Every so often, we’ll be spotlighting alumni and what they are up to these days. These Q&A sessions will give you a bit of insight into where the world has taken them since graduation.

This week, the spotlight is on Julia Prescott (BA/Film Studies).

DODGE: Share your career path with us – how did you get where you are now?

JULIA: While I was in school at Chapman, I interned like a motherf**er. During that time, I became extremely fortunate to secure internships at places like Comedy Central, FX, and five different departments within Warner Bros (I KNOW!!). Though I was a Film Studies major, I knew that I wanted to go into the comedy world in some way, but was still figuring out my specific career path. I started writing sketches on a lark, doing stand-up on-campus, and coming up with web series. I didn’t quite know what I was doing, but I just knew that I should keep writing.

Then one day I mentioned all of this to one of my intern supervisors at WB and they very generously set up a meeting with the head of the Writer’s Workshop just to chat about being a young writer trying to get into comedy, and what that could look like for me. I walked in the meeting with very, very low expectations, and walked out with a job interview for a new show on Cartoon Network. This stuff doesn’t happen, and I’ve never once forgotten my great fortune.

I ended up getting to write on Mad for Cartoon Network shortly after graduating Chapman, and that kind of accidentally set me on a career path for writing kids television. From there I went to The Aquabats! Super Show! on The Hub, which also allowed me my first on-screen TV role (I played a crazy cat lady whose cat gets snatched up by a supervillain named Kitty Litter!); Mutt & Stuff on Nick Jr; Future-Worm! on Disney XD; and currently I’m writing on a show being produced by Hasbro and animated by Titmouse Studios. There were a lot of little things in between there, because being a professional writer is truly “feast or famine” more than a lot of other creative careers. I kept afloat by writing articles for VICE, sketches for Awesomeness TV, web series produced by The CW, stuff like that. The one thing that I’ve maintained as a general rule throughout my career is to always have three active projects you’re working on — no more, no less. You never know which one is going to be the next thing to carry you through the coming chapter, and you never want to get lazy with your own creativity.

DODGE: What was the biggest adjustment you faced after graduation and how did you overcome it?

JULIA: I was not “guaranteed” anything, especially as it pertains to a writing career. There was a good year after my first job where I had no real writing jobs coming in. I also was INCREDIBLY green, but you know, didn’t fully consider myself that at the time. I had “Writer” as a credit on something! So I made it, right? …Uh, not quite. I still had a ton to learn, and so I’m grateful I actually had that large stretch of time where I had to really sharpen my tools and strengthen my exterior for rejection, because it was a’comin’ and it will continue to come until I decide to hang up my pen and get into accounting, or banking, or some other office job that’s more “secure.”

I overcame it by just sticking with it, and commiserating with other writers I knew who were going through a similar thing. It also helped that I was pursuing a stand-up career at the same time, so at any given moment I could just focus on the other thing that was lacking. No writing jobs? Not a problem! Let me just go on tour and focus on crafting a 45 minute set. Can’t tour? No sweat! I’ll just take a writing class and focus on my original pilot. There should always be a “Plan B” to anything you do, and while you’re working on that Plan B — come up with ANOTHER Plan B. I liken it to creating a bridge while you are standing on said bridge. Terrifying analogy? Possibly. Does it work? For me it does! So there’s that.

DODGE: What is the best advice you have received and/or what advice would you give current students?

JULIA: Write what makes you laugh. Write what YOU like, as opposed to what you think other people will like. I spent years (YEARS) of my life writing spec scripts for shows I didn’t much care for, but that I knew were “the specs” to write at the time. And you know what? They didn’t get me anywhere, save for the experience of writing another script. Because people can TELL when they’re reading something that YOU (the writer) don’t “dig”.

Writing is like voting — do it early, and often. You have a ton of crummy scripts on top of the good ones, but just remember — the good scripts inside of you are there, they’re existing. They’re just buried deep. You have to get the bad scripts out of the way in order to get to the good. You just have get it out of your system, and then once it is — you can finally breathe that heavy sigh of relief that you are finally, FINALLY writing something that you are in fact a fan of and that other people will be a fan of, too. I think of this famous Ira Glass quote all the time that my friends and I are constantly referencing (and yes I’m copying and pasting the whole damn thing, because it’s just that good):

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

I love this so hard, because it’s entirely my life. At one point, way before pursuing a writing career I thought to myself, “Oh! I have ALWAYS been a comedy nerd, and I know what the eff I’m talking about and I would love nothing more than to bring good comedy in the world — so I should just become a Development Exec, right?” But then it hit me one day, like a truly embarrassing ton of bricks. Like when you realize you need to break up with your crazy-moody boyfriend and when you do the rest of your friends all chime in with, “HE SUCKED!” and you wish you had seen what the rest of the world did, but that’s just not how it works. I realized I was a writer, but that I was scared. When I came to terms with this, I remember saying it to my Mom over the phone and my Mother, a very proper, polite woman cackled out a, “Duh!”. I was just so scared.

julia prescott

I was scared of not being good, of not meeting my own sharp comedy tastes. Worse, what if I NEVER got good and I wasted my entire life on something that never amounted to anything? These are all fair questions, and lemme tell you — they never leave. No matter how much success you achieve, how many jobs, how many shows you sell, how many hands you shake — you will always feel like you are chasing this feeling. So it’s best to not define success by arbitrary things you have no control over.

