Jackie Decembly took an unconventional path to Hollywood, not that there’s necessarily a conventional path to Hollywood that begins in Youngstown, Ohio.
Decembly came to Cincinnati in 2005 to pursue a graduate degree. She taught Spanish in local schools before heading west to chase a job as a TV writer.
The pursuit was a success. Decembly, 38, has several TV credits as well as two shows coming out, one next month and the other in the fall.
She explained how her journey reached its goal.
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Question: Why did you choose to attend the University of Cincinnati?
Answer: I went originally for graduate school. I was in Romance languages. I got my graduate degree in Spanish literature and languages, and at the end of that program, I had been taking a couple creative writing classes and decided to get another bachelor's degree in journalism, and I minored in English, because I’ve always loved stories and storytelling, and I just decided that I was going to do that.
Q: Did you begin to study these things with the thought in mind of becoming a TV writer?
A: No. Being in the Midwest, I always loved TV, but I didn’t know how that was going to be possible. All these TV shows happened in Los Angeles. Maybe in the back of my mind, but I didn’t know how to make it possible.
Q: What were you planning to do with all of these degrees from UC?
A: I was still trying to figure stuff out. After I got done with the journalism degree, I had all of this teaching experience. I decided to get my teaching certificate.
Q: Did you teach around here?
A: I did. I taught at UC while I was in grad school. And then I did my student teaching at Oak Hills High School. I taught seventh grade at Mason Middle School.
Q: Did you like UC?
A: Oh, I loved it. I met my husband (Casey Penn) at UC. UC has been really instrumental in helping me as a writer because I took a lot of creative writing classes at UC. I had journalism and English classes. Cincinnati was the longest place I lived beside my hometown, so, yeah, definitely a huge part of my life.
Q: Is there anything about Cincinnati that you miss?
A: Oh, man, what don’t I miss? I miss eating Graeter’s Ice Cream. I did actually find a store. We have Ralphs, which is really Kroger. They actually have Graeter’s Ice Cream here, so that’s been great. I do miss Skyline Chili. I miss being in Newport. We were always down there going to the movie theater or going to dinner. There’s a lot of stuff I miss about Cincinnati. It’s a great city. We didn’t move away from Cincinnati until 2014. I was there a while.
Q: Was that move to Los Angeles?
A: It was to get closer to LA. My husband got into graduate school in Monterey, California. I was trying to get experience to help me get a job in Los Angeles, and that led us to Portland, Oregon, because he had an internship, and I got onto the TV show “Grimm'' in Portland, and that led me to Los Angeles.
Q: Was that your first job in the industry?
A: It was, and it was totally a fluke. I wish I’d taken a picture of this. I was going on Craigslist, and looking under gigs, and trying to do anything that was related to TV. I was a production assistant for a student short film, where it’s like, “we can’t pay you, but we can give you food and give you gas money.” I did a web series that was kind of the same thing, carrying equipment and things like that. And then I saw a post for “Grimm.” They were going into season five, and they were looking for additional set production assistants. I thought it was a scam. And my husband was like, “the worst thing you could do is send your resume and they never respond.” They responded and I went in for an interview and got hired for episode one and worked the whole season.
Q: And then were you off and running in the business?
A: It did open a lot of doors. I did a lot of commercials. I jumped on “The Librarians,” which was on TNT. I came back and did the beginning of season six of “Grimm.” I told one of my producers I want to write. I gave him my resume, and that’s how I got a call for an interview for a job in Los Angeles. It was for a Shondaland show called “The Catch.” It was season two, for an office production assistant. I did get that job and worked at Shondaland for about two years. And I also did a show called “For the People.” I was the line producer’s assistant for that, so I got a promotion after we did the pilot, and then I did another pilot called “The Fix,” and I switched from the production side to the writing side, and I was a writer’s PA on that.
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Q: Were you officially a professional writer at that point?
A: A writer’s PA is not really a writer’s position. It’s like the entry-level of the writing side. You’re helping to take care of the writers. It’s like an office admin position, but then that led me to a writer’s assistant. I was taking notes for the writers as they were breaking story, so I got to be there firsthand and see how they were coming up with story ideas. And then that led me closer. I got my first writing staff gig on “Turner and Hooch,” which is coming out in July on Disney Plus, so that was my first paying writer’s gig.
Q: Is that your biggest gig to date?
A: Actually I would say it’s the one I’m on now. I’m on the “4400” for the CW. It’s going to be coming out in the fall. It’s a sci-fi show. It’s a reboot. The original was on in the early aughts, and the CW acquired the IP.
Q: Do you bring a perspective to writers’ rooms that wouldn’t be there otherwise, or are you just a talented writer among others?
A: I think I do bring a different perspective. I come from a single-parent home, so I was raised by a village of really strong women. I have a natural love of learning and books. Speaking another language helps me. I really love dramedies, so I think I do that very well. I just really love characters and making people fall in love with characters and wanting to follow their journey, which is why I love television, because you get to see a character start at one place and end up at another. I write with a lot of heart. I like to write things that make you feel, but not in a depressed way, things that the average person will understand because you’ve lived those kind of things.
Q: Are you a rarity in writers rooms, being from the Midwest and having attended a college in the Midwest rather than an Ivy League school?
A: I wouldn’t say rare, but I haven’t met anyone else like me in any of these rooms I’ve been in, especially with my background. I was a teacher and I studied a lot of different things, and I didn’t necessarily go to an Ivy League school. A lot of these rooms, they try to get people who have different experiences. I don’t find a lot of Midwest people out in LA. I think in the rooms I’ve been in, I’ve been the one person from Ohio.
Q: If you came back to UC to speak to a classroom full of aspiring Hollywood writers, what would you tell them?
A: The great thing about this industry is there is no one path to get here, and I was just very open to experiences because you never know where the experiences will take you. I would have never thought that one job would have led to so many different jobs. The other thing too is to really know the stories that you want to tell. I have friends of mine who are moving along with me who are trying to nail down their voices and the things they want to write about. But I have a very clear idea of the stories that matter to me. Because that’s your voice, and that’s what makes you unique in this industry, and I think people really are drawn to that, when they can read your stuff and go, oh, she has a clear voice, a clear opinion, a clear story she wants to tell.
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