Alumni

Recipe for Comedic Success

Being funny full-time is serious business...

Being funny full-time is serious business...

Alexander Trowbridge ‘09, producer of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumnus, attributes his journey to success to his experiences at Carolina’s School of Media and Journalism.

As a sophomore at Carolina, Trowbridge’s interests in entertainment, writing and news reporting lured him to Carroll Hall, the heart of the MJ-school. “You’re in a beautiful building right in the center of campus,” he said. “You can tell that attention is being paid to [media and journalism], and there is a recipe for success that has been worked out. It’s evolving, but it has worked for others.”

Looking back on his Carolina experience, Trowbridge said he took the one-man-band skills he learned at the UNC School of Media and Journalism and The Daily Tar Heel and used them to his advantage.

“I hoped the MJ-school would prepare me for a career,” says Trowbridge. “And that’s exactly what it did.”

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University has recently announced its new class of Nieman Fellows. Among them: Trowbridge, who will use his two semesters at Harvard to study the intersection between comedy and journalism.

Read the complete Carolina Story from the School of Media and Journalism…Opens in new window

UNC School of Media and Journalism Funding Priorities

    Readers Also Viewed...

    Portrait of Tori Smith Ekstrand
    Faculty Support

    Back to Carolina

    Tori Smith Ekstrand reflects on Carolina as former student and current faculty

    CITAP Researchers
    Innovation

    Democracy in the Digital Age

    Carolina researchers are helping us understand our digital political spheres

    Side-by-side portraits of Nicholas Fanatauzzi and Pareen Bhagat
    Student Support

    Xpress Yourself

    Students revamped Xpressions fashion club, creating a legacy of inclusion and creativity.

    Isaac Klein sits in his car with recording equipment
    Student Support

    Wheel-y Interesting

    Park Fellows’ innovative thesis project results in a fascinating, heartwarming podcast

    Scott and Chapel Fowler stand in the Dean Smith Center
    Alumni

    The Fowlers on Fatherhood

    From one generation to another, award-winning sportswriters Scott and Chapel Fowler talk sports, fatherhood, and Carolina

    Alex M. Sanchez
    Arts

    Retracing A Family’s Roots

    An Arts Everywhere Innovation Grant helped fund an immigration documentary project