About Andy Culpepper

Above: Andy Culpepper reports live on CNN with Adrian Brody from the SAG Awards.

Andy Culpepper is a graduate of the University of West Florida, Auburn University and Goucher College. He holds terminal master’s degrees in three disciplines – Master of Arts in Teaching English, Master of Speech Communication in speech pathology and audiology, and Master of Fine Arts in creative nonfiction.

After serving as senior correspondent for CNN’s syndicated entertainment unit for well more than a decade, Culpepper produced and reported the satellite entertainment program, The Hollywood Beat, from 2005 through 2007.

This companion website represents some of the product that appeared on The Hollywood Beat television program. This site’s primary function now is for resume/portfolio use.

TheHollywoodBeat.com is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the largest critic’s organization in North America.

Biographical Miscellany

A television anchor, program host and reporter at TV stations in Florida, Alabama, North Carolina, Nevada and Kentucky, Andy reported for more than 14 years from Los Angeles as senior correspondent for CNN’s syndicated entertainment unit. From the Hollywood bureau, he filed stories for TV, CNN Radio, CNN.com and People.com.
Andy’s reporting assignments took him to the Oscars, the Emmys, the Golden Globes, the Grammys and other events where he covered awards, movies, moviemakers, music, musicians, and television. He traveled throughout the country covering various events — the 25th observation of Elvis’ death at Graceland, the Tony Awards on Broadway, a rain-soaked 25th anniversary of Woodstock, a premiere held on the deck of an aircraft carrier in Pearl Harbor on the release of the feature film of the same name and the premiere of the first Harry Potter in London, to name a few.
Andy divides his time among writing, reporting and producing behind-the-scenes publicity materials and DVD content for feature films.
He is a native of Birmingham, AL, where he began his work in broadcasting at PBS affiliate WBIQ-TV and then-CBS affiliate WBMG. A decade later, he returned to Birmingham where he anchored the Morning Show at then-ABC affiliate WBRC – TV.
Andy lives in Gulf Breeze, FL, and in Los Angeles. His family’s ancestral farm sits on the Alabama – Mississippi state line in Kewanee, MS, the setting for much of his memoir, In the Ginning Season. The narrative recounts Andy’s origins in the South, his childhood as an Army brat during the Cold War and his coming of age as a college student during the last years of the Vietnam Conflict. The memoir follows his career in broadcast news, a journey that has taken him from coast to coast. Andy chronicles significant parts of his career contrasted with moments of personal crisis.
Andy dabbles in songwriting — an outgrowth of music studies throughout his youth. Click on the song title, Dreams of Peace, to hear a song he recorded in the fall of 2010.
When Andy was a young English teacher living in South Alabama, his favorite TV game show was the $10,000 Pyramid. He told himself, “One day, I’m going to be on that program.” Flash forward 11 years. Moving from Reno, NV, where he hosted PM Magazine and on his way to a new assignment at WAVE – TV in Louisville, Andy stopped off in Los Angeles to audition for the new version of Dick Clark’s program. Here is the final episode of his participation in the tournament of the updated $100,000 Pyramid. You can see Andy’s jaw-dropping final episode by clicking here. He figures his obituary will have his name, his age – and a link to this video. Life is funny that way. Death might as well share in the humor.

http://www.thehollywoodbeat.com/films/andy-culpepper-resume-featurette

Click on the link to view behind-the-scenes materials for The Contractor, an espionage thriller starring Wesley Snipes. Andy produced this featurette for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (which holds the copyright) and shot it using a Canon GL1 mini-DV camera on location in Sofia, Bulgaria. Culpepper edited the footage using Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 software on a laptop during production on another film on location near Dallas, Texas. Motion pictures on Andy’s resume include Screen Gems’ Burlesque, Screen Gems’ Easy A, Screen Gems’ Takers, Screen Gems’ Fired Up! (2009), Screen Gems’ Prom Night (2008), Screen Gems’ First Sunday (2008), Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s Impact Point, (2008), SPHE’s Wieners (2008), Screen Gems” This Christmas (2007) , Screen Gems’ When A Stranger Calls (2006), SPHE’s Black Dawn (2005) , and Screen Gems’ The Forsaken (2001).