2004 College graduate Ethan Fixell, senior vice president of branded content at iHeartMedia, visited campus on Oct. 16 to kick off this year’s RealArts@Penn presentation series.
Hosted at the Kelly Writers House, RealArts presentations are designed for students interested in journalism, media, writing, or arts fields. Fixell’s presentation focused on his unique career trajectory in the arts field.
“The idea [of RealArts@Penn] is to focus on career possibilities for people who are interested in writing,” Creative Writing lecturer Anthony DeCurtis said to The Daily Pennsylvanian. “Obviously if you become a writer, you can become an editor. … But, there’s all kinds of things that writers can do beyond the strict definitions of what writing is, and that’s part of what RealArts is about.”
DeCurtis, who hosts the RealArts presentations, said he selected Fixell for his unique career path in the media field.
“Ethan was in the first class I ever taught here at Penn,” DeCurtis said. “I always liked him when he was a kid, and he has gone on a journey that’s creative and smart and fun and rewarding that I thought people here would benefit from hearing about.”
Fixell touched on how his path was everything but linear: Before joining iHeart Media he worked as a freelance comedian, YouTuber, programmer for Comedy Central, food and wine journalist, opener for the Plain White Tees, and United States editor-in-chief of Kerrang! Magazine. Using his own lived experience, Fixell encouraged the audience to pursue their passions, adding that, “Everything works out in the end.”
“Your passion is the fuel, but opportunity is the vehicle,” Fixell said in his talk. “You have to let your passion lead you places, but then when you see an opportunity, you take it, even if it doesn’t align perfectly with your passion. Opportunity only comes every so often, right?”
2025 School of Arts and Sciences graduate Nisha Waghmare attended the talk and said she resonated with Fixell’s experience of graduating college and struggling to find the perfect opportunity.
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“[Fixell talking about] keeping relationships close when times are tough [stuck with me] because when he graduated, he struggled too,” Waghmare said. “You assume, especially coming from an international background, that if you graduated from Penn, what struggles would you have to land a job, right? But the struggles are real, [and you have to] just keep pushing and when something or the other comes up, you have to grab that opportunity.”
The next guest in the RealArts series is Alan Light, an Emmy-award winning music journalist, to discuss Fleetwood Mac’s album “Rumors” and its continual popularity. Light’s talk will be hosted on Nov. 6 at 5:30 p.m. in the Kelly Writers House.
