‘Living my dream’: Chico State Alumna Forges Path in Hollywood

Hannah Hull sat down in her family’s living room staring into the big clunky TV on the coffee table. The dusty cover of Jurassic Park on VHS sat nearby.

Then the moment happened: rain was pouring, the water in a cup reverberated, and a towering T-rex appeared on the screen. As the then 9-year-old Hull stared into the grainy picture, something became clear.

“I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God. How did they do that? I want to do that,’” she said. “I was captured by this film and thought about how people made this scene. That was the moment that I said, ‘This is it. This is what I want to do.’”

Hull (Media Arts, ’20) is now living in Southern California working on television and movie sets. She is a set decoration production assistant but has done work as a character designer, storyboard assistant, production coordinator, and property production assistant. Her resume includes assisting with commercials, like an Uber Eats ad featuring Elton John and Lil Nas X, as well as television shows Rutherford Falls and For All Mankind, and films Black Adam and Nope.

“It’s been a wild ride,” Hull said.

There have been moments in the last couple of years—like she’s walking to drop off a prop or watching actress Keke Palmer film some of the final scenes of Nope—when Hull stops and appreciates that “I’m living my dream,” she said.

“All these experiences have been in one keyword: crazy,” Hull said. “I feel very thankful that I’ve had that many different opportunities to be doing this.”

Hull said she is focused on learning and practicing as much as she can during these early years of her career as she works toward her goal of directing and telling her own stories one day.

Hull’s path from Chico to Hollywood has come from her determination and making the most of her opportunities and Chico State education.

The Chico native said she initially attended an art school to study animation, but felt she wasn’t getting everything she needed from that program. Hull decided to enroll at Butte College and then transferred to Chico State—at the recommendation of family and friends. She was encouraged to explore the media arts major and the moment she walked inside the department building she knew this is “what I’m looking for.”

“… this is what it’s like to have good professors who care.”

-Hannah Hull

Chico State offered her access to work with high-quality industry programs and equipment, as well as helped grow the soft skills that round her out, she said. Film is a team sport and the University prepared her for working in the field and with different people.

“I loved all my professors in the media arts major,” she said. “The screenwriting class was a class that had everything that I was looking for. Professor Joshua Moss saw that I had a desire to make movies, and he encouraged and nurtured my writing and my love for film. It was just so fun because he has experience in the industry, too. Getting his perspective helped me get more excited about the world that I wanted to be in.”

“It made me realize, ‘Oh, this is what it’s like to have good professors who care. This is what it feels like, and not only in an emotional sense but academically they’re encouraging.’ Seriously, Professor Moss helped me get going in my career.”

Moss said he was instantly impressed by Hull’s creativity and passion for pitching original ideas in his “Writing for Screen Media” class.

“Hard work, enthusiasm, dedication, and a commitment to learning the craft and the history of the media industries can pay off,” he said. “She is a wonderful example of what our students are capable of accomplishing.”

Hull represents the best of Chico State and the Media Arts, Design, and Technology Department, he said.

“I always wanted to make movies—I knew it from the beginning,” she said. “I don’t know of a time that I didn’t want to do that and tell stories, and I know I’m not going stop until I get there.”