Profile: Kenny Pollone
Kenny Pollone is the executive assistant at Emerson’s Los Angeles campus. He works closely alongside Associate Vice President Timothy Chang and routinely supports a wide variety of operational processes. He frequently assists colleague Terrye Bretzke with payments and onboarding verifications, and he also helps colleague Melinda Valente by gathering supplies and tools and making purchases for her alumni events. He also updates alumni records in a database.
Pollone’s day-to-day tasks may include scheduling and managing calendar meetings and travel itineraries for Chang, coordinating events, and providing catering arrangements. The events Pollone puts together vary: some are for students, staff and faculty, alumni, and some are open to the public. He anticipates coordinating or assisting with more than 15 events this semester, including stand up-comedy performances and staff wellness and appreciation events. He recently coordinated a CPR and AED training for staff and faculty that was attended by about 40 people. Additionally, he has organized seven Industry Insight lunch events for the upcoming semester. These events welcome industry professionals to campus to discuss their careers and give advice to students.
Other duties Pollone assists with include the reconciliation of expense reports; tracking and documenting purchase orders; setting up payments for invoices; managing inventory of office supplies and breakroom restock; and maintaining a close relationship with the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, CAPE, Strong Asian Lead, and other organizations that partner with ELA. “It’s really a little bit of everything that keeps the job fun and spontaneous,” Pollone remarked.
This upcoming October will mark Pollone’s one-year anniversary at Emerson. “I love working at Emerson because of how immersive and opportunistic the College is. The connections that Emerson offers with various entrepreneurs, organizations, and artists are astonishing. I’m constantly blown away by the countless alumni who are making a great impact in Hollywood today,” he said.
Pollone grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii, and graduated from University of Hawaii with a bachelor’s degree in creative media. “I moved to LA at the beginning of 2015 to pursue my dream of becoming an actor. If you don’t blink, you may see my one-liner acting debut on General Hospital and SWAT. Besides that, I’ve done over 30 short films and a few low-budget movies/series that I hope nobody ever sees,” said Pollone.
Outside of work, Pollone stays on top of film and TV. Some of his favorite television shows include Beef, The Office, Game of Thrones, and Peaky Blinders. His favorite films are often based on true stories—The Theory of Everything, Schindler’s List, Beautiful Boy, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Titanic to name a few. He also enjoys playing golf and online chess.
Camryn Ciancia ’24