Nick Bernardone (photo by Gary Gershoff)
By Susan Chiappone
Alumnus Nick Bernardone will return to SUNY Fredonia for the Spring 2026 Writers@Work Series in March. He has also invited two others to join him. All three have impressive credentials in the world of television, movies and media.
In its 10th year, Writers@Work invites notable alumni to visit the campus and meet with students, faculty, staff and the public.
The recent additions to Writers@Work Spring 2026 are Jeff Eggleston and Gary Phillip, both graduates of the Class of 2006.
Eggleston is a director of studio productions at Dreamtek, a leading global creative production company where he oversees a wide range of creative projects. He was a director and supervising producer for “90 Day Fiancé,” “Tanked,” and “Alaskan Bush People.”
Phillip is also an award-winning producer. His background includes work with the United Nations, White House, MTV, NBC, NBC Sports, the NFL, USAA, Sports Illustrated, NIKE, Adidas and Best Buy. He has producer and director credits as well as location and casting experience.
The schedule of their appearances on the campus includes several classroom visits on Thursday, March 26, individual meetings with students arranged through the Career Development Office on Friday, March 27 and a presentation open to the public on Friday at 4 p.m. in the Kelly Family Auditorium in the Science Center. A reception in the Science Center Atrium will follow the presentation at 5 p.m.
Bernardone will also be a guest speaker for Go Big Blue Day on Saturday, March 28.
As an added bonus, Bernardone promises to show a short film about his career and achievements during the public lecture.
A member of the Class of 2008, Bernardone has a B.S. in TV/Digital Film from Fredonia as well as minors in Film Studies and Coaching. He served in multiple leadership roles with Delta Chi fraternity.
His professional credits include AMC's “The Walking Dead,” “Fear the Walking Dead,” NBC's “30 Rock,” Netflix's “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and “Marvel's Wastelanders.”
Additional industry credits include development with Disney, Amazon, SONY, and Universal — as well as earlier works on “SNL,” “The Tonight Show,” “Late Night,”” Bloodline,” “Master of None,” and “Divorce, and Crashing.” Bernardone has taught screenwriting courses at NYU and Syracuse University and has also served as a panelist at the TV Academy, Harvard Lampoon, Cornell Law, Yale Club and others.
In addition to various Writers Guild of American (WGA) boards and committees, he was selected to the 2023 Showrunner's Academy. He has been nominated for five Emmy Awards and won a PGA award and a WGA award.
Recently he shared some thoughts on his alma mater.
When asked what advice he would give his college-freshman self, Bernardone doesn’t mince words:
“Don’t be a jackass.”
He said he arrived at SUNY Fredonia as a confident, know-it-all 18-year-old who thought he had life figured out. That mindset, he admitted, probably closed him off from experiences that could have shaped him sooner.
“Fredonia ultimately got me where I needed to be,” he said, “but had I been more open-minded from the start, I might have joined more clubs, experimented with different genres, and collaborated more deeply with people outside my comfort zone.”
Lessons That Last
Bernardone credits his time at Fredonia with teaching him two lessons that continue to influence his career in television and film.
Leadership Isn’t What You Think at 18
Joining a fraternity for the parties turned into an unexpected crash course in leadership. “The fraternity became a microcosm of the world — and later, the entertainment industry,” he explained.
“Not everyone thought like me or worked like me. I had to learn how to listen better, collaborate better, and eventually, lead better. That lesson alone was worth its weight in gold.”
Creativity Thrives Within Constraints
His second lesson came during his senior capstone project. Bernardone wrote and directed a 45-minute comedy — despite the assignment calling for a short film under 20 minutes.
“Every joke hit. We crushed,” he recalled. “But I got a B.”
The reason? He ignored the mandate and rejected nearly every note.
“In the real world, I would have been fired,” he said. That humbling experience taught him that creativity matters — but so do constraints. “You don’t always get to make art just for yourself. You make it for collaborators, executives, audiences, and the real world. Learning how to thrive inside those boundaries is what turned passion into a career.”
What’s Next?
Bernardone teased that if things go right in 2026, audiences might see “space travel, time travel, a funny theater ghost, a family drama set in the world of college football, horrific jump scares on the Oregon Trail, and maybe even Bigfoot.”
And yes — he insists — it’s all part of one project.
Writers@Work is sponsored by the SUNY Fredonia Alumni Association, the Fredonia College Foundation, Career Development Office and the departments of Communication, English, History, and the Honors Program.
