Being only an hour-long train ride from New York City, Fairfield University attracts many students seeking to achieve their career goals in the Big Apple. Fairfield Alumni Brooke Lathe ‘24 made this her reality when she secured the internship of her dreams working for “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
During the spring semester of her senior year, Lathe found herself at 30 Rockefeller Plaza working as The Tonight Show’s script intern. On Oct. 2, Lathe returned to Fairfield for a “Lunch and Learn” hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) to share her experience with current undergraduates. Hosted by CAS Director of Career Planning, Stephanie Gallo, Lathe chatted with current students who are interested in pursuing careers in television.
Accompanied by some delicious sandwiches for lunch, Lathe shared all of the details about her career path. One of the first things that Lathe advised students to do is look for on-campus involvement. Most companies aim to hire students with experience, however, it can be hard to gain experience while being a busy college student. Because of this, Lathe suggests getting involved with clubs and organizations that relate to your desired field. One way that Lathe achieved this during her first year of college was by working on The Mirror.
Lathe shared that she “was the head Vine editor from the second semester of my freshman year until the second semester of my sophomore year.” From there she worked her way up the Mirror staff ladder, becoming copy editor during her junior year and executive editor during her senior year.
While Lathe had already accomplished so much on the Mirror, she was always looking for ways to grow and learn more. Knowing that she wanted to work in television, she was determined to gain some film experience. Although she graduated with a film minor, Lathe sought out even more opportunities outside of the classroom and began volunteering to help senior film students with their projects. Lathe was “on set every weekend helping to work on film student’s capstones,” with the only compensation being the experience she gained.
Along with her on-campus work experience, Lathe also shared how much she values her hometown waitressing gig, and how “a showrunner at Jimmy [Fallon’s show] says that whenever someone has serving experience he tends to hire them because he knows how much comes with the job.”
Along with customer service experience, Lathe’s first internship was as a script reader, because she had heard that to work in television the “best first job is reading scripts.” From there, she interned at a film company and “got hired to watch movies for credit, which was awesome.”
In terms of the internship process, Lathe admits that she would apply to dozens of internships, only to be met with silence.
“I got a lot of ghosting,” she admits, “I applied to a bunch of jobs and would get no response.” Nevertheless, Lathe persisted. She applied to be an intern at NBC four times, and the fourth was finally her big break.
Lathe got the coveted role of the script intern for Jimmy Fallon—a dream role of hers. Lathe was working in New York City four days a week during the second semester of her senior year.
As a script intern, Lathe “was in charge of copying and distributing rundowns and schedules across the studio floor… Just before the show started at 5, [she] would run down Jimmy’s finalized monologue and the show script to the showrunner and producer!”
While she mainly worked with the script team, she would have to adapt to the needs of the day and ended up working in every different department on set. Lathe commented about how she valued this experience because she got to know almost everyone who worked on the show, and that she got to try things that she had never done before, like photography!
Lathe even walked into work one day and was faced with a huge surprise. She was spontaneously needed in front of the camera rather than behind it. Lathe shared, “I found out that the casting assistant had picked me and another intern out from our headshots to play the part of ‘the shining twins’ for a last-minute ‘Shout Out’s’ sketch.”
Lathe was quickly fitted into a costume, got her hair and makeup done and did the sketch in front of a live audience after only one rehearsal. She fondly remembers this as “one of the most memorable parts of [her] internship.”
Lathe advised current undergraduate students to be strong networkers and to not only make connections but always keep these connections alive. She also emphasized the importance of dedication and not being discouraged by rejection.
Photo Courtesy of Todd Owyoung
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