UVA Darden Brings Britt Terrell’s Creative Career Full Circle

Under the bright lights of Saturday Night Live’s Studio 8H, Britt Terrell (Class of 2026) got a crash course in balancing the thrill of creative work with the stress of a tumultuous industry, while meeting celebrity luminaries along the way.

“Working at Saturday Night Live was formative for sure,” she says. “Doing that as your first job is kind of insane.”

The NBC Page Program was the first step on a decade-long career path behind (and eventually in front of) the camera that would ultimately lead her back to the University of Virginia and to the Darden School of Business. Amid industry-wide turmoil in the late 2010’s, she decided to reimagine her future through an MBA, only to find her way back to her creative roots stronger and with clearer vision than ever.

From Stage to Studio 8H

Britt Terrell (Class of 2026) joined the NBC Page Program right after college.

A philosophy major and drama minor at UVA, Terrell imagined a future on screen, acting in and directing student productions. After graduation, she moved to New York and joined NBC’s Page Program, which opened doors to “Weekend Today” and her upward trajectory in the news media world, including a stint at “Morning Joe” during the 2016 presidential election.

“The world’s changed so much in the last 10 years,” she says. “I was working during those years from major newsrooms and startup newsrooms. I really experienced a lot of modern history up close.”

Terrell built a rich career as a producer, crafting everything from hard news to experimental projects like virtual reality explainers for NBC’s first streaming outlet. As she moved from legacy media to startups, she began stepping in front of the camera too — a milestone that had been a decade in the making. “I’m proud of pushing myself, continuing to put myself out there, and finally getting the opportunity to do my own work on camera and owning my stories,” she says.

Weathering the Media Storm

But as Terrell expanded her skill set, the media landscape around her began to shift dramatically. Streaming, digital platforms and new technologies upended long-standing business models, and the resulting instability took its toll.

“It leads to these cyclical layoffs, and that’s exhausting when you’re one of the people that could be getting affected,” she says.

When Terrell was hit by layoffs herself, a conversation with a longtime friend and Darden alumnus encouraged her to consider business school as a way to reset and explore new directions. She applied to Darden and was accepted during the early action round, so she had nearly 10 months before matriculating — during which she worked freelance jobs where she could.

“Waiting is not easy,” she admits. “Doing nothing is not the easiest thing for me.”

Full Circle

When she arrived at Darden, Terrell was no stranger to fast-paced, high-pressure environments. Even so, the academic rigor pushed her in new ways. “I wouldn’t be telling the truth if I told you it had been easy,” she says. “The MBA is a very challenging quantitative curriculum… I’ve never pretended to be a quantitatively inclined person.”

Britt Terrell (Class of 2026) reports on-camera on the job prior to attending Darden.

She relied on tutoring, support from second-year mentors and close relationships with faculty. “Our professors really are the best,” she says. “They always made themselves available.”

Terrell entered Darden planning to pivot away from creative work toward the business side of media. But when she landed a summer internship at Apple Music on an editorial team, she realized that her career may be evolving rather than fully changing course.

“I was pretty open to having my mind change when I came here,” she says. “But what’s weird is that my internship ended up being creative, and now it all seems to be leading me back in that direction. But at a company that I never would’ve been able to work at had I not gotten my MBA.”

The summer internship clarified what she wants next. “It was the best working experience I’ve ever had,” she says. “It became very clear to me that I thrive in creative spaces with creative people, and that’s just the world that I want to be in in the long term, no matter what that looks like.”

Darden has helped Terrell broaden her scope, both professionally and personally. The community — with classmates from around the world — stretched her perspective. “You have no other choice but to learn from each other and to grow,” she says. “I’m definitely walking away a better person.”

As she completes her second year at Darden, she is aiming for the best of both worlds. “I thrive in those creative, risk- taking environments. It’s sort of what makes me feel alive. So, I’m navigating wanting security while also wanting to be in these creative spaces. In that way, Darden has really been full circle.”