Graduates Nominated For Emmys

More than 20 Harvard alums were nominated for Emmy Awards, including Stockard Channing ’65 in the supporting actress in a drama category for her role on “The West Wing” and Conan O’Brien ’85 in the comedy writing category for his late-night talk show.

“Homeless to Harvard,” a Lifetime movie based on the life of Elizabeth Murray, a former member of the Class of 2004, also was nominated yesterday for three Emmy Awards.

“I’m really excited, but for other people,” Murray said. “It’s not my work. I’m getting all these calls from people congratulating me, but it’s [the producer’s] thing. I’m cheering them on.”

Lifetime sent out 12,000 DVDs of the movie to members of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in order to draw attention to it.

“The movie is a powerful film and a tribute to a wonderful story. It obviously touched the Academy members,” said Katherine Urbon, Vice President of Corporate Communications for Lifetime. “When the story initially came, before film was even shot, our CEO, Carole Black, realized Lifetime needed to get behind it in a big way.”

Murray said she is still unsure whether she will attend the Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Sept. 21.

“My agent called me this morning and was like, ‘We’ve got to get you in!’ but I don’t know if I’ll go,” said Murray, who is now enrolled at Columbia University. “I’ll go if it doesn’t interfere with class. Otherwise, I’ll just watch from home.”

Murray praised her new school.

“I really think that Columbia will help me in my career,” said Murray, who is enrolled in the general studies program. “It’s for nontraditional students and helps merge people who have a lot going on in their lives. They try to match people up with a good academic program and an advisor. They go, ‘Welcome to our campus and we’ll help you merge your life with school.’”

Among the other Harvard alumni nominated for Emmy Awards, the majority were in categories honoring comedy writing.

Four of the five writing teams nominated in the outstanding writing for a variety, music or comedy program category included Harvard alumni.

Besides O’Brien’s nomination for his late-night talk show, the slate includes David Javerbaum ’93, the head writer for “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”; Dennis McNicholas ’94, who shares head writer duties on “Saturday Night Live”; and Steven C. Hely ’02, a writer for “Late Night with David Letterman.”

Steve Tompkins ’88 was nominated in the writing for a comedy series category for scribing the “Goodbye Dolly” episode of “The Bernie Mac Show.”

In the animated program (less than one hour) category, Harvard talent was similarly present, with alumni producers behind two nominated features, “Futurama” and “The Simpsons,” which was nominated in the category for the episode “Three Gays of the Condo,” written by Matt Warburton ’00.

F. Robert Pierson ’46 was nominated in the directing a miniseries, movie or dramatic special category for directing “Soldier’s Girl” for Showtime.

—Caitlin C. Southwick contributed to the reporting of this story.