Tessa Vande Creek

University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business

“Strategy + storytelling + a little sparkle.”

Hometown: Middletown, New Jersey

Fun fact about yourself: Every time I fly back to LA from NJ, I will have no less than two dozen bagels in my carry on.

Undergraduate School and Degree: University of Rochester: BS in Business, BA in Film Studies

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? Paramount+, Global Manager (NYC)

Where did you intern during the summer of 2025?

Summer 2025 – Paramount, Los Angeles

Fall 2025 – Fox Entertainment, Los Angeles

Where will you be working after graduation? Warner Bros. Discovery – Operations Change Manager, Los Angeles

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

President, Business of Entertainment Association

MBA Ambassador

AVP of Operations, Business of Entertainment Association

AVP of Careers, Marshall Graduate Student Association

Forté Fellow

Marshall Trojan Scholar

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? One of the experiences I’m most proud of was serving as a Program Manager on the founding team of Zello Support in the wake of the LA wildfires.

As someone who lost my own home in a fire as a child, being able to support families going through that same disorienting loss was deeply personal. We mobilized the entertainment community to donate furniture from film and television sets – from studios like Disney, Paramount, and Netflix – and redirected those pieces into temporary homes for displaced families.

It meant a great deal to give back to a city that had welcomed me so openly. What stayed with me most were the conversations with families – helping restore a small sense of normalcy during an incredibly difficult time. It reminded me that leadership is, at its core, about care and community.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? The achievement I am most proud of is taking the leap to join Warner Bros. Discovery during the second year of my full-time MBA.

When the opportunity came up, an alum encouraged me to apply, and suddenly I was balancing coursework, serving as President of the Business of Entertainment Association, and stepping into a full-time role. It was a stretch – and there were long days – but it felt aligned with the future I had envisioned for myself.

What makes it especially meaningful is that the position closely resembles the role I “dreamed up” in my Marshall application. Seeing that vision take shape has been incredibly rewarding. I have also been fortunate to join a team that is collaborative and supportive, with a manager who truly invests in my growth. Feeling both challenged and encouraged has made this experience deeply special.

Why did you choose this business school? I had a wonderful experience at my undergraduate institution, but one of the hardest parts was watching my closest friends scatter across different cities after graduation. When choosing an MBA program, I knew I wanted to continue my career in entertainment, but I also wanted to be somewhere I could truly build lasting community.

USC felt right. Many Marshall students stay in Southern California, which gave me confidence that the relationships I built here would extend beyond two years. And of course, Marshall is second to none for entertainment recruiting. Being in Los Angeles, surrounded by alumni shaping the industry, made it the perfect place to grow both personally and professionally.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? Scott Abrams is an incredible professor, and impossibly, an even better mentor. I am so lucky to have had him explaining finance in a way that was understandable to me (via entertainment cases)! What could have felt intimidating instead felt engaging and practical because of how thoughtfully he taught it.

Beyond the classroom, Scott serves as the faculty advisor for the Business of Entertainment Association, where I’ve had the privilege of working closely with him. In that setting, I saw just how deeply he invests in his students. He is generous with his time, thoughtful in his guidance, and genuinely committed to helping us grow – not just as business leaders, but as people. His mentorship has been steady, encouraging, and incredibly meaningful to me.

We are so lucky to have him in the Trojan family: Scott truly embodies what makes this community special.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? Kellie Kawaguchi’s Entertainment Marketing class was one of the most transformative courses I’ve taken.

One of USC’s greatest strengths is its adjunct faculty, leaders who bring real industry experience directly into the classroom. Kellie drew from her work at Universal and Netflix to make every lesson feel tangible and current. The course blended strategy with real-world storytelling, and the guest speakers added even more depth to the experience.

Even though I’m not pursuing a career in marketing, the class reminded me why I fell in love with entertainment in the first place. It was engaging, practical, and genuinely inspiring, and it perfectly reflects what makes USC such an incredible place to learn!

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? My favorite MBA tradition has actually been one I helped create: the biannual Business of Entertainment Association alumni social.

The Trojan network is very real, and what makes it special is how genuinely invested alumni are in giving back. Each fall and spring, we host a mixer that brings alumni together with our newest MBA students, creating space for meaningful conversations and connection.

This spring, we are fortunate to host the event at the iconic LA Coliseum, making it the largest gathering BEA has organized to date. More than the scale, what makes it meaningful is seeing relationships form that grow into mentorships, friendships, and even career opportunities. Being able to help build that bridge between students and alumni has been incredibly rewarding.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? If I could do one thing differently, I would have allowed myself to slow down and be more present from the very beginning. The MBA experience is surprisingly fleeting, and between academics, leadership roles, and internships, I often found myself focused on what was next.

During my second year, I worked on becoming much more intentional about pausing and making time for conversations, celebrations, and the simple moments that make this experience so special. I have learned that growth does not only happen in the classroom or through achievement. It also happens in reflection and introspection.

What was the most impactful case study you had in business school and what was the biggest lesson you learned from it? We had a lot of great case studies, but the one I still talk about is the Hubble contact lens case. In the middle of the discussion, I had a strange realization: the product issues we were reviewing suddenly explained why I had two scratched corneas in college.