The one thing that I’ve absolutely loved learning since graduating from Chapman, is that even our heroes feel like failures. I’ve recently started hosting a podcast about The Simpsons called “Everything’s Coming Up Podcast!” and we got former show-runner and brilliant person Mike Scully on as a guest. Mike Scully, arguably one of the more successful comedy writers in our modern age. During our conversation with him, he described to me the feelings I’ve felt over and over and over as I pursue a writing career. He told us that the first month on The Simpsons he was scared every day of getting fired. He kept telling his wife, “They’re going to figure out they made a mistake in hiring me! I’m done.” (or something to that effect). HOLY CRAP was this comforting to hear. For this guy, who by all accounts had and should never have ANY reason to doubt his own ability was experiencing “the Phony effect.” That was super inspiring for me, in the simple fact that it became this great equalizer.

Don’t give up. That’s the only way you’re guaranteed to never reach your own version of success. Your timeline is your timeline, stop comparing it to other people’s. Sure, yes, a person who has been writing for a shorter time than you have will get “the big job.” But you know what? Your “big job” may be right around the corner. Your “big job” may be an ENTIRELY different thing! Their success is not a comment on your failure, and that’s the hardest thing to remember.

I wrote a pilot almost 4 years ago. One that I really dug, one that was pretty weird, one that I was told over and over again didn’t fit into any current “mold.” But you know what? I really loved this script, and so I kept sending it out to people. Some people would come back with blunt rejections, but then OTHER people, “my people,” got where I was coming from with it. That’s what you want. You’re not going to please everybody, and if that’s your goal then you will most likely be writing “fine” but not “memorable” scripts, and hey — that’s okay, too. But if your goal is to write something that makes 13-year old you go, “HELL YEAH!” then I would stick with that as close as you possibly can. I still send that script out today, and I still find “my people”.

DODGE: What is your favorite memory from your time at Chapman?

JULIA: I loved Professor Wysocki’s Science Fiction Genre class. He just spoke from such a love and authority on the subject matter, and opened my eyes to ways of receiving films and analyzing and defining them in a pattern I never would have picked up elsewhere.

I also completely loved running a cult film club called “Film Corps.” I remember we took over Wysocki’s lecture hall once a month after-hours and watched Cannibal! The Musical and other cult favorites. I think I made themed snacks for Cannibal! out of chocolate pudding, oreos, and doll body parts. God that was the best.

DODGE: What have you taken from the classroom and applied to your career?

JULIA: I would say a true sense of curiosity. I think of Mildred Lewis’ Film Reviewing class often. She was the absolute best. There was one moment in her class that I’ll never forget. We were all just chatting about what we had done over the weekend, and she mentioned seeing some Adam Sandler-type movie through a RedBox rental. One of my classmates scoffed, asking her how she could stomach such a movie. She turned without hesitation and said, “Well, I’m not a snob. I see everything.” It was such a cool mic drop moment, and even though her words said through anyone else’s voice could be misconstrued as overly sassy, there was still such a kindness to her tone. I think about her anti-snobbery often when I see movies with my best friend Joe. We’ve actually gotten into a pattern of seeing middle of the road or “bad comedies” in theaters. He’s a comedian, too and we find that you can almost learn more about comedy writing and comedy filmmaking by seeing something less than stellar. We love walking around our neighborhoods after and picking it apart, but again, not out of a maliciousness or spite, but just because we’re desperate to figure out what puzzle pieces were missing.

DODGE: Have you received any awards or recognitions?

JULIA: Yeah! I’ve been a Finalist in the New York Comedy Festival for my original pilot script. I’ve also been a featured performer in FUN FUN FUN Fest in Austin, TX (2014); Hell Yes Fest in New Orleans (2014-15); Cape Fear Comedy Fest in Wilmington, NC (2015), Crom Fest in Omaha, NE (2015). Coming up, my podcast “Everything’s Coming Up Podcast!” will be featured in the LA Pod Fest (September ’16).

I’ve also organized four separate stand-up tours across America, and have recorded my first comedy album which will be titled, “Every Joke on This Album Kills (because I cut out the ones that didn’t)”. My podcast is also frequently featured in the top comedy podcasts on iTunes.

I’ve also produced a good handful of live comedy shows around LA at places like Meltdown Comics, UCB, the Comedy Central Stage, and more.