Alumna Earns Emmys for ‘Knock-Out’ Production Early in Career

Fall 2019 Issue

A year after graduating from Susquehanna, Cayla Spatz ’18 was standing on a red carpet holding not one, but two Emmy awards.

Cayla Spatz ’18

Part of the All Access: Wilder vs. Fury and All Access Wilder vs. Fury Epilogue production staff at Showtime Sports, Spatz says being part of an Emmy Award–winning team is still very surreal.

“I remember in the spring semester of my senior year being nervous and afraid that I wouldn’t find a job at all following graduation,” she says, “not even thinking of the possibility of landing my dream job at an amazing company.”

Her communications professor John Foltz linked her to the job opening that Susquehanna alumnus and current Showtime Sports Creative Director Jason Mammen ’00 relayed to the university.

A broadcasting major, Spatz was the successful candidate, and in just three months, she was promoted from production assistant to associate producer at Showtime Sports. She now spends her days promoting and broadcasting professional boxing matches across the U.S.

With her creative mix of technical skills and media know-how, Spatz produces live events leading up to fights and edits highlights packages for other news media outlets to use. Prior to fights, she is instrumental in the portrayal of each fighter’s story — capturing training camp footage and editing pieces to use as short-form video elements featured during live shows.

“I have the opportunity to travel all over the country and do what I love and also learn a lot, alongside extremely talented and creative individuals,” she says.

As an associate producer for All Access, Spatz helped manage media, organized footage and delivered it to editors, wrote transcripts and assisted with filming the night of the Wilder vs. Fury fight. She served as head producer on her most recent project, Best of Boxing 2018, a 30-minute show that recaps the previous year in boxing.

Spatz credits her communications professors and Susquehanna’s alumni network for playing a huge part in her success and preparation. From the high-tech television studio to her practicum, she believes that Susquehanna “enables you to get hands-on learning of everything involving a production that you aren’t able to easily get at big schools.”

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