Not even the Morehead Scholarship can escape reality television.
After kicking off his film career at UNC, Morehead Alum James Dean is now producing and directing Airline, A&E's People's Choice-nominated reality show about Southwest Airlines.
Television — and specifically reality television — has earned Dean impressive credits, including "Temptation Island" and "Celebrity Fit Club." But his proudest achievement to date is his 2000 film, Shrink, which he wrote, produced and directed. It played at more than 20 festivals worldwide, picked up several awards and has been bought for television in several countries.
Although The Morehead did not provide Dean any specific internship in cinema, the British student did use the scholarship to further his career.
"If you want to make films or television programs, the most important dimension of that desire is to have something you want to say," Dean says. "And that comes from life experience. The Morehead internships are designed for that, and I deliberately chose ones that would give me as broad an experience as possible: the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, the Pediatric Unit of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City and Mother Teresa's Home for Dying Destitutes in New Delhi."
While at Carolina, Dean took film courses, made a short film (winning the Best Student Film Prize), and chaired the Student Union Film Committee. Plus, he enjoyed hiding out in the Undergrad library to watch Woody Allen films on VHS.
In spite of his namesake, acting was never much Dean's calling — although he did stand in for William Hurt in "The Doctor" and James Caan in "Misery" (those are Dean's legs that Kathy Bates hacks off!). Instead, something larger has beckoned Dean to the cinema.
"In the right hands, cinema can be an incredibly powerful medium, whether you make comedies like I do, or drama. It really does have the ability to change the way people think and engage in the world — something that The Morehead instills in all its Scholars."
Dean's commitment to The Morehead remains strong: he heads up the British selection process. And who knows, maybe sometime in television's future there just might be a reality show called "The Morehead."
