Tim McNeal knew he wanted to work in Hollywood when he saw ‘The Idol Maker’ as a child. After the movie, he too wanted to make average people into stars.

His first job in the entertainment industry was as a CBS page. He moved on to work with director John Hughes, the man behind ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.’ Then he served as Ari Emanuel’s assistant, the real-life Ari Gold of ‘Entourage,’ before becoming an agent himself.

McNeal now works at the Disney-ABC Television Group as the vice president of talent development and diversity. And at a talk Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in front of a packed Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in Newhouse III, he spoke about race in Hollywood today.

At the eighth annual Conversation on Race and Television, McNeal, an openly gay black man, said race and sexual orientation are not a barrier to success in the entertainment industry.

‘If I had walked in the door, if I had a chip on my shoulder, then it would have played into it,’ McNeal said. ‘I walked into it knowing it was something I wanted.’

Those who want to make it in the entertainment industry, regardless of background, have to work hard, McNeal said.

As Emanuel’s assistant at Intertalent, a Hollywood-based talent agency, McNeal said he would come to work at 6 a.m. and leave at 11 p.m. He tolerated Emmanuel’s behavior, including the agent’s cursing that would make ‘your toes curl,’ McNeal said.

But his persistence paid off. He became the assistant to David Rosenblatt, one of Intertalent’s partners, who later made McNeal an agent.

‘There’s a natural inclination to seek out people who look like you,’ he said. ‘Those who are successful learn how to dominate that small circle or are successful because they are also able to go out in the mainstream of the business and be successful there too.’

Not everyone takes McNeal’s advice. Some talented minority candidates don’t move out of their comfort zone, McNeal said. At Disney-ABC, McNeal works to keep these minorities’ names circulating because programming executives don’t like to search too hard for new talent.

Troy Dangerfield, an acting and information sciences major, attended McNeal’s talk and said he found it enjoyable.

‘He had a very unique perspective,’ Dangerfield said. ‘As an acting major, he had a lot of good information for me.’

In Hollywood, actors, writers and directors have to sell themselves when they enter an office, McNeal said. Race or orientation won’t matter, he said, if they act natural and prove they have talent.

Moderator Richard Dubin, a television, radio and film professor, encouraged students to pose questions to McNeal throughout the talk.

Andrew Reich, a sophomore broadcast journalism major, asked McNeal what specifically he’d like to see Disney-ABC and its competitors change in regard to race.

Reich’s question appeared to surprise McNeal, who shifted in his seat, put his hand in his pocket and stared at the floor for several seconds.

The auditorium fell silent until Dubin quipped, ‘Go to a commercial break.’

McNeal said he would like to see Disney-ABC continue to develop different programs and bring in fresh perspectives with minorities hires. That is how the portrayal of minorities on TV will move forward, he said.

‘I don’t think you can engineer that change,’ McNeal said. ‘I think that change comes organically. As people who have that specific point of view find their way into the decision making role and because it’s important to them, they make it part of the conversation.’

McNeal has seen one major development since he came into the business. In the ’90s, ABC and others included minorities in programs because they felt morally obligated – now it’s expected.

Today, ABC makes shows like ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and ‘Lost’ to make a profit. Not including diversity in programming today would hurt ABC because viewers anticipate seeing it, McNeal said.

‘For them it’s really about the bottom line and how do we make a profit,’ he said.

adbrow03@syr.edu

Published on March 18, 2009 at 12:00 pm