BLAND CAESAR SALAD LEADS TO Exciting CAREER MOVES

When someone mentions taking a “gap year,” they’re usually referring to a period between high school and college, when one travels the world or just takes it easy for awhile . Laura Palmer, on the other hand, took time off in the middle of her college experience to intern at Late Show with David Letterman, Saturday Night Live and Conan, a move that catalyzed her career in late night television .

“I started out in New York in my early 20s . I was interning and I lived in these tiny apartments with roommates and just kind of discovered the city for myself,” she said . “I didn’t sleep much during that season of my life, but you know, it was all worth it .”

The 2015 Farmer School marketing graduate didn’t just pick late night TV out of the career-fair-hat – it was a medium she’d been interested in for years “I’ve always had a fascination with late night TV– there’s so much history there . It’s an institution . After being bombarded by the heaviness of current events all day, late night distills everything down, flips the news on its head and gives folks the space to laugh before closing out the day,” Palmer said .

Growing up in Carmel, Indiana, Late Show with David Letterman was a staple in her household . So, when Palmer decided to seek out a summer internship, she knew where she wanted to land. “I wrote an impassioned letter to Letterman and -with some help - I was fortunate to be offered an interview and eventually, an internship,” she said . “That summer, working in the control booth at Letterman, cemented my love for late night – and I haven’t looked back since .”

As summer came to an end, Palmer was feeling reticent to leave; she began looking for new opportunities that would extend her tenure in the city . Her resume found its way to Saturday Night Live, and after a few interviews, she was offered an entry-level position for season 39 .

That Fall in New York, she scheduled a meetup with a fellow Miamian, Jeffrey Crane Graham, an encounter that Palmer explains best in an Instagram post . “I was living in NYC working at SNL and Jeff was singing in an acapella quartet aboard the Celebrity Summit cruise ship (4-Sail!) . His ship was scheduled to port in Bayonne, New Jersey for one day only - and having known each other from afar in college, we decided to meet up on our mutual day off .”

“We ate bland Caesar salads at a strip-mall Houlihan’s and lost track of time talking . Before he had to rush back to the ship for some EmergencyOverboard-Muster-Drill, I awkwardly asked for this photo outside of a TJMaxx because #1 . I’m sure my sorority sisters wouldn’t believe that I had scored a lunch with THE campus heartthrob himself…#2 . Because I felt pretty sure that he was The One and I wanted to document it just in case .”

Spoiler alert: He was “The One.” “So every anniversary, I make him a bland Caesar salad,” Palmer said of her now-husband.

“In a historically male dominated field, it was refreshing to meet with Jill, who is an endless well of wisdom and a force for good in this industry. I knew from our first meeting that I’d move mountains to work with and learn from her.”

Palmer was offered a position as Leiderman’s Executive Assistant shortly after graduation, and still considers her to be a mentor eight years later .

Palmer rose through the ranks at Kimmel, from Executive Assistant to Associate Producer and now, to her current role as a Human Interest Segment Producer .

“If you have a viral video that’s picking up steam or a news story that seems too unbelievable to be true…you can expect a call from me . I’m competitive and I want to be the first TV show you hear from . I pride myself on my ability to track down just about anyone .”

Palmer says that the initial phone call is generally spent trying to convince people that she’s really calling from Jimmy Kimmel Live! “Once they accept that I’m not a scammer calling from a pyramid-scheme-operation, we can finally get to the fun stuff I want to become an ally to this person in their 15 minutes of fame . I want to hear the full story behind whatever hijinx landed them in the spotlight . At the end of the day, I just want these folks to trust me – and by extension the show – to do right by them . In most cases, this will be their first (and only) touchpoint with Hollywood – so I want to ensure that they a great experience from start to finish .”

After SNL, she returned to Oxford to continue on with her degree, pausing once more for a final internship at Conan on TBS . While on the west coast, she connected with Jill Leiderman, the then-Executive Producer of Jimmy Kimmel Live!

“In a historically male dominated field, it was refreshing to meet with Jill, who is an endless well of wisdom and a force for good in this industry . I knew from our first meeting that I’d move mountains to work with and learn from her .”

“There’s something so fun about getting to call a random woman in Idaho and tell her that we want her on Jimmy Kimmel Live! tonight . You get to be a part of a story she will tell her grandkids one day .”

Meanwhile, her husband transitioned from being a high school teacher in his hometown to working at a podcast network, doing some screenwriting, and producing a daily show with entertainment journalist, Maria Menounos . Graham was also reaching a point where he felt he needed to make a decision . “I either need to go all in on this digital producer track that I’m on right now, which is a great track and a good career, or make the decision to take the plunge and see if I can get something that I’ve written really up in a sellable form,” he said .

“And Laura said, ‘You know, Jeff, we can either be 90 years old in a nursing home talking about that movie we never made, or we can take the risk now and take the plunge,” he recalled “It felt, you know, exciting and borderline delusional . But we agreed that the only thing more intimidating than making an indie movie ourselves was regretting one day that we hadn’t .”

So, sitting around a tiny kitchen table in their apartment, the couple worked out a way to bring Jeff’s film “Always, Lola” to life They decided that the perfect setting to film was a place they already knew well – Oxford .

“We had a really viable piece of material and I spoke to some folks in the theater department at Miami, who were excited about it . So we held a table read over Zoom with some Miami faculty and students . That launched us and put a fire under our butt to make it happen,” Graham said . “I think the thing that was really fun was being able to show my friends and fellow creatives this town that so nurtured who I am today .”

“Miami is both the perfectly sized campus to attend college and also kind of the ideal size to shoot a movie . Nothing is so far away that you can’t get equipment there,” Palmer said, “but it still has this different texture throughout the university, from Central Quad to the uptown area .”

“We came in with this institutional knowledge of the town, which was helpful . ‘Oh, yeah, remember that corner of Kofenya that’s really cozy? I think that would look really great in this shot if we lit it from above,’” she said . “So even though we were 2000 miles away in Los Angeles, we could still be brainstorming that kind creative from afar because we have such a deep-rooted familiarity .”

With Graham directing and a bevy of Miami students helping out, the film was shot in 11 days in the summer of 2021, in locations ranging from Hueston Woods State Park to the Oxford Police station and, yes, the Farmer School of Business . Meanwhile Palmer took on the role of “Producer” that was considerably different than the producing role she already had .

“It might sound fancy when you hear someone is a Producer of a movie . But the reality is that a producer is just a boots-on-the-ground, utility player . I was organizing flights, arranging catering, making sure everybody had transport to and from set,” she said . “I was aiming to be both a support system for Jeff and to create the path of least resistance for him to execute his creative vision .”

And while it might seem that a TV and movie producer has moved away from her marketing degree, Palmer said that’s not so . “The whole idea behind marketing is storytelling, right? You’re trying to put forward a brand’s story in the most enticing and effective way . I help regular people harness their 15 minutes of fame within the ecosystem of late night, guiding them to tell the best version of their stories on our show It’s all connected .”

After the movie was finished, the couple spent much of 2022 on the festival circuit bringing the film to audiences from coast-to-coast . They took home the top prize at the Marina Del Rey Film Festival and were featured at the prestigious Heartland and Boston Film Festivals, among others . Then offers to purchase the film began to roll in .

Early this year, Palmer and Graham found themselves back in their West Hollywood apartment, reading Deadline Hollywood “We sat at that same kitchen table and we had that same excitement and borderline delusional feeling because we were reading our names in the trades . We’d sold our first movie,” Palmer said . As for their future plans, “I’m excited to get back to that kitchen table and dream up our next delusional idea.

“I’ll keep that table forever, honestly,” she said .