ALUM PROFILE Inside Hollywood

COM alum Cody Brotter’s podcast features Terrier power players

By Megan Woolhouse taking a job as a high school teacher after graduation. He said that for Los Angeles television writer sheer enjoyment, he always per- Cody Brotter has long won- formed stand-up comedy on the side, dered how successful alumni which resulted in his first big break: working with comedian and writer make it in Hollywood’s enter- Chris Rock. Kerman wrote some of tainment industry. the jokes Rock used as host of the 2016 Now, he satisfies that curiosity, one Academy Awards, and he landed the interview at a time. Brotter (COM’13), role of Jared Oliver in season one of a story consultant on the show Com- the HBO hit show Insecure. edy Knockout and a script reader for a Brotter recruits his guests by variety of agencies in Los Angeles, last leveraging many of his professional May launched the podcast Hollywood experiences. For example, he worked Terriers, featuring his interviews with at HBO as Roewe’s intern during a alums in the entertainment industry. semester in LA before he graduated. Guests on the podcast, created in And Kerman helped Brotter, who did conjunction with the BU Los Angeles stand-up comedy as a BU undergrad, Internship Program (BU in LA), are a get his first gig at Nick’s Comedy Stop who’s who of LA power brokers, such in Boston. Bruce Feirstein (COM’75), as BU overseer Jay Roewe (COM’79), a screenwriter for the James Bond se- HBO senior vice president, and ries and author of Real Men Don’t Eat Orange Is the New Black writer Hilary Quiche, who is featured on an upcom- Weisman Graham (COM’92). ing podcast, has been a mentor since “LA attracts all these hardwork- Brotter’s undergrad days. ing, big-dream people who have That networking has resulted in come from other places to pursue more than 20 podcast episodes cur- something,” says Brotter. “BU alumni rently available on iTunes. have traveled across the country to be Other episodes include an inter- in LA. A lot of these people are also view with Maureen Bharoocha super-successful, and I wanted to (COM’07), a segment director on know how.” Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and producer One of his favorite episodes is a Sabrina Wind (COM’90) of Desperate conversation in May about men and Housewives fame. the #MeToo movement with Emmy- Besides doing stand-up comedy nominated TV producer and Grey’s as an undergrad, Brotter was also a Anatomy showrunner Krista Vernoff writer and actor in the BUTV10 Telly (CFA’93), who talked about what men Award–winning show Welcome Back, can do to help support women writers Brotter, a Seinfeld-inspired sitcom. in a male-dominated industry. He’s come to enjoy the earnestness of In her interview, Vernoff noted that podcasting and says he’s become a bet- she successfully pursued acting roles Cody Brotter ter listener. after college, but eventually decided has interviewed “Throughout the experience of doing Orange Is the New to change course. “My family really these podcast interviews, there’s also Black writer Hilary struggled with that,” she said. “I prob- been the journey of me figuring out Weisman Graham ably have the only family that struggled (COM’92) and TV what I want to do, or who I want to with someone quitting acting” for producer Krista end up like, and I’m getting to see all another career. Vernoff (CFA’93). these paths,” he says. “That wasn’t the Actor and comedian Langston Ker- intention of this, and I try not to use man (GRS’11) recalled his passion for these as therapy sessions. I’m just a writing poetry in graduate school and very curious person.” kONLINE: Listen to some of Cody Brotter’s podcasts at bu.edu/bostonia.