From IWU Magazine, Fall 2015 issue
Three Illinois Wesleyan alumni honored at 2015 Emmy television awards
And the winner was … Illinois Wesleyan University. In September, the IWU community proudly learned that three of its alumni had been recognized for Emmys, awarding excellence in television.
Already an Academy Award nominee, theatre alumnus Richard Jenkins ’69 won an Emmy for Outstanding Actor in a Limited Series for Olive Kitteridge. Richard starred as Henry in HBO’s four-episode series chronicling Henry’s 25-year relationship with Olive, played by Frances McDormand, who also won an Emmy, as did the show for best miniseries.
Richard also made headlines for joining the new Epix series, Berlin Station, a 10-episode contemporary spy tale that is premium service’s first drama series.
Also represented at the 2015 awards, theatre alumnus Kevin Dunn ‘77 was among the cast accepting the Outstanding Comedy Series award for Veep. Kevin plays Ben Cafferty, the depressive and cynical White House Chief of Staff, on the satiric HBO comedy. Kevin has more than 100 appearances in major films and television series. According to the website IMDb, “Dunn is able to fit into various roles in diverse genres with ease.” He is perhaps best known for his role as the father in the hit Transformers movies.
Biology alumna Kat (Meginniss) White ’85 served as an executive producer of the documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali, which won a News and Documentary Emmy Award. The film won the Emmy in the Outstanding Historical Programming – Long Form category. A production of the Chicago-based Kartemquin Films, Trials explores the extraordinary and complex life of the legendary athlete outside the world of boxing. Broadcast on PBS Independent Lens in April 2014, the film received three News and Documentary Emmy nominations for Best Documentary, Outstanding Historical Programming – Long Form and Outstanding Editing.
Kat is a principal in Chicago-based KatLei Productions. She’s currently licensing music associated with the independent feature film Imperfections, but she said the bulk of her projects center on Broadway productions and cast albums. Kat said she is collaborating with Kartemquin Films on Life Itself, a documentary on the late Roger Ebert, as executive producer.