At the time, I had never fully understood what went wrong. As we dug into the case and the details behind the lens design, it clicked. It was equal parts funny and weird! What felt like a random, frustrating experience suddenly had context.

The biggest lesson I took away was how deeply small decisions matter. Behind every product or contract are real people affected by those choices. That case made precision and accountability feel personal, and I have not forgotten it.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? There is everything here. Except bagels.

But truly, Los Angeles offers anything and everything you could want. Since moving here, I have never felt more connected to the entertainment industry. I have attended screenings with directors, explored studio lots I grew up hearing about, and had conversations with incredibly talented creatives who shape the stories we watch.

It is a gift to be living and learning in a city as dynamic and inspiring as LA. Being immersed in this ecosystem every day has made my MBA experience feel tangible and alive.

What business leader do you admire most? I admire Bella Bajaria for the way she blends creative instinct with strategic clarity. She began her career deeply rooted in television storytelling and now oversees content on a truly global scale. What I find especially compelling is how she champions diverse voices while still making disciplined, thoughtful decisions about what will resonate worldwide.

In an industry that is constantly evolving, she leads with both confidence and curiosity. She represents the kind of leader I aspire to be – someone who protects the power of storytelling while building systems that allow it to thrive.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? One meaningful way Marshall integrated AI into our programming was through dedicated coursework where we learned how to build agentic AI tools and develop effective prompting strategies. It was not just about using AI, but understanding how to think alongside it.

Beyond that course, AI has been woven into many aspects of the curriculum, sometimes explicitly and sometimes through open discussion about when and how it should be used. Those conversations were just as valuable as the technical skills. In an industry like entertainment, where creativity and intellectual property are central, AI requires nuance and judgment. I learned that the real advantage is not simply knowing how to use AI, but knowing when, why, and with what guardrails it should be applied.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? There are so many incredible students at Marshall, but the classmate I most admire is Madeline Merwin.

Madeline comes from a background in composition and has been writing a full ballet throughout our time in business school. Watching her balance the rigor of the MBA with the discipline and creativity required to compose something so beautiful has been inspiring. She approaches both art and business with thoughtfulness and quiet determination.

Beyond her talent, what I admire most about Madeline is her generosity. She shows up for her friends consistently, listens deeply, and brings a sense of calm and creativity into every space she enters. She reminds us that ambition and artistry can coexist beautifully, and that success does not have to come at the expense of kindness. Madeline makes me want to be a better friend and mentor.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? Professionally, I aspire to lead strategy at a major studio. I am, at heart, a complete nerd about movies and television, and I care deeply about the role stories play in bringing people together. Some of my favorite moments are sitting in a theater surrounded by strangers, all reacting to the same story at the same time. I hope to help shape the future of studios in a way that preserves that sense of shared experience, while building thoughtful, sustainable strategies for a changing industry.

Personally, I would love to serve on the board of an alumni association. The Trojan Entertainment Network (TEN) and overall alumni community played a meaningful role in helping me feel confident and supported during my MBA. I would be honored to help sustain that spirit and create the same sense of belonging and opportunity for future students.

What made Tessa such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2026?

“Tessa Vande Creek has been a dynamic and deeply engaged leader in the Class of 2026. She is thoughtful, energetic, and deeply committed to building community. What stands out most about Tessa is her ability to combine strong leadership and professional ambition with a genuine desire to create opportunities for others.

As President of the Business of Entertainment Association (BEA), Tessa played a major role in strengthening Marshall’s entertainment community. Because entertainment is such an important career path for many of our students, her leadership carried significance well beyond the club itself. Under her leadership, BEA became an especially active and visible organization, with more than 150 members and over 50 events supporting academic growth, community-building, and career preparation. The organization hosted alumni mixers, recruiter conversations, Days on the Job, and other industry-facing events that gave students meaningful exposure to employers and alumni across the entertainment sector. These efforts also translated into strong career outcomes, including 95% internship placement across BEA membership last summer. Tessa led this large and highly active organization with impressive professionalism. She was helping shape an important part of the student experience for many of her peers.

Tessa’s impact went well beyond her formal leadership role. As a Marshall Student Ambassador, she helped recruit the next class of MBA students by engaging with prospective students and representing the program throughout the admissions process. She also demonstrated a broader commitment to service through her leadership in wildfire relief efforts, helping mobilize entertainment industry partners and support displaced families during a time of real need. She is the kind of student who consistently shows up for others, and that has made a real difference in our community.

Professionally, Tessa has had an outstanding MBA journey. She brought meaningful pre-MBA experience in entertainment and streaming into business school and continued to build on that foundation through her MBA internship at FOX Entertainment. She later joined Warner Bros. Discovery and will remain there after graduation, an outcome that reflects both her industry credibility and the seriousness with which she has pursued her goals. What is equally impressive is how intentionally she has used her experience to help other students navigate the same path. She has approached business school with real purpose, and the results speak for themselves.

Tessa brings warmth, maturity, and authenticity to everything she does. She has been an invaluable part of the Marshall community, and I am confident she will continue to make an impact in her career and beyond.”

Scott Abrams
Academic Director, Full-Time MBA Program
Professor of Clinical Finance and Business Economics
USC Marshall School of Business

 

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