallas in its second season

Alan Perris on his first television job at PBS station WVIZ in Cleveland 

Elias Davis and David Pollock on their first big break as writers for Pat Buttram on the radio

Sally Jessy Raphael on hosting her first televisions shows, in Puerto Rico in the late 1950s

Fatima Robinson on John Singleton asking her to choreograph the music video for Michael Jackson's "Remember the Time"

Fred Rogers on being hired at WQED to work in educational television

Actress Marion Ross on her first television role, on Life with Father starring Leon Ames

Stanley Ralph Ross on becoming in-demand as a writer after being hired to write for Batman

Mark Rothman on his first professional writing job on The Mike Douglas Show

Glenda Rovello on how she got her start in production design

Haim Saban on his client, Noam Kaniel recording the theme song to the animated series Goldorak, which became a massive hit and a huge windfall for Saban because he owned the master recording of the song

Joseph Sargent on his first directing job on the series Lassie

Bob Schieffer on moving to Washington, D.C. and on going to work for CBS News

John Shaffner on starting out in television

John Shaffner on his big break in television in first run-syndication

NIna Shaw on her involvement in The Hollywood Reporter Women In Entertainment Mentorship Program and the importance of mentorship

Treva Silverman on writing for the variety series The Entertainers, starring Carol Burnett

Sam Simon on how he came to write for Taxi

John Singleton on getting his first agent based on the strength of the screenplay to "Boyz N the Hood"

Robert Smigel on Dan Crowley inviting him back to Chicago and Second City and eventually joining his comedy group (All You Can Eat) as Dan's replacement, and on Al Franken and Tom Davis, original writers from Saturday Night Live, coming to Chicago to see a show he had created, "All You Can Eat and the Temple of Doom"

Robert Smigel on the "modern" type of "so bad it's good" comedy he was interested in early in his career; catching the comedy bug after performing and winning a comedy stand-up contest at NYU; "I was stung, I was infected"; on getting to perform at the Comic Strip in New York City; on his closing bit as Ronald Reagan (foreshadowing a later TV Funhouse sketch "The X Presidents"); on getting more gigs after that; on being a fan of comedy that "tore everything down and made fun of itself"; on being introduced to The Second City by Tim Kazurinsky

Robert Smigel on the first show of Saturday Night Live he was hired to write for; on a sketch he wrote for Madonna when she hosted Saturday Night Live in 1985 where she portrayed a Spanish variety show hostess; on his recollections of that show; on what he learned about writing a successful sketch for the show; on what it meant to him to be part of SNL- a show he grew up watching; on being a comedy nerd coming to the show and feeling he was not fitting in

G.E. Smith on playing guitar for Hall & Oates and appearing with them on Saturday Night Live

Jaclyn Smith on being a "Breck Girl" and appearing on McCloud

Yeardley Smith on how she got her first New York agent

Yeardley Smith on her Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing" directed by Mike Nichols

Mark Snow on The Rookies  being the first show he worked on and getting the job through his then-brother-in-law, Georg Stanford Brown

Suzanne Somers on her audition with George Lucas for the movie "American Graffiti"

Darren Star on how his first industry job, as an assistant at the public relations firm Guttman & Pam, led to his first break: selling a film script to Warner Bros.

Darren Star on the serendipitous events early on his career that led to his first big break, including working at Showtime for Peter Chernin, who later became the decision maker on Beverly Hills, 90210 at Fox

Jeremy Stevens on his first writing job for television on The Skitch Henderson Show

Norman Stiles on going to write for Sesame Street

Jeffrey Tambor on appearing on Kojak, his first television role

Nina Tassler on how agent David Windsor helped her to see her potential to become an agent

Daniel J. Travanti on finding out he was cast on Hill Street Blues

Saul Turteltaub on forming a comedy team with a college friend and getting hired to perform at Catskills resorts

Saul Turteltaub on dating Shari Lewis (then Phyllis Hurwitz) at summer camp as a kid and calling her up for a writing job when he saw her on television in 1957

Leslie Uggams on how she began performing at the Apollo Theater when she was nine years-old

Leslie Uggams on getting her start in television as a child on The Milton Berle Show and other variety shows

Tracey Ullman on she transitioned from dance into acting early in her career, and on being cast in the play "Four in a Million" by Les Blair, which was improvised and how that led to her being cast on a sketch show on the BBC

Tracey Ullman on the first sketch show she was on, Three of a Kind

Bruce Vilanch on his first job, writing for Bette Midler

Keenen Ivory Wayans on appearing on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson; his childhood idol- and what it meant for him personally "like stepping into your dream"; on being asked to sit with Johnny after his act

Ellen Wheeler on being cast as "Marley Love Hudson McKinnon" on Another World

Cindy Williams on the effect the film "American Graffiti" had on her career and her fame

Hugh Wilson on going to work for Armstrong and how he started in television at MTM Productions

Ben Wolf on his first television job as a cameraman at KLAC

Steven Wright on how his first time on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson came about

Bud Yorkin on his big break becoming director of The Colgate Comedy Hour at the behest of Pat Weaver

Louie Zakarian on his first job in television, on the show Monsters

Lauren Zalaznick on working on her first feature film, "Compromising Positions"

Jeff Zucker on getting his first job after college, as an Olympic Researcher for NBC

Alan Zweibel on meeting Lorne Michaels and being hired to write for Saturday Night Live