Alumni
Visual Communications Grad Alli Rosenbloom is Senior Reporter at E! News
Born in Tarzana, California and raised outside of Chicago, Illinois, Alli Rosenbloom moved back to Los Angeles to pursue a Visual Communications degree from FIDM. Since graduating in 2008, she's gone on work at Entertainment Tonight, Us Weekly, and E! News, where she's currently a Senior Reporter.
How did you come to attend FIDM? One of the biggest factors was enrolling in the advanced fashion design course I took at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago when I was 17. It was an incredible experience because it solidified my passion for fashion and I also realized that I was good at it, which gave me the confidence to work even harder. We found the FIDM booth at a college fair in Milwaukee, Wisconsin of all places.
My parents, definitely nervous about the idea that their 18 year-old daughter was dead set on going only to New York or LA, loved the fact that FIDM was LA-based because I'd have family nearby. And we loved everything FIDM had to offer so it was an instant match. I worked really hard on my applications and will never forget the day we got the phone call of my acceptance.
How did you choose to major in Visual Communications? I applied for two majors, Merchandise Product Development and Visual Communications. While I was successful at design in my early experience, I knew that my strengths, skills, and interests were more aligned with the Visual Communications Program, so it was an easy choice. I wanted to be a stylist initially, but I also was interested in multimedia and editorial, so Visual Communications seemed like a solid major to go with for me to explore that.
What were some highlights of your time at FIDM? Overall, having an education that embraced and encouraged creativity led to my success as a professional and young adult. The friends that I made on my very first day at FIDM are still my best friends today and will be for life. I have great memories of creating our big window displays that were installed throughout the LA campus for our finals in my last quarter.
I loved my styling and Photoshop classes and was even able to come back years later as a teaching assistant for my then boss who was a guest instructor for the very same Fashion Styling & Coordination course I took as a student. I also remember loving the fact that I attended FIDM at the same time as Lauren Conrad, who at the time was hot off The Hills and we all know how popular and important that show is.
Tell us about your journey to working as a Senior Reporter at E! News. This was definitely a unique journey and not a straight path. Upon graduating FIDM in 2008, I worked at BCBG while I freelanced for a number of stylists and built up my styling portfolio. I was the costume designer for two short films, too. While at BCBG, I met the wardrobe stylist for Entertainment Tonight, who ended up hiring me as the wardrobe department’s Production Assistant.
It was through helping produce on camera fashion segments at ET that I realized how much more passionate for writing about fashion and celebrities I was than anything else. I got promoted as a Talent Assistant to correspondent Samantha Harris, who I learned a lot about reporting from.
I was eventually connected to the LA Bureau Chief for Us Weekly magazine where I was hired on as a full time Staff Reporter. At Us, I did a ton of interviews with celebs for style and beauty shoots and features, in addition to having amazing opportunities to travel abroad for big stories. And after four years at Us, I connected with my current editor at E! News and E! Online who brought me on as a Senior Reporter.
What is a typical day like for you? Whether I am reporting out stories, working an event, covering awards season, booking, pitching story ideas, interviewing celebrities, or breaking news, every day is different and exciting.
What do you enjoy most about being a reporter and covering Hollywood? I am currently living out my dream and feel so lucky. The opportunities I’ve had as an entertainment reporter has allowed me to experience so many incredible things beyond Hollywood too, like covering a presidential convention after pitching an idea for our election coverage that was launched cross platform, something I am extremely proud of and grateful to have experienced.
But most favorable of all, what inspired me the most to get out to LA and get into fashion in the first place, was watching Joan Rivers cover the Oscars on E!'s Live From the Red Carpet every year, and now it's my actual job to cover the Oscars. It's pretty amazing to set goals for yourself and reach them faster than you thought was even possible.
Follow Alli Rosenbloom on Twitter @AlliRosenbloom.
Categories: Visual Communication Alumni
