Uploaded July 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
As a first-year student at Washington University in St. Louis, Sanchali Pothuru took an introductory screenwriting course taught by Richard Chapman, a senior lecturer in film and media studies in Arts & Sciences. She still remembers the first assignment.
“We were supposed to think of people in our lives and then write a character based on them,” Pothuru said with a smile. “I used my dentist.”
But as a sophomore and multimedia intern in University Marketing & Communications, where her credits include videos on the history of WILD and students studying Shakespeare abroad, Pothuru found herself contemplating another character: the professor himself.
A Hollywood veteran, Chapman has produced hundreds of hours of network television as well as the feature films “My Fellow Americans” (1996) and “Live From Baghdad” (2002), and the documentary “Dateline-Saigon” (2020). In “Professor’s Past Life: Richard Chapman,” which Pothuru filmed and produced over the last year, Chapman describes how he broke into the business, the challenges of bidding wars and the mysterious interplay of luck and hard work.
“He’s a great storyteller,” Pothuru said, “whether on or off camera.”
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About Washington University in St. Louis:
Washington University is a leader in research, scholarship and patient care. Through our world-class faculty, students, physicians, staff, alumni and friends, WashU brings us closer to the knowledge that matters and the stories that inspire us to change the world.
---| Get more stories from Washington University:
Website -- https://wustl.edu
WashU Source -- https://source.wustl.edu
Facebook -- facebook.com/WashU
Instagram -- instagram.com/washu/?hl=en
As a first-year student at Washington University in St. Louis, Sanchali Pothuru took an introductory screenwriting course taught by Richard Chapman, a senior lecturer in film and media studies in Arts & Sciences. She still remembers the first assignment.
“We were supposed to think of people in our lives and then write a character based on them,” Pothuru said with a smile. “I used my dentist.”
But as a sophomore and multimedia intern in University Marketing & Communications, where her credits include videos on the history of WILD and students studying Shakespeare abroad, Pothuru found herself contemplating another character: the professor himself.
A Hollywood veteran, Chapman has produced hundreds of hours of network television as well as the feature films “My Fellow Americans” (1996) and “Live From Baghdad” (2002), and the documentary “Dateline-Saigon” (2020). In “Professor’s Past Life: Richard Chapman,” which Pothuru filmed and produced over the last year, Chapman describes how he broke into the business, the challenges of bidding wars and the mysterious interplay of luck and hard work.
“He’s a great storyteller,” Pothuru said, “whether on or off camera.”
→Subscribe: bit.ly/WashUSubscribe
About Washington University in St. Louis:
Washington University is a leader in research, scholarship and patient care. Through our world-class faculty, students, physicians, staff, alumni and friends, WashU brings us closer to the knowledge that matters and the stories that inspire us to change the world.
---| Get more stories from Washington University:
Website -- https://wustl.edu
WashU Source -- https://source.wustl.edu
Facebook -- facebook.com/WashU
Instagram -- instagram.com/washu/?hl=en
