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Chris Albers '86 Wins Emmy

Chris Albers '86 recently became the second St. Louis U. High alum to win an Emmy Award. His work on Late Night with Conan O'Brien earned him, along with the 15 other writers including O'Brien himself, the award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music, or Comedy Program.

For Albers, the award has been a long time coming, as he and Late Night have been nominated in the category every year since 1996, according to the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com). In 1996, Albers was also nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program for his work with the series Politically Incorrect, an award he shared with nine other writers.

"He always said, 'We never win and Conan comes back and screams and shots at us in a funny way,'" said theater director Joe Schulte, who taught Albers.

Albers' work with O’Brien has not been totally snubbed all these years, however. The Writers Guild of America has awarded the show six WGA awards out of 10 nominations since 1997.

According to Schulte, Albers managed to get behind the scenes at a Miss Universe pageant, where he made a number of connections in New York. Then, while at college at Fordham University in New York, the opportunity to be an assistant to David Letterman was presented to him. Albers jumped on the opportunity.

"Since then he's made himself a career," said Schulte.

Albers was also elected president of the WGA East in 2005. This past June, however, he announced he would not seek re-election, citing time constraints, according to variety.com.

Albers' recent Emmy success comes at the expense of another SLUH alum, Matt Gunn '90. Gunn was nominated in the same category as Albers for his writing work with Real Time with Bill Maher. Gunn was nominated in the category last year as well when both he and Albers lost to the writers of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

"We basically co-wrote his Senior Follies together," said film teacher Mark Cummings '79.

The age gap between Cummings and Gunn was small, so the two bonded quickly in class.

"He was one of the funniest, one of the most talented students I had to date," said Cummings.

Cummings had lost track of Gunn after Gunn's graduation. After one night of T.V. watching, however, he decided to get back in touch.

"I was watching Bill Maher and all of a sudden I noticed in the credits that there he was writing for him," said Cummings.

Ken Kwapis '75 was also nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a premiere of The Office, "Gay Witch Hunt." Kwapis has a rich history of directing television, doing work on shows like The Bernie Mac Show, Malcolm in the Middle, Grounded for Life, ER, Freaks and Geeks, and The Larry Sanders Show. In addition to these shows, Kwapis directed the films License to Wed (2007) and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005).

By Brian Bettonville
Prep News

Published: September 21, 2007 | Categories: Alumni, Faculty & Staff, Homepage, News Section, Parents, Students
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