CHICAGO (September 22, 2016) 聽鈥� When North Park alumnus Joshua Musil Church returns to campus this week for the University鈥檚 , he鈥檒l be doing so as a graduate with a particularly unique career trajectory.
鈥淚 never thought that helping run the service at North Park would lead to working with Pee-wee Herman,鈥� Church says, 鈥渂ut that’s聽exactly what happened.鈥�
After graduating in 2000, Church moved to Los Angeles and found a job working for writer-director Judd Apatow on the TV series Undeclared. From there, he joined Mosaic Media Group, where he worked as a producer on several of Will Ferrell鈥檚 films, including Step Brothers and Talladega Nights. He is now head of development and production for Apatow Productions, where he has served as executive producer onPee-wee鈥檚 Big Holiday and co-producer on Trainwreck, among other movies.
Ahead of North Park鈥檚 125th Anniversary 鈥攚here Church will speak on his career in the arts鈥攚e caught up with him about working in comedy, how his experience at North Park led to his job, and why serving on the Chapel team is like being a Hollywood producer.
North Park: How did your time at North Park prepare you for what you do now?
Joshua Church: One of the main roles of a producer is to work behind聽the scenes to pull together complicated TV series or movies. North Park afforded me the opportunity to become very involved in many different areas of campus life, from serving on聽the Chapel team to being vice president. Looking back, it’s clear to me聽that those were my first producing jobs.
NP: Was there a specific moment or experience at North Park that helped kick off the trajectory of your career?
Church: I don’t think that there was a specific moment聽where聽it all “clicked in” and I knew聽what I wanted to do, career-wise. It was probably a combination of a bunch of moments. I always had fun聽performing in comedy sketches, and my advisor, , worked with me to ensure that I聽could spend a semester at the Los Angeles Film Studies Center, which was an important step in me deciding to move to L.A. after college.
NP: Did you know that you wanted to work in comedy, and in production specifically?聽
Church: Like many people, I grew up loving comedy. I’d watch episodes of Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Saturday Night Live. To be honest, at the聽time, growing up in Maine, I聽never really thought聽about the fact that there were jobs in comedy. It聽seemed so far away. But as I learned more about the film industry in college, I realized that there was a world out there of聽people helping make comedy. I decided, probably sophomore year,聽that I wanted to eventually move to L.A. and try to get a job in the comedy film or TV industry.
NP: Do you have a favorite North Park memory?
Church: I have so many great memories of being at North Park. My best friends and I lived in an on-campus house called the Arena, and I probably聽laughed聽more in聽that house than on any movie set I’ve been on, and those friendships have continued to this day.
When I was student body vice president, the student body president and I were invited to a meeting with then-President Dr. David Horner at his home. We were really nervous鈥攚e were used to meeting with other students at night while drinking coffee in . But this seemed like a big step, a meeting with an adult before 10:00 a.m.
To prepare, we had to set our alarms to make sure we were up by 9:30, which was a big change from our normal schedule. We borrowed an iron for our shirts, and practiced saying things that we imagined adults said, like, “The markets are fluctuating, how’s your portfolio doing?” or “I’m not sold on NAFTA, I worry it will do more harm than good.鈥�
Confident we had mastered the art of faking adulthood, we showed up at his house, only to find Dr. Horner standing in his聽bathrobe while he studied up for his fantasy baseball draft, which was in an hour. Dr. Horner was not interested in discussing NAFTA at all. But at least our shirts were ironed.
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