Case Study

I had heard great things about the University of Sunderland, particularly the media degrees. The University was close to home and had a lot more to offer compared with other universities I had looked at. My favourite part was the practical elements of the course, which allowed me to get creative and produce work that I was confident in and proud of.

I got a head start in my career thanks to the University and my lecturer who put me in contact with the production team behind Geordie Shore. I worked as a runner on the show at the end of my second year, and have since built and developed my relationship with the production company, moving up the ranks to a Researcher – achieving this before I had even graduated, which was amazing. I’m now living in London working on other TV shows.

My advice to future students would be to enjoy every part of your degree; even through the tough times you learn so much about yourself and what it is you actually want. It can sometimes be hard to access your creativity, but I think you just need to remove yourself from the situation, take a breather and then let the creative juices flow naturally, rather than force it. Within the TV industry and similar industries like film or theatre you need to communicate well with people to build up potential contacts for future work, so presentation and team working skills will give you a good advantage.

My experience at Sunderland was great – it enabled me to be myself and the lecturers really listened to what I wanted to do and helped push me in the right direction.”

Published 25 January 2021