The path to Hollywood and a career in the entertainment industry is one that many Oxy students set out on. But, what does the journey look like after graduation? Join James Irvine Professor of Media Arts and Culture Broderick Fox as he interviews an esteemed panel of alumni, Sam Bergen '04, Caitrin Rogers ’04, and Meko Winbush ’03, who have led successful careers in the entertainment industry.
About the Panelists
Sam Bergen '04 is the chief marketing officer at Illumination, shepherding The Super Mario Bros. Movie to a worldwide box office of $1.36 billion earlier this year. He is currently preparing for the launch of Migration this December and for Despicable Me 4 next July. Prior to joining Illumination in December 2020, Bergen was vice president of global brand creative for Beats by Dre, built Vice Media’s West Coast office, and was CMO for Omnicom. At Oxy, Bergen majored in cognitive science with a minor in film.
Caitrin Rogers ’04 is a documentary film producer. She earned an Academy Award, Independent Spirit Award and Grammy Award for 20 Feet From Stardom (2013). Rogers began her career as an editor working for MTV, VH1, BET and Disney. She was an assistant editor on the films Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos (2006) and Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who (2007). Rogers produced the miniseries Ugly Delicious (2018) and Shangri-La (2019), and the films The Black Godfather (2019) and Miss Americana (2020). Rogers majored in Art History/Visual Arts.
Meko Winbush ’03 is an award-winning trailer editor and short film director. Out of thousands of applicants, she was selected as the winner of Max’s Project Greenlight in 2023 and directed her first feature film, Gray Matter. She previously worked on the IMAX trailer for director Clint Eastwood’s Sully, the award-winning trailer for Netflix’s The Harder They Fall, and the award-winning teaser trailer “Hide and Clap” for James Wan’s The Conjuring. She is currently adapting her award-winning 2021 horror short, In the Darkness, into a feature film. At Oxy, Winbush was an art history and visual arts major.
