Communiqué
NYC Entertainment Producer Got Start at WOUB
< < Back toEleni Lazares graduated from Ohio University in 2013
ATHENS, OH – Ohio University wasn’t even on Eleni Lazares’ short list coming out of high school. But, now the 2013 journalism graduate believes the decision to go to college in Athens and work at WOUB put her on the path to her dream job – an entertainment television producer in New York City.
“I grew up in Cincinnati,” said Lazares. “My mom was from the east coast, so I had this dream of going to a big city school on the east coast. I applied to Ohio University to have an Ohio school as a backup. I was accepted to Northeastern University in Boston and was set to go there, but when I got the offer letter for Ohio University, I teared up. I had never visited Athens, so I couldn’t figure out why I was having this reaction. But something was telling me to go to Ohio University. So, I did!”
Lazares’ first time on campus was for her freshman orientation. She knew she wanted to study broadcasting and journalism.
“My orientation leader was a journalism major and worked at WOUB,” said Lazares. “She told me all about the experience and how it led to her being able to get an internship at the TODAY show. So, I went into freshman year trying to do everything she did because I wanted to get that internship. That’s how I ended up volunteering at WOUB.”
Lazares says she remembers that everything was so foreign to her when she first started at the station. But she worked her way through everything, doing both on-air radio and television.
“I tried out anchoring and reporting. I was nervous. I really didn’t like doing the hard news stuff, but I thought it was good experience. I felt so cool. I remember thinking I had made it at WOUB.”
And when the time came for the TODAY show internship, Lazares applied and got it! She interned in New York City from January through May of 2013. While she was there, she learned about an opportunity to intern at E! News.
“The internship at E! was just amazing and after I was done interning, they hired me as a freelance production assistant to help cover Fashion Week,” said Lazares. Eventually she was offered a full-time position working as a producer at E!
“I produced E! News and a show called Pop of the Morning,” said Lazares. “I had so many amazing experiences interviewing everyone from Oprah to Tom Hanks to Matthew McConaughey to Kim Kardashian.”
Lazares was at E! for seven years and was recently laid off during a restructuring at NBC Universal. She is now freelancing at Amazon Live and wants to stay working on the entertainment side of broadcasting.
“At WOUB I thought I wanted to be on the air, but when I got to E! I realized that I could still do interviews without having the on-air aspect of it, and I decided entertainment producing was where I wanted to be,” said Lazares. “I feel like WOUB was the start of everything for me. It opened my eyes to everything. I learned so much. I pinch myself all the time.”