Maureen Kuhl
By Zoë Eitel
Though Maureen Kuhl graduated from the Theatre School at DePaul, she currently works in the TV industry as a footage researcher for NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. She says everything she learned in the Theatre program and the additional courses she took in TV and film–especially storytelling–lends well to her current job.
“Everything I’ve done in my career since school has been related to storytelling in some way, and the Theatre School gave me an excellent foundation for that,” Maureen says.
Maureen started her path to The Tonight Show working at the Sundance Film Festival after graduation and then moving on to NBCUniversal’s Page Program, where she was a page for NBCNews, Saturday Night Live and Corporate Social Responsibilities. Maureen was initially intimidated to apply to the Page Program because of its prestigiousness and competitiveness, but she went for it anyway and got accepted.
Footage Researcher for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
BFA Theatre 2015
While at DePaul, Maureen worked as an assistant production coordinator for the Theatre school, was the president of STARS, and was involved with Demonthon.These opportunities gave her an edge when entering the workforce out of college.
“I had already been producing things, or helping things be produced, or being around things being produced for quite a few years because I’ve been in this nurturing environment where I’ve been able to see how the professional world runs,” she says.
“Everything I’ve done in my career since school has been related to storytelling in some way, and the Theatre School gave me an excellent foundation for that.”
Maureen was able to draw from her experiences with various student activities, organizations and on-campus jobs during her interview, helping her land the position.
“I remember getting asked a question in the Page Program interview like, ‘Name a time you had to come up with a new strategy for something and implement that strategy into what you were doing,’ and I could specifically go through something I had implemented in Demonthon and break down what I had come up with and how I had implemented it into the event,” Maureen explains. “I remember that being a very proud moment of being able to answer that question no problem because I had the experience and I could share it with my future employer.”
Maureen says she was pushed to get involved on campus because of how much she enjoyed the community of students and wanted to be more engaged with them and the rest of the DePaul community to help further and improve the college.
“Young people are so driven to do something,” she says. “We want to make the world a better place–or your campus or your community a better place–so being around other people who shared those goals and those dreams that I had to be a part of something bigger and make an impact socially was such a treat and such an honor.”
