All in the Family: Grit, Curiosity, and Television

When ABC anchor David Muir interrupts programming with breaking news, “Saturday Night Live” (“SNL”) satirizes that news, and Bloomberg Television analyzes how the market is reacting, a Shaker sibling is just off camera. Molly Shaker KLHT’04 produces Muir’s breaking news, Grace Shaker KLHT’07 produces “SNL” sketches, and Will Shaker KLHT’10 produces Bloomberg’s television broadcasts.

“Our family text thread is pretty interesting in terms of current events,” Will said. “They reflect just about everything that is going on in the world on any given day.”

The siblings are the third generation of Shakers to work in media. Their grandfather, Theodore Shaker, was an executive for ABC and CBS. Their father, Ted Shaker K’68, grew up watching television productions from behind the scenes. He became a producer, earning 13 Emmys and two Peabody Awards. Ted met his wife, Sheryl, in the business, and they had storied careers while raising their three children in New Canaan.

Like television, King is also a family tradition. Ted attended in the 1960s. Molly entered Grade 8 in 1999. Soon after, Grace and Will entered the Lower School. The Shakers have thrived with the benefit of being siblings on parallel paths.

MOLLY SHAKER: FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL NEWS

Molly’s dream was to write for The New Yorker.

“I have always gravitated toward writing,” said Molly, who earned an English degree from the University of Vermont (UVM). “King really nurtured my love of reading, writing, and literature.”

She started her career as a reporter for a weekly paper in Charlotte, Vermont, not far from UVM. For two years, she honed her craft, riding on tractors alongside farmers to write stories about the trials of agrarian life. She also delivered the paper.

Molly moved back to New Canaan in 2008, the economy stalled, and the decline of newspapers accelerated. Realizing that a future in print might not be practical, she began networking in New York. A conversation with a producer at “Good Morning America” (“GMA”) led to a freelance position with Standard & Poor’s, the credit rating agency, which publishes financial research reports.

“One day I was packing for a trip, and the ‘GMA’ producer called and said, ‘I need a freelance script coordinator,’” Molly recalled, adding that the job was a glorified intern position for a shift from 11 p.m. to 9 a.m. “I canceled my trip and started two days later.”

That was 2010; she has been at ABC since. Within a few years of her arrival, Molly was writing copy for anchors, producing shows, and traveling the world. She worked with teams covering the ISIS suicide bombings in Brussels in 2016, glaciers melting in Iceland, animals migrating in Tanzania, and

President Donald Trump’s 2017 inaugural speech in Washington, D.C. She worked her way up the ranks and earned a promotion this summer to Executive Producer of Special Events for ABC News. One of the first stories she covered in her new role was Trump’s indictment in Georgia in August.

“We knew it was coming,” Molly said. She and her team were prepared, with guests lined up for Muir. “When it is time to go on air, my boss is in David’s ear, and I am managing the remote guests. The guests are listening and pitching ideas to me. I feed them up to David. If David likes the idea, he goes to my guest.”

An avid reader, Molly still loves The New Yorker. But as the 2024 election season approaches, she is excited to be part of more special events at ABC.

GRACE SHAKER: THE COLD OPEN

Shortly after earning a political science degree from Wake Forest University, Grace arrived back in New Canaan as Molly was networking and the economy was nosediving.

Determined, Grace took an internship at “Access Hollywood” and began to work her way into the television business. In 2011, she landed a job on Anderson Cooper’s daytime talk show. Two years with the show gave Grace clarity. She did not want to work in news, but she did want to live in Manhattan.

She hustled to find a way into the entertainment side of television and to move to New York full time. She applied to join a team working on a Lorne Michaels “SNL” spinoff, and the hiring agent steered her to “SNL.”

“Never in a million years would I have thought to even apply to ‘SNL,’” Grace said, adding that the job was a step down from her prior position. But she took it and went to work with the biggest stars on the show in the heart of her favorite city.

Ten years later, she has pitched ideas, cast new talent, organized parties, and put fires out, filling just about every production role available. Her stories are peppered with iconic moments. She tried to persuade Harry Styles to jump into a pile of leaves, pitched a pantsuit skit to Sen. Elizabeth Warren and cast member Kate McKinnon, and mingled at after-parties with Dave Chappelle, Tina Fey, Chris Rock, and more. But she has worked most closely with Alec Baldwin. “When Trump was elected, my whole life became the cold open,” Grace said, referring to the sketch that begins most

“SNL” shows. “Once Alec agreed to play Trump for four years, I was assigned to work with him, making sure he was happy, he had his scripts, and he got to the studio on time.”

In a world where talent changes every week, a consistent relationship for that duration is rare. Baldwin’s satiric impression of Trump earned him two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. In his 2017 acceptance speech, he thanked Grace.

“We became so close,” said Grace, who now co-produces the show. “That was such an incredible time. It was unbelievable to be part of those legendary, satirical moments.”

WILL SHAKER: KEEPING PACE WITH EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

Being the youngest, Will had the benefit of seeing his sisters’ decisions play out. After King, he joined Grace at Wake Forest and majored in English.

“I followed Grace and copied Molly,” Will said of his college choice and major. He took his sisters’ lead into the news business, too, though his interest was in emerging technology.

Will’s career positions him at the forefront of the evolving media landscape. He began at CBSN, the original CBS News 24-hour streaming service. The company was essentially a startup within a legacy company, exploring how to keep pace with the industry trend toward digital streaming.

As he learned the business, he saw traditional news companies fumbling with modern platforms and ultimately creating competition from within. Three years later, he moved to the livestream business channel Cheddar, then to Bloomberg.

At Bloomberg, Will is at the epicenter of worldwide financial news. He works with the Bloomberg Terminal data and communication network, a powerful analytics tool known for its extensive real-time information. He and his team use the terminal to curate stories and create multimedia content based on reader interests and news trends.

“Bloomberg is huge,” Will said, noting the scale of the company, with 2,700 journalists in 190 countries and publishing over 5,000 daily stories worldwide. “The terminal makes it possible to curate the content and decide what is best suited for television.”

He also follows breaking news and trends in mainstream media. “Almost everything happening in the world ties to the markets,” he said. “I have to determine if it is something relevant to our viewers or not.”

Will serves as a line producer. Once he finds the editorial content, he has to ensure that the on-camera talent is on point. “I am like the conductor of the show,” he said. “I keep everyone on the same page all day. I decide what story we will start with and what external guest we will go to, and so on.”

From a curation standpoint, the size of Bloomberg is daunting. From a career standpoint, it is full of potential. Bloomberg has offices around the world, so Will is looking forward to traveling.

“I am really interested in exploring other cultures,” he said. “I have my eye on Hong Kong. I love the idea of starting there and then traveling to all different parts of the world.”

MENTORS, NEIGHBORS, AND SIBLINGS

The Shaker siblings live within a 10-minute walk of one another in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Grace has a dog she says looks like a rat, Will has a cat he named after a fish, and their combination has made Molly hold off on pet acquisitions. Molly and Grace love yoga; Will rides a Peloton. They habitually stroll the neighborhood together. Their lives overlap in endless ways, creating a shared support system that brings order to the television chaos, and this synergy helps them thrive. All three of them credit King with getting them there.

“King instilled in us a deep sense of curiosity about all things,” Molly said. “Being curious is key to being in the media, which informs so much of the public discourse. It also takes grit, patience, self-discipline, and grace. Whether we were aware of it at the time or not, King taught us how to be and exude all of those things.”