The changing face of photojournalism - Indiana University School of ...

Ryan Murphy (center) celebrates with the castof Glee after winning the Golden Globe for BestTelevision Series – Comedy or Musical, in January.Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Making of Ryan MurphyBy Matt RoushEmmy- and Golden Globe-winner Ryan Murphy says his successwith television series and movies, including Glee and Eat Pray Love,has its roots in his IU education.The world might have been a considerably less Glee-fulplace if journalist-turned-TV wunderkind Ryan Murphy hadachieved one of his earliest ambitions: to run the IndianaDaily Student as managing editor.“My friend (Mike Hyer, BA’87) and I ran for the top jobs at theDaily Student, and every time we would run, we lost,” says Murphy,‘88, sounding a bit like one of the endearing underdog misfits fromGlee, his career-defining musical-comedy hit on the Fox network. “Ithink if I had won, I would have probably stayed in journalism, becauseI had a real passion for it at the time. But that regular defeat,I was like, ‘Oh well, they don’t like me. Maybe I’m not any good atthis.’ I remember being so crushed by those losses.”So Murphy set his sights elsewhere, and his rejection at the IDSturned out to be the catalyst that led him to his Hollywood career.“I think about that all the time, because I think that every failureleads you to where you’re supposed to be,” he says.Failure was never really in the cards for Murphy, 44. He left IU in1988 just shy of graduation to jump-start a career in feature and ce-lebrity journalism for The Miami Herald, Entertainment Weekly andothers. He moved to Los Angeles and began to work after hours ona script (still unproduced) that he sold to Steven Spielberg, launchinga new career in the business he once covered. Before Glee,which won four Emmys, including best director, for its sensationalfirst season, Murphy created the stylized high school comedy Popularfor the WB in 1999 and the controversial psychosexual plasticsurgery drama Nip/Tuck for FX in 2003.Murphy reflected on his IU years earlier this summer, taking timefrom a hectic promotional and work schedule: gearing up for Glee’ssecond season while opening his second feature film, Eat Pray Love,which he co-wrote and directed. He had just finished a press conferenceat the Beverly Hilton hotel in front of the Television CriticsAssociation, which a few days earlier bestowed Glee with Programof the Year and Outstanding New Program awards.Murphy says he was “very humbled” to receive these accoladesfrom former peers. In his acceptance speech, he described Glee asbeing “about the world we live in, but more than that, it really is< 20 > newswire / spring 2010