From TCU to Hollywood: How FTDM’s Program Paved Katherine Beattie’s way

Katherine Beattie ’08—a Film, Television and Digital Media alumna—Leads On courageously as a writer and co-executive producer on “NCIS.”

In a new video to celebrate TCU’s 150th anniversary, Beattie talks about how her time at the Bob Schieffer College of Communication prepared her for Hollywood.

“When I was a senior in college, I was given the opportunity to produce our big, semester-long project, which was a TV show. So that was my first taste of really bringing all of the elements together, and I often look back on that experience—which was really just a whirlwind—as that the thing that really confirmed for that television is where I wanted to be.”

FTDM Professor Richard Allen has been a mentor since her days in Moudy South.

“TCU gave her that freedom to really find her best self, and to be comfortable trying different aspects of her best self,” Allen said. “And then she went out to Hollywood. She knew how to take a real-world situation and make the most of it, and to make the most of the peers and the people around her, the colleagues. So, I think TCU was a very, very good match for her.”

Beattie credits her hands-on classroom learning, her college internship with Ellen Degeneres and the TCU alumni network in Los Angeles for helping her succeed.

“And here I am however many years later, a co-executive producer on television. And it was all kind of foundational to what I learned at TCU,” she said.