Eric Cunningham is an Emmy-nominated comedian of Mexican descent, most recently having written on the “Reading Rainbow” reboot. His prior credits include “The Drew Barrymore Show” (CBS), “The Kids Choice Awards” (Nickelodeon), and Senior Writer at Broadway Video’s Más Mejor. Eric also created “Hit Job,” an Audible horror-comedy starring Keke Palmer & Pete Davidson, and “Night Late,” UCB’s long-running celebrity-hosted late night talk show.

How many years have you been a judge?

This is my first year!

What excited you about judging for the Telly Awards?

Honestly, seeing stuff that people much much much cooler than me are making.

What was your first job in the industry? What did it teach you?

I was a PA on the VH1 show “Best Week Ever”, a comedy pop culture recap show with a dozen talented comedians on it who would later become household names. The biggest lesson: just be a good person who does the boring parts of your job well. In entertainment there’s a temptation to just wanna do the fun stuff of your job, but if it comes at the expense of the work-work stuff like logging tapes or getting props, it’s not gonna your job for very long. And if you do the boring parts well, you will be appreciated more by the folks who hire for the fun parts.

What project are you most proud to have worked on?

The reboot of Reading Rainbow. It was a fun challenge of figuring out how much we should modernize, while still keeping the essence of the original series that we all loved. Plus I’m of the generation that grew up on that show, so to bring it back meant a lot. Oh wait, I mean: I’m very young and cool. (dabs)

What’s the most challenging part about your job and/or the industry?

The money-joy balance. You get into it because you love making stuff or acting or telling jokes or whatever. Something joyful. But also you have to pay bills. So the challenge is keeping that “thing” that is still purely joyful intact, while also being a practical person who knows it’s not all gonna be the fun stuff.

What do you look for to determine excellence in video?

Making weird choices. I love when a creator makes an odd choice in direction or writing or acting, because usually we’ve never seen it before.

What are your current roles and responsibilities and what do you love most about your job?

As a writer, I love that I don’t have to rely on someone else to do my job. Pure actors can’t just go out and act with nothing, but writers can always write.

What initiatives or projects are you working on now that excite you?

I’m finishing up writing Season 2 of the Audible series “Hit Job”. It’s basically an ears-only satire show starring Keke Palmer and Pete Davidson who work at a bureaucratic megacorporation that hires psychopaths and murderers to be contract killers. Getting the greenlight for a second season meant we could explore this absurd world more deeply, and, honestly, more goofily.

Do you have any specific practices you lean on to spark creativity?

Writing bad ideas. The firm belief that maaaaybe 1 in 10 ideas is any good. So when I have an idea that’s only so-so, that’s to be expected. I just need to get to 10 ideas total, and it’s likely one of those 10 will be good. (It’s usually idea #8.)

What inspired you to pursue your career path?

My senior year I wrote a sketch show about our high school teachers that was received well by the other nerds, and I’ve been chasing that high ever since.

In your experience, what is a significant change you are seeing happen in the video, television, and/or film industry, and what insight can you share about how to navigate it?

In the 1800s, “seamstress” was a viable career path. Some people were skilled at making clothes and enjoyed doing it, and other people paid them to do it. Today, we get our clothes much more efficiently and at very low cost from large corporations. In fact, clothes are so plentiful that landfills are clogged with them. Some people still sew today, but largely just for the intrinsic joy of it. This is not about sewing.