OMEED MALEK

MALEK TURNS HIS PASSION FOR NEWS INTO NEW CAREER

Omeed Malek vividly remembers the night his career path changed. He was watching television the night of the 2016 election. “I remember watching that night and thinking ‘I would like to be part of this.’” The conundrum? He was already three years into his college career at Indiana University and well on his way to being a doctor, and he was applying to graduate school. “I was pretty far in,” he says. It was one of his former Sycamore classmates who helped him understand what he should do. “I was still too scared of giving up on that dream (of being a doctor) that I was in control of at this point,” he remembers. “What really sent me over was Megan Yoder, who was a Sycamore student and was one of my closest friends. She was really passionate about what she did (sustainable business and development) and I looked at her, thinking, ‘How is this person so passionate about something?’” She was also a student at IU and part of the Kelley School of Business. Her love was community and environmental health. Megan also had battled leukemia and would pass away at age 21 in 2017 after losing her year-long battle with brain cancer. “It was inspiring to see Megan chase after her dreams in sustainable business ventures in such a momentous way, given the fact she had such little time to work with. After her passing, it inspired me to give my all to things and passions I truly cared about, especially in areas where I knew that I could make a significant impact.” Malek recalls that it was quite the decision to make a change at that point in his college track. “I took some time to myself —this is my senior year no less—and took a semester off. I re-thought everything and decided news is what I want to do,” he says. “I walked into the Dean’s Office and said, ‘Listen, we really need to change course,’ and they looked at me like I was crazy. He was ‘There’s no way you can change course,’ I said, ‘We will pay tuition so there’s a way.’ So, we developed a way and I only did one more year at IU and finished with a completely new major (Journalism) plus a Chemistry major and a Spanish minor.” And that’s how a medical path ended, and the road became a new destination, quickly leading Omeed Malek to New York City.

MALEK, who graduated from Sycamore in 2010, currently lives in NYC. This is really the story of someone going after what he wants, finding a way to follow a passion, following the voice that is telling him what he really loves. Omeed has become a researcher and assistant producer for

Left: Omeed Malek on Washington set of “Meet The Press”

Below: Malek speaking at Indiana University

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Malek’s experience at NBC includes working on the “Rachel Maddow Show” and election night coverage. Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, one of the most highly-ranked cable news shows on the air. He is working his way to wherever it leads. Since joining the show, Malek has worked with top political strategists, all the 2020 presidential contenders, senators, and with the Office of the President. “It has been a dream,” he says. To get where he is, in addition to deciding a career change was his choice, he had to find a way to get noticed by NBC. “I worked on essay applications for this one program at NBC, a very difficult program to get into, with thousands of applicants each year,” he says. “They only accept around ten people, and it’s basically a fast-track feeder for producing and on- camera jobs and a few research jobs.” Malek applied. Then he waited, thinking, in his words, “There’s no way that this is going to work.” A few weeks after he submitted his original essay, he was back on campus at IU after spring break and his cell phone rang. He looked down and saw it was a Los Angeles number. “I picked it up and I was told that I had made it to the second round in Chicago. NBC flew there from LA, and we met for an hour-long interview. It was tough, but I realized at the beginning of the interview with the guarded answers I was giving that a journalist can see right past that.” With that self-aware revelation during the interview, Malek says he realized that “the best version of yourself is the one where you’re being authentic and honest and vulnerable.” He opened up

and spoke from his heart. After that, he got a call inviting him to New York for a panel interview. He aced it. He was in.

MALEK started at NBC on the Today Show, working the overnight, graveyard shift, and working with correspondents in LA, London, and the Middle East. He then moved to The Rachel Maddow Show before traveling to Washington DC to work on Meet the Press with Chuck Todd, (“a show that I had grown up with,” Malek says). “I mean I knew all these people’s names by heart. I remember when we went to Washington with the 8th Grade class at Sycamore, I had MSNBC pulled up on my iPod Touch and was watching MSNBC in the bus.” He says he eventually went back to Maddow because he really liked his time there and there is a certain rush to working on one of the most highly viewed cable news shows. “It is a great place to be,” he says. “It’s a very smart team, and I love the people there. They are some of the smartest people I have ever met.” Showing how his time as a pre-med student could still pay off, he remembers, during the pandemic, how he was “explaining biology to my colleagues on The Rachel Maddow Show because I had worked on biology research for two years at IU, and that research is relevant because of (vaccine) clinical trials.”

“I LOVED art, science, and history with Mrs. Prince, Mr. Schuth, and Mr. Young,” Malek says of his days at Sycamore. “I loved art and received exposure to an unparalleled art history education. Mr. Young’s history lectures and teaching strategy instilled a level of academic prowess that was fundamental to my future successes. Mr. Schuth’s science class was also one of the pinnacle experiences during my time at Sycamore for the depth of subjects we covered. I think these three subjects are the building blocks to a well-rounded person, and Sycamore hit the bullseye with each one in terms of the materials and the teachers.” Malek says his experiences at Sycamore were some of the most formative ones in his young life. “I really learned to come out of my shell at Sycamore. I learned that being different—studious, curious, and ambitious —were cool personality traits. I think when you’re younger, it can be easy to lose sight of that fact. A good education is just the first step. What Sycamore does goes beyond that. Ultimately, the outcome is a fullyrealized good person who will go on to solve problems and help others in this great big world.” His Sycamore story is a bit unorthodox. He did not join until 6th Grade (in 2007), coming from the Carmel public school system. “(Carmel) was okay, but my parents were thinking I needed something more challenging because I got easily bored,” he says. “They saw that I needed something different, so they sent me to Sycamore, and it was one of the best decisions I think they’ve ever made. Some of my closest friends I met at Sycamore. Don’t lose touch with these people. That network has really helped me.” When he talked to Sycamore students as part of the Alumni Speaker Series in the fall of 2020, he mentioned how important it is to know how to ask for help. “Learning how to show up, not only physically, but also mentally, is key. It’s quite simple advice, but I think that it’s often overlooked, and it can really set you apart from the rest,” he says, “Be inquisitive. Think outside of the box, and then again, think outside THAT box. Don’t be afraid to have outlandish ideas and conjure up outlandish solutions. That’s how innovation happens. Don’t be shy about that.” Meanwhile, Malek continues to think outside his box, ask his questions, and go where his internal career compass is pointing him. Although he says, “I don’t know where I will be next year,” it will undoubtedly be the right place for him. Besides his regular broadcast work, Malek has a side project he’s working on. “It’s called Akrient, and it’s a website and podcast I launched in the summer of 2020 that discusses and analyzes the business and legal happenings in-and-around the media industry,” he says. More on that can be found at Akrient.com. • I really learned to come out of my shell at Sycamore. I learned that being different— studious, curious, and ambitious—were cool personality traits. I think when you’re younger, it can be easy to lose sight of that fact.

OMEED MALEK