university of texas at austin notable alumni

He went on to direct a number of well-loved horror flicks, including “Salem’s Lot,” “Poltergeist” and “Lifeforce.” The likes of John Carpenter, James Gunn and Eli Roth all claim Hooper as a major influence on their work.Very often the most important career choice a student will make is yet ahead: the shift in field from what they took as an undergraduate to what they will take in graduate school or in their choice of careers. Texas Chainsaw redefined horror movies, and sent Hooper’s career into motion. For a few years after college, he worked as a documentary filmmaker, before cobbling together $40,000 to make his first feature, “Eggshells.” The film went relatively unnoticed, but Hooper’s second picture, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” took audiences by surprise with its grittiness. Most notably, though, Schenkkan was one of two writers behind Mel Gibson’s Oscar-nominated film, “Hacksaw Ridge.”įollowing the film’s release, Amazon Studios billed Schenkkan to write “K Troop,” a film about the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the 19th century.Īn important figure in American horror cinema, Hooper was an radio-television-film student at UT during the early 1960s while the program was still in its infancy. He co-produced and wrote episodes of HBO’s “The Pacific” and penned the script for “The Quiet American,” and worked on a number of other television shows and films throughout the last two decades. Schenkkan’s career consists mostly of on and off-Broadway theater productions, but his departures from the stage to the screen are just as notable.

Writer Robert Schenkkan graduated from UT in 1975 and has since gone on to win a Pulitzer Prize, a Tony Award and recognition from the Writers’ Guild of America, as well as a slew of other awards for his work. He pioneered New-Wave Hong Kong Cinema in the early 1990s. Working predominantly out of Hong Kong, Hark has worked on everything from blockbuster special effects bonanzas to low-budget social and political commentaries. Having directed and produced more than fifty movies since graduating from UT in 1975, Hark may be the most prolific of UT’s filmmaking alumni. His films “Once Upon a Time in China,” “The Butterfly Murders” and “Peking Opera Blues,” to name a few, are considered classics among many fans of Hong Kong cinema. Hark’s been called the Steven Spielberg of Asia for his work in the last few decades and is responsible for boosting the careers of talented stars and filmmakers, like Jet Li and John Woo, through his work on and off-camera. Roosevelt” was warmly received by critics as a showcase for Wells’ unique sense of humor. Shot on 16mm film and set primarily in Austin, “Mr. Roosevelt,” a film she also wrote and starred in. Last year at SXSW, Wells made her directorial debut with “Mr. In 2013, Wells made the jump to prime time television as a cast member during the 39th season of “Saturday Night Live.” A year later, she joined the cast of Aziz Ansari’s “Master of None,” where she received critical praise for her turn as Rachel, the primary love interest in the show’s first season.

After college, she worked on and starred in a variety of projects, including videos for Funny or Die and CollegeHumor, as well as a feature called “Forev,” which a group of her friends and peers from UT created. Here’s The Daily Texan’s list of alumni filmmakers whoĪ native of San Antonio, Wells is a 2010 Plan II and radio-television-film graduate. Wes Anderson, Robert Rodriguez and - of course - Matthew McConaughey are well-known around campus for their movies, but they’re not the only Longhorns who’ve done interesting or important work in the film industry. Ask any UT student to name the filmmakers who came out of UT, and you’ll get a pretty dependable list of answers.

University of texas at austin notable alumni