Andy Fisher graduated from UT’s radio-television-film program in 1999. Since then, he’s become a major figure in late-night television as the director of Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC. After receiving an Emmy nomination for his work on the most recent season, The Daily Texan sat down with Fisher to talk about his experience on the Forty Acres and his work in late-night television. 

Daily Texan: What did you study at UT and what did you take away from your time here?

Andy Fisher: I studied radio-television-film. Memorable time, I mainly took screenwriting classes. I didn’t get into the production track at UT at that time. I ended up doing a lot of stuff extracurricularly. 

DT: Do you feel like going to UT made any specific impact on your life? 

AF: Mainly the people I met. People that had been in the industry, that had done it, that were still doing it. All the professors had normalized this isn’t just magic. This isn’t just like, ‘I’m gonna be famous.’ It’s like, you can actually make a career out of this. 

DT: Could you explain what directing an episode of the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show looks like?

AF: On a normal day, we do a monologue that’s between 12-15 minutes long. Then there’s three acts of interviews, and sometimes there’s bits within those (or) it’s just a straight interview with a three-camera shot of two people talking. Then act six of our show is music. That’s typically the most fun. We have three different stages. The mainstage is where we shoot the interviews and the monologue, (and we have a) a lobby stage — it has a dive-bar feeling. Then we have an outdoor stage where we can have up to 3,000 people and put up a bigger band. My role is overseeing the whole thing and trying to keep some kind of order. It is a machine, once it starts it doesn’t stop. We don’t stop to do redo’s, ever. We start at 10 a.m., we shoot at 4 p.m. and between those hours we kind of know what the shows are going to be about. But if a big news item hits in the middle of the day, then the entire show could change at 2 p.m. You have to be prepared for anything, but that makes it fun. 

DT: What advice would you give to students trying to break into the entertainment industry?

AF: Just follow your passion because that’s always going to work. It may not make you rich or famous but you’re going to be passionate about what you do. As someone who’s in an artistic field, that, to me, is the most important piece. Some people get out of school and they get the job doing whatever, (but) that wasn’t my path. Mine was very much, ‘I’m gonna follow my passion,’ and now I’m way over here.