A Time Reporter Retrained Herself and Got an NBCUniversal Deal

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen wrote her way from journalism into a TV career

Reporter-turned-TV writer Lisa Takeuchi Cullen has been writing professionally since college. Getting there was about seizing opportunities—but it began with a twist of fate. 

“I took a wrong turn one day while I was at school at Rutgers, into the offices of our college newspaper The Daily Targum,” she recalls, “and they asked if I wanted to work there.”

Journalism taught her about the wider world—being a reporter at a large state university opened her eyes to issues of race, religion and sexual orientation—not to mention that “journalism, I think, feels more accessible to more minorities,” says Takeuchi Cullen, “because it’s something we can see and experience in our everyday lives.

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This story first appeared in the May 4, 2020, issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.