Gavin Purcell

While it creates exceptional opportunities for growth, one of the biggest challenges in tech is helping older media embrace them, especially TV. Enter Gavin Purcell. As Producer of the Emmy-winning team behind the Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, and before that, Late Night, bringing innovation and maintaining relevance across platforms is a charge he continues to lead. In fact, he and Jimmy have created their own company to ensure that they are able to create digital products – websites and apps – which help bring the show to the forefront of viewers, beyond its nightly airing.

This is certainly not bad for someone who never planned on getting into TV, or tech for that matter, and started his career as a production assistant at the National Enquirer. Over Greenhook Gin from Brooklyn, Gavin shares his incredible story; growing up in Seattle as a “fat kid” who loved video games, he attributes his success to a series of hits and misses – spending time teaching English in Korea, being rejected from grad school, becoming a PA in Hollywood, all the while maintaining the importance of initiative and hard work (even when it comes to cleaning a television studio’s fridge). It’s because of this work ethic, forward-thinking and creative edge, that he has become a pioneer for the integration of tech in the TV world (and vice versa), realizing his “dream job” at G4’s Attack of the Show and now at NBC’s Tonight Show. Bravo!

For more of his musings, check out @gavinpurcell on Twitter and, of course, see the Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon weeknights (or, y’know, the internet for the epic clips).