California State University Bakersfield issued the following announcement on Sept. 23.
It sounds like the premise of a feel-good film.
A young man unsure what to do with his life takes a poetry class at a small state university and gets noticed by English faculty who foster his writing talent. While trying to make it in show biz, he writes a screenplay that years later is made into a movie purchased by Netflix for $20 million.
But it’s not a film plot, it’s the real-life story of CSUB alum Matt Harris.
Harris’ screenplay “The Starling” is now a comedy-drama starring Melissa McCarthy, Chris O’Dowd and Kevin Kline that just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and will begin streaming on Netflix Sept. 24.
It’s the story of an everyday husband and wife (McCarthy and O’Dowd) in an everyday town who struggle to recover from a tragic loss. McCarthy is helped by a psychologist-turned-veterinarian (Kline) from whom she initially seeks advice for dealing with a starling that keeps divebombing her.
Harris wanted to explore in a realistic way how people deal with grief.
“It’s that kind of story that is easily pigeonholed as a feel-good story, but I tried to make it real,” Harris said from his home in Burbank. “I don’t like it when I’m watching or reading a story about people who experience that type of loss and then, ‘Everything’s going to be OK!’ I don’t really buy that.”
Lest anyone worry the story is a downer, Harris infuses "The Starling" with hope and humor. It’s not surprising given his current day job: executive producer of the hit MTV clip show “Ridiculousness” that features caught-on-tape mishaps.
It took many years and many disappointing turns for Harris to see his words transformed into film. But when he did, he got to be on set during the five weeks of shooting in late summer 2019.
The experience was “immensely gratifying,” he said, after wondering for years what it would be like to watch actors, producers, cinematographers and others bring his work to life.
And Harris says none of it – not the movie projects nor the earlier screenwriting prizes and production credits – would have been possible without the direction, guidance and support he received from mentors at CSUB.
“I’m really grateful to them for recognizing that spark in me and cultivating it,” he said. “Without that, I would not be here today talking to you about a screenplay I wrote.”
The road to CSUB
Harris’ father was in the oil business, so he moved around a lot as a kid. The longest he lived in one place was second to eighth grade in Joliet, Ill. The remote region of Indonesia where his family moved next didn’t have a high school, so he attended a Singapore boarding school for three years before finishing up in Venezuela.
Harris didn’t know where to go to college, so he followed his sister to St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. He was “not a committed student” but loved to read and seemed good at writing.
When his parents moved to Bakersfield, Harris spent his summers there and liked it. The summer following his third year at St. Mary’s he decided to stay in town, and after a couple years working in a hospital, he enrolled at CSUB.
“I was brought into the fold of the English Department, and it would change my life."
Matt Harris
To earn a liberal arts degree in a year, Harris needed to take a 300-level English class with Professor Jeffry Spencer. One of his first assignments was to analyze a poem.
Just before the start of class one day, Spencer stood in front of Harris’ desk and asked, “Are you an English major?” Having long battled imposter syndrome, Harris was about to apologize for the poorly written paper when Spencer proceeded to read it to the class.
Spencer was so impressed that she had Harris come talk to her about his interests, then introduced him to other professors. They explained what he could do with an English degree, taught him critical thinking skills he now uses to evaluate screenplays, and made him believe in himself.
“I was brought into the fold of the English Department, and it would change my life,” Harris said.
Harris keeps in touch with Spencer, who is 93 and lives in the Bay Area.
“Very often students don’t realize their gifts until they’re pointed out to them, and that’s what I did for Matt,” she said. “He really did have talent, and he took the ball and ran with it.”
Harris earned his English degree from CSUB in 1991. Professor Steve Carter helped get him into the master’s in American literature program at San Diego State. Feeling behind as an older graduate student, Harris worked hard to finish in two years while also sketching out ideas for screenplays.
Harris envisioned himself getting a Ph.D. and teaching at a Midwest liberal arts college, walking around campus with patches on his elbows and a pipe in his mouth while writing screenplays on the side. But he didn’t get into any of the Ph.D. programs to which he applied.
A 'Ridiculous' TV career
Harris was trying to figure out his next move when a buddy in Los Angeles told him about a production assistant gig at PBS. Harris got the job and slept on the friend’s filthy couch until he could save up enough money for his own place and to take some writing classes.
That turned into a PA job on a CBS sitcom and Harris kept acquiring skills. He kept an eye out for writing opportunities and got one for a Fox series featuring wild police videos.
“You actually write the voiceover copy that narrates these real-life police chases and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? I love this. This is great. I get to write and actually hear my words spoken on television.’”
That led to writing for a variety of caught-on-tape clip shows and then supervising writers. Next thing he knew, Harris was a co-executive producer and executive producer.
In 2016 Harris launched the Nickelodeon kids’ series “Crashletes,” which featured sports bloopers and blunders, and convinced then-New England Patriots tight-end Rob Gronkowski to host it.
Two years later, Harris took over “Ridiculousness” with a mandate to increase the number of episodes per year from 40 or 60 to 168. “Ridiculousness” showcases viral videos from the Internet that longtime host Rob Dyrdek and his co-hosts critique.
Original source can be found here.
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