Time for another bunch of low hanging fruit from the Milwaukee media tree
Marquette University alum Nick D’Agosto has what Deadline Hollywood calls the “sought after lead role” in the upcoming NBC series pilot described as a “documentary style procedural comedy.”
It is a fish out of water tale about a New York lawyer defending a poetry professor played by John Lithgow accused of murdering his wife in a small Southern town.
D’Agosto, a Nebraska native, is currently appearing on “Gotham,” and previously appeared on “Masters of Sex,” “E.R.,’ “House,” “The Office” and “Six Feet Under.”
He is a 2002 cum laude graduate of the Diedrich College of Communications, from which he recently received the Young Alumnus Award. In addition to a degree in theater arts, he also majored in history.
***
that Marquette University alum – hey, I’m sensing a pattern here – Danny Pudi has also been cast in a promising sounding pilot for NBC called “Powerless.”
It is set in the DC Comics universe, and deals with normal powerless workers at an insurance company that is “the least super place on earth.” As part of their job they deal with the “disruptive antics of the various superheroes” in their city.
Pudi, of course, starred in “Community,” as a comic book superhero movie loving nerd Abed. “Community” was created by Milwaukee native Dan Harmon who once had beer in the Marquette Union Sports Annex.
Pilots do not always become regular series. Last year at this time Pudi filmed the NBC pilot “Strange Calls,” as a cop transferred to a sleepy coastal town “right out of ‘Northern Exposure’ “that is home to “bizarre paranormal activity.”
***
Harmon, meanwhile, is one of three Wisconsin names attached to the Oscar nominated stop motion animated film “Anomalisa.”
The project began at Starburns Industries, the animation production company co-founded by Harmon, who is an executive producer of “Anomalisa.”
Go here for a list of this year’s Oscar nominees with Wisconsin ties.
****
Bonnie Petrie had a rough entry in the Milwaukee radio market. But she has landed on her feet.
Shortly after joining WTMJ-AM as a morning show co-host to replace Jodi Becker, she was diagnosed with a treatable voice disorder.
And while she continued to write the news she left the airwaves and eventually left the E. W. Scripps owned station as well last fall.
But Petrie, a native of upstate New York, stayed in the Milwaukee area and this week started reporting part time for public radio station WUWM-FM.
Her first story Wednesday was on the residency rule for city employees. Listen to it here.
Follow her on Twitter
***
WUWM has also hired Rachel Morello as the station’s first full time education writer.
“Wisconsin is a hotbed of education issues so we wanted to have someone who could spend full time researching and reporting” on the topic, said general manager Dave Edwards. “We expect much of her work will be picked up” by NPR.
Morello has lived and worked iN Chicago, DC, Miami and London. She previously worked at a collaborative public radio and TV project covering education in Indiana. She is a Milwaukee native and a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
Follow her on Twitter Her profile lists her as a “lifelong Cheesehead.”
***
And finally I’ll be talking about the Oscars at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday on WUWM’s “Lake Effect Weekend” with Audrey Nowakowski.
And I’ll do it again Sunday morning on WTMJ-AM with Steve Ket.
And trade snarky remarks with me on Twitter Sunday night during the red carpet coverage and the Oscar telecast.
Tags: D'Agosto, Harmon, Oscar, Petrie, Pudi, WTMJ, WUWM Posted by