Hollywood Goes South: TV Writer Joins KSU Faculty

By Mark Hoerrner

Sure, he’s from Dunwoody, Ga., but with all the glitter and pizzazz of Hollywood raining down on him, why come back?

His heart lies in teaching, he says. And he’s got a lot to pass along: after a short stint in advertising, he’s now racked up writing credits on 14 different television series and personally penned 36 different television episodes. Oh, and two movies—Disney’s "Tarzan" and "Brother Bear." He’s authored pilots and served as a producer on multiple series as well. On top of all that, add writing credits for several video games.

In short, he’s done it all. He insists, however, that he’s not putting his career on hold.

"I haven’t left the entertainment business‚" he told Kennesaw State University’s Access Online. "But after two decades‚ I’m at the point where I want to give back‚ as well. Teaching has always been a part of the game plan."

Kennesaw is Georgia’s third largest land grant university, only slightly trailing the University of Georgia and Georgia State University. The institution has evolved over the past two and a half decades from a junior college built on pastureland to a thriving doctorate-granting university serving nearly 20,000 students.

Jeffrey Stepakoff graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with degree in journalism. He returned to Atlanta to work with an advertising agency, but he felt his career was taking him in a different direction. He headed to Carnegie Mellon University where he earned a Masters of Fine Arts in playwriting.

"All content in Hollywood is still created by a handful of writers‚" Stepakoff said. "Writing is the ultimate career to have these days — and a very reasonable course of study. Today‚ stories and entertainment are just as vital to our economy as oil or agriculture."

Stepakoff’s ticket to television writing came through a Carnegie Mellon contact who created the popular show, "ER." The contact helped introduce him to an agent and David Milch, creator of "Deadwood" and "NYPD Blue," and he was off. Stepakoff wrote episodes for "Major Dad," "Sisters," "Hyperion Bay," "The Wonder Years" and teen-hit "Dawson’s Creek."

Stepakoff says he hasn’t left the industry by moving to Atlanta, but wanted a more family-friendly environment in which to raise his two daughters.

"With its location near a world−class media town and its commitment to professional training‚" Stepakoff told Access. "I can’t imagine a school better positioned to start turning out tomorrow’s great working film and TV writers than Kennesaw State."