Behind the Scenes: Diana Barton ’91

Diana Barton ’91 knows live television.

A successful and highly sought-after freelance producer for the last 30 years, she’s worked on 350 live event and broadcast shows, including nine Academy Awards and seven Emmy Awards ceremonies.

But in 2011, when she returned to her alma mater to manage The Emerson Channel and Emerson Sports Channel, and serve as an advisor to the EVVY Awards, her colleagues thought she was making a career mistake.

“Everyone thought I was losing my mind when I was leaving it all,” Barton said. “[But] somehow I always knew I’d come back [to Emerson].”

Today, she continues to thrive, working with the next generation of writers, directors, and producers. More than 200 students work on The Emerson Channel alone and hundreds more are involved in the EVVYs, the country’s largest student-run, multi-camera awards show.

“The students here have such drive and ambition…[as well as] creativity and wanting to learn the next thing,” she said. “[They’re always asking,] ‘How can we do things better? How can we be more efficient but still be creative?’”

That’s where Barton’s expertise comes in, teaching students how to produce, manage, write scripts, and create show rundowns as though they were working on a professional-level show. “We try to mimic it as closely as possible,” she said.

That approach gives Emersonians an advantage once they graduate. Barton’s former students who go on to work in live television consistently tell her that they “can’t believe how much this feels like the EVVYs,” she said.

Another advantage? The Emerson alumni network. “The Emerson Mafia is a real thing,” Barton said.

“I tell students, ‘Pick up your phone and call that production company you want to work for. Tell them you’re an Emerson College student and inevitably the person on the other end of the line will [be an alum]. That’s your common denominator. That’s how you get your foot in the door. It works,’” she said.

Likewise, Barton is happy to help use her connections for students who want to work in the entertainment industry. In 2016, she and former classmate and friend, Rob Paine ’92, executive producer of the Oscars as well as many other
high-profile shows, established an internship at the Academy Awards. Each year, Barton selects a student studying at Emerson Los Angeles for this prestigious opportunity.

Whether she’s mentoring students on a show or helping launch them in their careers, Barton is thrilled to play the role that she does.

“There are days I don’t know who’s teaching who,” she said. “There’s such an energy and vibrancy [at Emerson]. It’s…absolutely exhilarating.”