Suzanne Collins When I got out of undergrad, I had a degree in theater and telecommunications. My first job, I was a news reporter for the local stories for NPR. Then I was a country-western DJ. I did data entry for a yearbook company. In my mid-20s I went back to grad school at NYU, and I specialized in playwriting. – Suzanne Collins
Steve Zissis I always did plays, and when I went to NYU – and I didn’t go to Tisch, the theater school, because I was like, ‘Well, acting’s not realistic. You can’t make a career out of it.’ So I just studied general studies and humanities at NYU, but I was doing plays while I was there. So I was sort of cheating. – Steve Zissis
Simon Helberg I actually didn’t finish NYU. I would have, but I was lucky enough to get my foot in the door before I graduated. – Simon Helberg
Sean Baker I went to NYU thinking I was going to make a ‘Die Hard’ sequel, or maybe action and genre films for the studios, but I ended up falling in love with personal cinema. – Sean Baker
Ryan Fleck I moved to New York City in 1997 as an undergraduate transfer student at NYU. – Ryan Fleck
Russell Banks A couple of years I taught in graduate programs at NYU and Columbia, in the early eighties. – Russell Banks
Roberto Aguire The great thing about NYU, and the reason I chose to go there, was the fact that they don’t inhibit you as an actor and tell you, ‘You only have to study acting. This is it for the rest of your life.’ They’re really great at balancing other things; you get to study two days a week anything you want unrelated to acting. – Roberto Aguire
Reed Morano The first director who ever allowed me to shoot a film for him was a male. He was a gay male. My first feature also came from him. I worked for a lot of dudes at NYU. – Reed Morano
Reed Morano When it was time to go to college, I was going to apply to Boston University for journalism, and dad said, ‘Why not apply to NYU film school, because you love telling stories and taking pictures?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, I can do that for a job? Cool!’ – Reed Morano
Peter Facinelli My advice has always been to study the craft of acting if you want to be an actor. There are many great schools that teach acting. NYU being one of them. – Peter Facinelli
Peter Facinelli Everyone has a different path. I knew no one in the acting industry growing up. I never did a play until college. I was not outspoken when I was younger and I hated being the center of attention. But I had a dream of being an actor. I went to NYU and studied theatre. I learned a craft. And began my career straight out of college. – Peter Facinelli
