The Communication Arts Partners (CAPS) board was thrilled to have Josh Bycel join its ranks this spring as it gears up for another academic year of supporting the department’s research, outreach activities, and teaching. Bycel has enjoyed a successful writing career in Los Angeles for over 25 years, and he is eager to use his expertise to help our department grow.
During his time at UW–Madison, Bycel enjoyed writing articles for The Onion and sports stories for The Daily Cardinal. After graduating with a degree in History, Bycel moved back to California to attend film school at UCLA, where he fell in love with comedy writing. He was hired to write for Veronica’s Closet while still in school and has had a continuous writing career in Hollywood ever since. Bycel’s show credits include work on Happy Endings, Scrubs, The Mindy Project, The Big Show Show, Trolls, and Solar Opposites, among many others. He is also teaching at the graduate film school at UCLA, bringing his career full circle.
Bycel joined the CAPS board after hearing about their work from two friends, Barry Kotler and Jenny Fritz. “Joining the CAPS board felt like something, especially in my line of work, that I could be helpful in,” he said. “It would be great to help the next generation of students who want to get into movies and TV and film and podcasts and all of these things.”
In addition to his successful writing career, Bycel also runs a nonprofit that works in Africa and Central America. He hopes to use the fundraising skills he has learned from these experiences to help the CAPS board raise support for Communication Arts.
Bycel is excited to help mentor students eager to work in production after graduating. “If you want to be a writer, you need to write. If you want to be an actor, you need to act. If you want to be a director, you need to direct. You need to keep doing the things you want to do for your career,” he said when asked what advice he’d give to current Communication Arts students.
The CAPS board recently met in New York City for their bi-annual meeting to update each other on what has been accomplished in the last year and to work on more ways to help support the department. They are already eager to start fundraising and mentoring students this upcoming fall. To discover more about the CAPS board and their mission, click here.