Although located on the other side of the country from Chapel Hill, David Palmer’s Toluca Lake house in Los Angeles is the gathering point for UNC graduates in the entertainment industry. It is close to the back lot of Universal Studios, where many of them landed their first industry jobs.
The Hollywood Tar Heels were featured in a recent article in The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer.
Palmer is a 1986 alumnus. Scott Sanders graduated in 1991. And John Altschuler, Dave Burris, Norwood Cheek, Grady Cooper, Dave Krinsky, Bill Martin, Doug McCallie, Peyton Reed, and John Schultz graduated during the 1980s and 1990s.
They have come a long way from taking filmmaking classes at UNC and working at the student-run TV station. Now, their credits have become more well-known:
-
Cooper worked as an editor on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “The Office” and also directs commercials.
-
Martin is currently working on a new comedy series, “Hank,” with Kelsey Grammer, and wrote for “In Living Color.”
-
Palmer works for Paramount Pictures, with creative marketing and editing, and has plans with Reed to direct a low-budget ghost story set in North Carolina. He is editor of DVD documentaries for “The Birds,” “Rear Window,” and others.
-
Reed’s directorial debut, “Bring it On,” was a No. 1 box office hit in 2000, and he has worked with Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellweger on “Yes Man,” “Down With Love” and other films.
-
Sanders’s “Black Dynamite” is set to be released next month, and is his second movie after “Thick as Thieves” in 1998.
-
Schultz has directed a number of big-screen films, and recently directed this year’s “Aliens in the Attic.” His directorial debut was a making-of feature of “Jurassic Park” in 1993.
-
Altschuler and Krinsky have been writing for “King of the Hill” since its first season and ran the show as co-executive producers for its final seven years. They co-wrote “Blades of Glory,” which starred Will Ferrell.
-
Burris, Cheek, and McCallie have worked on “Survivor.” McCallie is now coming up with possible pitch ideas for new reality shows.
Since the Hollywood Tar Heels graduated with different academic majors — including economics, French, English, European history, interdisciplinary studies and radio, television and motion pictures — the department of communication studies has expanded. Programs include media studies and production, the Hollywood media internship, a minor in writing for screen and stage, and a new interdisciplinary minor in cinema.
