“Her résumé reads like she’s almost 30 years old,” said Senior Vice Provost for Strategic Communications Betsy Tutelman (she/her) of Klein College of Media and Communication alumna Amber Mak, KLN ’20 (she/her).
In her short year and a half since graduating, Mak has added work at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to her already-impressive résumé.
Mak’s time at Stephen Colbert began in January 2020 when she interned for the show. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, her internship was cut short. However, in June 2021, a representative from the show called her and asked if she could come back and help on the show for a week. That week turned into several, and Mak worked as a freelance production assistant there until August 2021, when she landed a job at Jimmy Fallon.
Currently, Mak is a talent associate/researcher at Fallon. Whereas at Colbert Mak did whatever the production team needed for the week, at Fallon she assists the bookers in finding talent and researches books, movies and shows.
Mak reflected on the speed of her transition from Colbert to Fallon. “With the support of Colbert, I was able to get to Fallon,” she said. “I definitely feel very lucky to have the opportunity to even say that the two of them are on my résumé.”
Between stints at Colbert, Mak worked at CBS Sports Network as a sales and marketing assistant. There, she got to explore the remote side of production during the pandemic, but ultimately couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go back to Colbert.
“She took the risk because that’s where she ultimately wanted to end up,” said Mak’s friend Sophia Gross, KLN ’20 (she/her).
Tutelman said that Mak has always been a go-getter, seeking out several internships while completing her media studies and production coursework on the media business track.
From promotions at PHL 17, to creative services at Fox 29, to sales and marketing at NBC 10, Mak explored several fields in several of Philadelphia’s local media outlets through her internships. She eventually turned her attention to her current home and landed an internship at NBC in New York City. There, she interned in marketing production.
Mak is grateful for each of her internships and loves that she still talks to at least one person from each experience.
“Beyond all of her professional credits are her interpersonal skills. I mean, she is humble, she is a great communicator, she is funny. The glass is always half-full with Amber,” Tutelman said.
Recently, Mak talked to a group of Tutelman’s students about the challenges of the pandemic and how it affected her work, and Tutelman hopes that Mak can continue to be a mentor for current Klein students.
At the moment, Mak hopes to stay in late-night forever, and is looking forward to learning more about the business. She admitted, however, that you never know what the future holds, and she is open to other types of shows such as daytime and news.
“She has her dream job at the age of 23, so she’s killing it,” Gross said. “She’s going to have a great career in this industry.”