Nolan Biorn ’20 relied on networking and moxie to land jobs at Disney, Netflix and HBO.
By Sydney Seymour, class of ’25
“Everything I’ve learned in the SOJC is happening in real life right now,” media studies and cinema studies alum Nolan Biorn ’20 said, referring to his time working in the film industry as a production assistant.
After graduating from the UO School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC), Biorn wriggled his way into the Portland film industry by getting in contact with a friend who knew a few employers. He eventually landed his very first gig as a production assistant for a Jeep commercial and later worked as a background actor for some extra money. While working on those film sets, he continued networking.
“I connected with people, handed them my resume and told them, ‘I don't want to be a background actor; I want to work in production. So if you know or hear anything, let me know,”’ he said.
Following a stretch of day gigs, he landed a three-day job in the production office of the A24 film “Showing Up.” At the same time, a person he had handed his resume to tipped him off that a few HBO producers wanted someone interested in street casting. Despite having no idea what street casting was, he eagerly said yes.
That night, after Googling what street casting meant, he interviewed and got the job as a talent production assistant for the reality TV show “The Rehearsal,” where he tried to find the interesting points of someone’s story to feature. Biorn noticed striking parallels to what he learned in the SOJC.
“As funny and goofy as ‘The Rehearsal’ is,” he said, “it really reminded me of the skills that I learned at the SOJC: finding the beauty within people's stories and representing that story in the most respectful and objective way possible.”
Job at Disney went from ‘worst job’ to favorite experience
Using his connections at HBO, Biorn moved to Los Angeles and secured jobs at Netflix and Disney. During COVID, he worked as a health and safety production assistant for Netflix films “The Gray Man” and “Unfrosted: The Pop Tart Story.” After a few months of working for Netflix, he landed a similar job for Disney’s ABC show “Not Dead Yet” and eventually got promoted to the season’s office production assistant.
Instead of the traditional production assistant routine — opening all the office doors in the morning, ordering breakfast and lunch, printing scripts for table reads, buying props — a COVID production assistant “was probably the worst job you could have in the film industry,” he said. And yet, even though he was enforcing nose-swabbing rules and mask mandates when he first started working on “Not Dead Yet,” this was his favorite experience in the film industry. Being assigned as “personal COVID assistant” for actress Gina Rodriguez didn’t hurt.
“I was her guy,” Biorn said. “I would literally just follow her around. She is the sweetest soul, and we got to really know each other and created a special dynamic in those two weeks.”
It wasn’t just Rodriguez. Biorn said the entire cast and crew felt like a family.
“Even though production was tough and the hours were sporadic like on any production, it didn't feel like a hierarchy,” Biorn said. “It was a breath of fresh air to have a normal conversation with the director, producer or showrunner. They see me for who I am; I see them for who they are, and we're all working on this together.”
Secret to success is networking, networking, networking
Following “Not Dead Yet,” Biorn landed a job as a writer’s production assistant for Season 2 of Netflix’s “Unstable.”
Considering that Biorn, as an assistant, was at the bottom of the food chain in the film industry, he continued to exercise his networking muscle and took advantage of being on set with established, working professionals.
“While on set, I'm having conversations with departments that I want to connect with. All the assistants want to know how the actors, directors and producers got there,” Biorn said. “My favorite line I would constantly say during those moments is, ‘I'm working this job to get out of this job. So please hire me.’”
SOJC gave him the skills to succeed in the real world
Biorn credits his time working as a Duck TV actor and producer for preparing him for production roles. Those SOJC experiences helped him understand the technical operations of production and expand his creativity.
“Duck TV was a safe space to take risks, explore working with like-minded creatives and learn how production is run,” he said.
Aside from Duck TV, he reflected back on a moment with a professor he had great respect and admiration for, Dan Morrison.
“We joked that he comes off stern and strict, but deep down, he’s a Teddy bear,” Biorn said. “I was shaking when I turned in my photo package. I was so scared he was going to shred all of the pictures to bits. But he really came across with so much grace and took the time to not shred but construct in a really great way. He's a master at what he does.”
Biorn remains grateful for his experiences at the SOJC and misses it.
“I had so much community at the SOJC and friendships that have continued, especially in LA. It's surreal to see that we’re all in this big city but can still talk about walking down 13th or getting Prince Puckler’s (ice cream).”
While working in production, Biorn analyzed everything, something he often discussed in media studies courses at the SOJC. In the back of his mind, he was always questioning the why — whether it was a line in a script, blocking, a prop on set or a specific scene — he wondered why the writer, director or producer made that decision.
“What I really appreciated about the SOJC and the media studies program was that it taught us to question everything. One of the greatest values that I had working in production was not just taking the content that I was working on at face value,” Biorn said. “Media is not just media — it’s something to take seriously. How does it affect us? And how does it form and shape us? I have taken that with me throughout my entire career.”&
Sydney Seymour '25 (she/her/hers) is a media studies major minoring in ethics. She is a writing intern for the SOJC and the editor-in-chief of Align magazine. Connect with her on LinkedIn.