Episode 16 - Chatting with Hollywood: How to Launch a Career in Entertainment & Media with Rich Hull and Chad Gervich
Have you ever dreamed of a career in Hollywood, whether that's as a producer, director, writer, agent, actor, or content creator? This is the episode for you.
Topics covered include:
How to land a job in Hollywood
Skills that help you succeed in the entertainment industry
The question asked in every interview in Hollywood
How to network when it doesn’t come naturally and mistakes to avoid
Figuring out your point of view and how to take criticism
The importance of reinventing yourself to stay relevant
The Future of Streaming
How to get an Agent
Why you need to write something that terrifies you
Why so many people go off track in their pursuit of Hollywood dreams
Advice for actors trying to get their big break
Join Tiffany as she chats with Rich Hull and Chad Gervich, co-founders of the nonprofit Vanderbilt-in-Hollywood, who have launched the careers of countless students over the past 15 years by placing them in internships at virtually every major film studio, television network, production company and talent agency in Hollywood.
Rich Hull
As a digital and traditional media company founder, operator and investor, Rich has constantly led the innovation of new ways for delivering content and empowering diverse voices.
He was the founder and CEO of Pongalo, the first solely Spanish-language streaming service, which is now known as VIX after Hull merged it with the world's largest Latino social media company. Rich currently serves as President of VIX, which was recently acquired by US Hispanic media leader Univision. As the largest free Latino streaming service, VIX features over 20,000 hours of film and TV content, fueled by a social media megaphone of 100 million Facebook followers alone. Variety named the combination of Pongalo and VIX as one of the significant media transactions of 2019 by awarding Hull its Dealmaker of the Year honors.
Previously, Rich served as investor, board member and/or advisor for a portfolio of 30 media and tech companies, and as operator or advisor on media deals totaling over a billion dollars with major media players, such as Disney, Universal and Microsoft.
In the first half of his career, Rich worked with most major studios as a film and TV financier and producer. His 25+ produced projects have generated hundreds of millions of dollars and range from young-adult movies, such as Disney/Miramax's "She's All That," which was the #1 movie in America and is one of the most successful teen movies in history, and Disney/Miramax's "Get Over It" with Kirsten Dunst and Martin Short...to award-winning movies with a message, such as his Fox Sports collaboration with Matthew McConaughey, "The Story of Darrell Royal;" his PBS collaboration with Halle Berry, "For Love of Liberty: The Story of America's Black Patriots (for which he and Berry won the NAACP Image Award); and his Universal Studios collaboration with Emilio Estevez and Alec Baldwin, "The Public"...to studio sequels, such as those for Sony's "Daddy Day Care" and Lionsgate's "American Psycho."
Rich has served on Vanderbilt University's Alumni Board, and as co-founder of non-profit Vanderbilt-in-Hollywood, which awards need-based scholarships to many of the 30+ students it places each summer into internships. He's a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and the Academy of TV Arts & Sciences, and he serves on the board of directors of OTT.X, the trade organization of Hollywood's streaming industry, which awarded him its 2021 OTT.X Hero Award. He co-authored the award-winning book “Dancing With Digital Natives: Staying in Step With the Generation That's Transforming the Way Business Is Done."
Chad Gervich
Chad Gervich is a television writer/producer, bestselling author, and award-winning playwright.
He currently has a single-camera half-hour comedy, Unconditional, in development with Kapital, 20th Century TV, and ABC. As a writer and producer, Chad has worked for various scripted, variety, talk, doc, game and late-night series, including: E!’s hit comedy After Lately, starring Chelsea Handler; Amazon’s This Giant Beast That Is the Global Economy, produced by Adam McKay and starring Kal Penn; Lifetime’s My Partner Knows Best with Jason Biggs and Jenny Mollen; Fox’s comedy game show Cherries Wild; Disney Channel’s sitcom Dog With a Blog; ABC’s Wipeout, Hulu’s upcoming Baker’s Dozen, and others. He has written, produced or developed shows and pilots for ABC, Hulu, FOX, MTV, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, YouTube Premium, CBS Studios, TruTV, Food Network, TLC, and Facebook Watch.
He consulted on Singapore’s award-winning single-camera comedy, Spouse For House (MediaCorp/Channel 5), which took home three Asian Television Awards, as well as MediaCorp’s ATA-nominated reality series, The 5 Search. Le Prawn Park, a Singaporean half-hour single-camera comedy on which Chad was a Consulting Producer, is currently airing on Channel 5.
Prior to producing, Chad spent five years as a development executive with the Littlefield Company, former NBC president Warren Littlefield's production company, developing projects for NBC, ABC, FOX, UPN, WB, and Paramount.
As an author, Chad has written two acclaimed industry textbooks: Small Screen, Big Picture: A Writers Guide to the TV Business (Random House/Crown) and How To Manage Your Agent: A Writer’s Guide to Hollywood Representation (Focal Press). Small Screen, Big Picture has become TV’s go-to “bible” for writers, producers, execs, and assistants, and is being used as a textbook at schools such as UCLA, USC, Long Island University, National University, and Cal State, as well as training programs like NBC’s Writers on the Verge, the CBS Diversity Program, and the WGA Showrunner Training Program. Chad also authored the best-selling Psych's Guide to Crimefighting for the Totally Unqualified, a tie-in with USA's hit series Psych.
In addition, Chad has taught and designed writing and business courses for schools including UCLA, NYU, Emerson College, Columbia College Chicago, Drexel University, California State, and the David Lynch School of Cinematic Arts at Maharishi University -- as well as the Warner Bros. Writers Workshop, the Fox Writers Initiative, and the Singapore Media Academy. Chad has also taught at private workshops and companies like Nike and Mediabistro — plus around the world in New York, London, Chicago, Singapore, and Israel.
Mentioned In Today’s Episode
Books
Small Screen, Big Picture: A Writers Guide to the TV Business
How To Manage Your Agent: A Writer’s Guide to Hollywood Representation
These books are affiliate links, meaning I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) when you purchase through these links.