Wonderful World: Alum writes and produces for the Disney Channel
By Susan Hunter ('91)

Susan Hunter with, from left, Disney stars Nick, Joe and Kevin Jonas. Hunter regularly works with the Disney Channel’s popular up-and-coming young performers.

My realm is on-air promotion and marketing, and while I have the same title (senior writer/producer) as some of those big-wig studio types, the scope of my work is a wee bit smaller, although equally important in my eyes. I write and produce on-air promos and most things relating to getting people on their couches to watch their favorite TV shows or make a connection with their favorite stars.

I’ve been at Disney for about two years now. Prior to that, I worked for a couple of small production companies as creative director in marketing. Before that, I spent five years at The WB. There I created the television launch campaign for “Dawson’s Creek” and developed on-air marketing campaigns for other shows like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel” and “Charmed.” I started at The WB as a promotions writer/producer and later became creative director.

Now I’m back at Disney Channel, which is an interesting turn of events because Disney was my very first freelance gig when I made the move from Colorado to California back in the ’90s. I really love my job because Disney Channel is fairly hot right now – especially with the 8- to 14-year-old set. Knowing Hannah Montana goes a long way with my nieces and nephews.

Disney Channel has no commercials, so there is a lot of time to fill between shows, and that’s mostly where my work comes into play. I focus primarily on special projects, so whether it’s the launch of the new season of “Hannah Montana” or producing music videos for “High School Musical 2,” or developing the multiplatform launch campaign for our next big movie – “Camp Rock,” I have had the wonderful opportunity to work on a lot of amazing and gratifying projects.

I recently launched the Disney Channel series “Wizards of Waverly Place.” I had a 30-person crew, and we worked for a full week with the cast of the series doing everything from interviews, set tours, gathering lines for our Web site and shooting segments for our International Disney Channels. A lot of my work also goes into behind-the-scenes segments that air on the network – kids really love seeing our stars goofing around, being real kids, and also how Hollywood works.

I credit CU with providing me so many of the tools and skills I’ve used to make my way here. Steve Jones and NewsTeam helped with producing, and I always tell people that CU is where I really learned to write (my deepest thanks to Jan Whitt); without my writing skills I wouldn’t have a career.

I honestly do love my career and hope many more CU graduates have the opportunity to follow their dreams as I did.