The Emmys Have Lions, Too

Reading Time: 7 minutes

For my friend and colleague Professor Kelly Younger, winning his first Emmy came with a bonus.

“Oh, and I got to meet Queen Latifah!”

Even a man who writes for Kermit the Frog can get a little starstruck.

LMU has already been celebrating Kelly Younger ’94 and Linda Cardellini ’97 for their first Emmy wins. Let me add my congratulations, along with a little history.

Back in March, I wrote The Academy Has Lions about LMU’s long history with the Oscars. Our relationship with the Emmys has quite a few chapters, too.

Kelly was awarded Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special with his fellow writers on The Muppet Show. Linda won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for DTF St. Louis. The series also took home Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series at the September 14 ceremony.

Two careers worth cheering. And a chance to look at what happens long before an award: the people and experiences that help someone find their way.

An Emmy, and students to teach

Professor Younger teaches English in LMU’s Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts and works across theatre arts and screenwriting. His career offers a few answers to that familiar question: What can you do with an English major?

As a member of the Disney Animation Story Trust, he contributed to Moana and Frozen 2. He wrote Candy Cane Lane, starring Eddie Murphy and Tracee Ellis Ross, which became the most-watched Amazon MGM Studios-produced movie debut ever in the U.S.

He also wrote Kermit’s 2025 commencement address at the University of Maryland, which is not a sentence most of us get to put on a résumé.

What I admire most about Kelly is how down-to-earth he remains through all of it. His humor comes naturally, and so does his approachability. For a student working up the nerve to ask a question or share a first draft, that counts.

He says teaching makes him a better writer, while his professional work keeps him honest with students about what a creative career actually requires. He looks for ways to help them pursue internships, interviews, and professional connections.

That gives students something valuable in a city where the entertainment business can feel both everywhere and hard to enter: a teacher who can talk about the work while he is still in the middle of doing it. The uncertainty and the revisions, not just the polished result.

An Emmy is a remarkable achievement. Working through a difficult draft with the writer who earned it makes for a pretty good Tuesday.

He has his own answer to the old “Those who can’t do, teach”: “Those who can do should teach.”

I like the “should.” He sees a responsibility to bring others along.

Linda’s story offers another side of an LMU education. Many of us have been watching her since Freaks and Geeks, with ER, Mad Men, and Dead to Me among the reasons we kept watching. Her first Emmy arrived after a career full of memorable performances.

When she reflects on her time at LMU, she describes a place to experiment and a community of faculty, staff and fellow students she could rely on as she began her life as an actor in Los Angeles. She didn’t have to find her footing in a new profession and a new city entirely on her own.

Then she offers a simple measure of what lasted: “I still have my college friends.”

Before the audience knew her, there were people at LMU who knew Linda. And those friendships lasted.

This didn’t start this September

Winifred Hervey ’77 won an Emmy as a co-producer of The Golden Girls in 1987. But the part of her story I wish more people knew happened at LMU, when she hadn’t yet settled on a career.

A communications arts professor recommended her for a Television Academy internship. She landed on Rhoda, where she watched scripts change from day to day and saw how directors and producers adjusted the work after rehearsals.

She got to see how a television show was made while she was still figuring out how to become someone who could make one.

Years later came The Golden Girls. We know the show. The professor deserves some credit, too.

The credits keep going. David Mirkin ’78 has won multiple Emmys for The Simpsons. André Jacquemetton ’89 shared three for Mad Men. And just last year, Emily Spivey MFA ’96 shared the writing Emmy for SNL50: The Anniversary Special, the same category Kelly won this year.

That is a respectable amount of television to explain away as supporting your alma mater.

The history extends beyond entertainment, too. Journalist Carol Costello DHL ’25, LMU former first spouse and instructor, won an Emmy for her reporting in 1991. Film professor Glenn Gebhard earned a regional Emmy in 2016 for Cuba: The Forgotten Revolution.

Glenn’s film also brought together an LMU alumnus as co-writer and faculty colleagues working on cinematography, sound and music. The connections among them helped make the work, long before there was an award to celebrate.

Before the applause

It is easy, at moments like these, to focus on where people end up. I’m just as interested in what happens here before anyone knows where they’re going.

There is real value in learning from people who know their craft and care enough to take your work seriously while you’re still learning yours. Someone who will challenge a choice, read another draft or suggest an opportunity you hadn’t considered. That is what students can expect from an LMU education, whether or not their work ever involves an acceptance speech.

Congratulations, Kelly and Linda. You’ve given us a wonderful reason to celebrate, and quite a tradition to keep building.

We’ll keep watching the credits. Back here, we’ll keep making time for the people who aren’t in them yet. We’ll keep teaching, mentoring and opening doors so students can find their own way. And wherever that takes our Lions, we’ll be cheering them on.

–John

P.S. A few more names in the credits

There is more history here than one post can hold. These additional connections span Primetime, Daytime, news and regional Emmys, and include graduates, former students, people who have taught here and honorary alumni.

Earlier chapters. Loyola alumnus Jack Haley Jr. won Emmys for directing Nancy Sinatra’s television special in 1968 and for the 1979 Academy Awards broadcast. An Emmy for the Oscars feels like an appropriate family connection. Gerald Finnerman, also a Loyola alumnus, won for cinematography on Ziegfeld: The Man and His Women in 1978. Darin Morgan, who studied film at LMU, won for writing The X-Files in 1996.

Behind the camera. Christian Buenaventura ’05 and Jason Krane ’04 shared the sound-editing Emmy for American Horror Story: Asylum in 2013. Daniel McDonald MFA ’17 won for picture editing on Cheer in 2020. Shana Hagan ’89 won an Emmy for her work on Little Richard: I Am Everything in 2024. Another Emmy this year went to Craig Seitz ’92 for Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Season or a Movie as an additional VFX supervisor on Stranger Things.

Daytime television. Matthew Ferrell ’97 shared Extra’s 2014 Emmy for Outstanding Entertainment News Program. Michael John Fiamingo ’01 shared a 2015 editing Emmy for Days of Our Lives.

Reporting closer to home. Jovana Lara ’88 has won Emmys for her reporting and for co-hosting ABC7’s Vista L.A. Stan Chambers, who attended Loyola University before wartime Navy orders took him to USC, earned multiple local Emmys during his long career at KTLA.

The teaching tradition. Janet Yang, who has taught at LMU, shared the 1995 television-movie Emmy as an executive producer of Indictment: The McMartin Trial. Former faculty member Chris Donahue earned an Emmy for Be Good, Smile Pretty, and Pamela Tom for Finding Home: A Foster Youth Story. Professor Rubén Martínez won an Emmy for hosting KCET’s Life & Times, and journalism instructor Benjamin Gottlieb shared a Los Angeles Area Emmy for SoCal Connected.

Honorary Lions, too. John Legend DHL ’24 won his 2018 Emmy as an executive producer of Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert. Ken Burns DHL ’12 has earned five Primetime Emmys, including recognition for The Civil War, Baseball, and The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.

And a cheer for this year’s nominees, too. Brian Rubenstein ’01 was nominated as an executive producer of Abbott Elementary, and Chris McCaleb ’00 was nominated for editing Pluribus.

Consider this an invitation to keep adding names, not a final tally. Drop me a line and we’ll add to the growing list.