With undergraduate degrees in Theatre and Media Studies from UNCG and a Law degree from UCLA, Max Kirkham has found his sweet spot at the nexus of entertainment and law:
“Here’s what I say to anyone who asks me about entertainment. You have to want this more than anything else. It’s the same advice I give to people who want to go to law school. If you can see yourself doing anything else, then go do that. The slog is real, and the payoff for many is not what you think it’s going to be. So, you must commit.”
Kirkham’s commitment to both entertainment and law has landed him the position of Business Affairs Coordinator at 20th Television, one of several studios under the umbrella of Disney Entertainment Television owned by The Walt Disney Company. Kirkham describes his position as follows:
“When creatives decide which projects should go into development, they ask business affairs to negotiate the deals for the people they want to hire for the project. It’s my job to take those deal points and to make sure they are given to all the right people. Some agreements we draft firsthand, and for those that go to others to draft, it’s my responsibility to deliver the salient points and to help answer any questions so that deal makes it all the way through signature.”
Why LA? Blame It on the Blizzard
You might say Kirkham took the scenic route to Los Angeles. Raised in Miami, he moved to Rome at age fifteen because of his parents’ government assignments, then his family moved to North Carolina:
“I went to four different high schools, so I never got any real college prep. I only applied to two schools and UNCG said ‘yes.’ It ended up being exactly what I needed, especially knowing that I wanted to go into the arts.”
For Kirkham, theater has been an ever present. In addition to being involved in theatrical productions, he attended many professional performances growing up:
“My mom’s side of the family is from New York, so Broadway has always been a part of my experience. My grandma took my cousins and me to a lot of shows. My family also had season passes to both of the major theaters in Miami. Going to the theater—musicals especially—has been a big part of my life.
“At UNCG, I started out wanting to be an actor. So many of my classmates planned to go to New York after graduation. But then I realized a few things about myself, one of them being that other people enjoyed the process of acting much more than I did.
“And then there was the blizzard. I traveled to New York to visit family. Weather delays forced me to sleep in Penn Station. I got home from that trip, added Media Studies as a double major, and said I’m moving to Los Angeles. I cannot do winter. I’m from Miami. I don’t do snow. I knew I wanted to be in the entertainment industry, so LA was where I had to be.”
Building a Hollywood Career—Then Rewriting the Script
Working two jobs after graduation, Kirkham saved enough money to move west. Reaching out to School of Theatre alumni already in LA, he found sofas to sleep on until he got an apartment, rooming with some fellow Spartans. He worked at Banana Republic until he landed a position as a tour guide at Warner Brothers Studios. Once there, he drew on an experience at the “G,” which led to another opportunity:
“When I was at UNCG, I had an internship with the American Pavilion, which is the only internship affiliated with the Cannes Film Festival, which meant that we got all access passes to the festival. It’s a great experience, and I used the connections I got from that internship to finally get into production at Warner Brothers, where I started as an accountant.”
Kirkham worked on thirteen shows and pilots over a five-year period at Warner Brothers. And then the unimaginable happened:
“So many of us have this story about being on track professionally and then the pandemic hit. It pushed a lot of people in different directions. For me, being in the entertainment industry was the only real option. I think figuring out what I wanted to do in the field now was the real challenge.”
Indirectly, inspiration came again from his grandmother. That, and some volunteer work he had started:
“My grandma was a court reporter, and I grew up hearing her working on those transcripts. So, law was something I’d always been interested in.
“I had also been elected to LA’s Neighborhood Council system. There are ninety-nine councils in system, and they each represent about fifty-to-sixty thousand people. Even though it’s volunteer work, the positions are elected through the city clerk’s office, just like the mayor and the City Council. The work is twofold—you advise the city on legislation or issues that are affecting your area, and you help your constituents navigate city processes.”
Considering his own pandemic pivot, Kirkham decided it seemed natural to combine the two things he was devoting his time to—his job at Warner Brothers and his volunteer work. So, he spent his pandemic refund check on an LSAT course and applied to UCLA’s School of Law.
The Leap from Actor to Lawyer—Not a Stretch Role
Kirkham’s UNCG Theatre and Media Studies majors provided some advantages for him in law school:
“Sometimes in the winter, they would offer courses like speaking for the lawyer and breathing for the lawyer. They’d have improv classes for the attorneys to teach litigators how to think on their feet. I never had to take any of those. At UNCG, I had been trained in how to speak up and be heard.”
Those lessons apply beyond the stage and courtroom, says Kirkham:
“I think everyone should take theater courses because it really teaches you how to be confident and how to listen to your body and listen to what you need. You learn how to go into high pressure situations with preparation.
“I’m sure this has changed since I was there, but in my time, there was a difference in what it felt like to be a BA in the School of Theatre versus the BFAs. As BAs, we learned to be kind of scrappy and create our own opportunities. And that was an education in itself, right? It taught me to be resourceful and that has been enormously helpful.”
Kirkham is convinced that his undergraduate degree helped push his application forward at 20th Century:
“In my job, people love that I have a theater degree. I think people are happy that they don’t have to explain the basics to me. I think that’s the reason I’m here at Disney, the fact that I have that experience and that I have that vocabulary already.”
According to Kirkham, there were around four hundred applicants for his job. After five interviews over two months, he feels fortunate to be able to combine a lifelong passion for the arts and helping others in the industry:
“I feel so lucky to find myself in this position, especially with the current state of this business. Lucky, but I also worked very hard for this. The days just fly by. Some days I look at the clock, and I actually find myself wishing I was allowed to work more than eight hours! And I’m working with people who feel the same way. That is the best part of this job.”
Kirkham pauses—smiles—and adds:
“Oh that, and I get to go to Disneyland. Don’t even ask me to tell you how many times I’ve been. But it’s a lot.”
Memories of UNCG Theatre and Advice for Current Students
Kirkham reminisces on his experience at UNCG:
“The professors I had in the School of Theatre changed the way I interact with the world. There was never a time that I asked a professor for guidance that it wasn’t given, one hundred percent. I had to do the groundwork, but I had that institutional support.”
Kirkham was a Residence Advisor in South Spencer Residence Hall and served as treasurer of Alpha Psi Omega and helped rewrite its bylaws:
“What APO does for the School of Theatre is so important, providing volunteer support, organizing concessions at shows, and facilitating student events. It was fulfilling, and I recommend students give back to their school and community in this way. The friendships I made in APO are some of the strongest that I still have today.”
There is one thing that Kirkham says he’d change about his time at UNCG:
“I would slow down. I’m a very driven person. I think that’s clear by where I’ve ended up, but at times that has come at the expense of stopping and smelling the roses. One of my favorite things to do now is to go on long hikes. My favorite thing about those hikes is that no one can reach me. You know, I have a little GPS transponder with an SOS button just in case. But no phone. No one can text me; no one can e-mail me. I have to just be there in the moment and enjoy nature. Looking back, I think I was doing so much, not only for myself, but also for others. I don’t regret that, but I do think I could have slowed down a little bit.”
“I moved into my dorm at UNCG on my eighteenth birthday. I tell my mom all the time that she abandoned me on my birthday,” Max jokes [and his mother disputes]. But seriously, it goes so fast! I’m thirty-three now. When did that happen? So, yeah, slow down.”
And one last piece of advice for current UNCG students:
“Don’t walk under the clock until you’re ready to leave. I went and stood under the clock on graduation day and said, ‘You can’t slow me down now!’”
Story and photos by Terri W Relos
