*Patrick Mullen, Ben, Stephanie Shannon, and James Cooper at the Emmy® cerebration.*

“And the Emmy® goes to…”

We’ve all dreamed of hearing those words. Substitute Emmy® with Oscar, Grammy, Pulitzer, or Nobel, but the effect is the same. No one escapes childhood without dreaming of the penultimate moment of winning a prestigious award in front of his friends, family, colleagues, and fans. For many, that is all it will ever be, a dream. But for one former Texarkana resident, the dream became reality on September 11, 2021.

For Ben McGinnis, working in film and television was always the goal. “Growing up, I was always filming something … and then things got more advanced as I got access to professional equipment,” Ben says.

*While visiting Texarkana in October 2020, Ben took a family photo with his parents, Camille and Rob, sister-in-law and brother, Katrina and Robert, and their children, Sam and Katelyn.*

As a student at Arkansas High School, Ben was active in Razorback TV and volunteered for the production team at First United Methodist Church. But it was an opportunity while majoring in film and television production at The University of Texas in Austin, that really changed his life.

In 2008, Ben moved to Los Angeles for an internship where he worked on the Ellen DeGeneres talk show and Scott Free Productions. The stars aligned again for Ben later that year. A post-producer for “Battlestar Galactica,” Paul Leonard was a UT alum and taught a class at the UTLA center, which coordinates the “study abroad” program for UT students in LA. Students spend one day per week in class and four days at internships. Ben credits Paul with helping him get in the door for his first paying job. “My first job on ‘Battlestar’ was supposed to be temporary since they were shooting the series finale when I started working there (it filmed in Vancouver, but the writers and postproduction offices were in LA), and they needed someone to help wrap up the offices over the next few months,” Ben explains.

*Rob and Ben at the Cossatot River State Park in Wickes, Arkansas, last December.*

One job turned into another and another. After “Battlestar,” came its spin-off series, “Caprica,” where Ben served as a writer’s assistant/showrunner’s assistant. In 2010, Ben became Ronald D. Moore’s assistant when Moore signed a deal with Sony Pictures Television. For the next seven years, Ben worked as an assistant to Moore, creator and showrunner for the new “Battlestar Galactica,” and his producing partner, Maril Davis. “My goal was to help him expand and grow his company by helping oversee multiple series and rise through the producer ranks on those shows,” Ben says. “It’s very rare to work with the same people for so long – most people bounce around between many different companies and jobs in the industry, often every two years or so. But I got very lucky, and I found kind and loyal people on the first try who I knew would let me rise through the ranks when those opportunities presented themselves.”

The next big break came in 2017 when Ben was made an associate producer for “Outlander,” a wildly popular period drama on the Starz Network. The show is adapted from the equally popular best-selling “Outlander” book series by Diana Gabaldon.

*In February 2020, Ben attended the “Outlander” season 5 premiere in Los Angeles.*

In fact, Ben’s favorite TV memory comes from the set of “Outlander.” “While traveling to Scotland during the filming of seasons one and two of ‘Outlander,’ we got to shoot in castles, various historical sites, and on beautiful locations. It was work combined with sightseeing and so much fun,” Ben explains. “There are many advantages to shooting in LA, but I’m excited to go on location again. We hope our next show shoots in Hawaii. Haha.”

With a show as popular as “Outlander,” fans are always curious about what happens behind-the-scenes. “During season one, we put our actors through an 18th century boot camp. They had daily classes learning how to speak Gaelic and the correct dialects for the region, ride horses, sword fight, shoot muskets, perform medical procedures, and blend herbal medicines.” He adds, “Our costume designer created our own original tartan plaid just for the show.”

It is this kind of attention to detail that explains why fans and critics fell in love with the show which has been nominated a total of 71 times with 32 wins, including Golden Globes, BAFTA, Critics Choice, and Primetime Emmy.

*Camille and Ben look at the “Outlander” costumes on the Sony Pictures Studio lot in 2019.*

Then along came a new show and a promotion to co-producer. “For All Mankind” supposes an alternative history. What if the Soviets reached the moon first in 1969? The space race would not have ended. Instead, we might experience a world where science and technology are advancing at a rapid rate and humanity becomes more accepting of each other. Exploring space could benefit everyone. The show time jumps 10 years every season. They are currently in season three which features an alternate version of the ’90s, and NASA and the Russians are sending manned missions to Mars.

As producer and development executive, Ben’s role is to help oversee every aspect of making the TV show. He develops ideas with the writers, gives notes on scripts, and helps execute the creative vision during production. Ben attends meetings for the art department, props, costumes, location scouts, etc., all before the camera rolls.

*Ben at the “For All Mankind” season 1 premiere in Los Angeles during October 2019.*

Although Ben doesn’t love the long hours and grind of actually filming the shows, he loves the challenges presented by each show. “It’s a fun challenge figuring out how to shoot in tiny space capsule sets, with wires to simulate zero gravity ... and on our moon and moon base sets and now Mars. And the 10-year time jumps ... it’s like a new show every season. New sets, props, new characters, aging up existing characters, etc. It’s a huge headache for everyone but also a fun challenge. It’s such a cool show. I love the alt-history world that’s only becoming more and more sci-fi as things advance.”

It’s this kind of creative vision infused with technology that landed Apple and Tall Ship Productions an Emmy® for Outstanding Innovation in Interactive Programming for “For All Mankind” last September. As a member of the four-person team that makes up Ron Moore’s company, Tall Ship Productions, Ben was the only producer to work on the app. This category was presented at one of the three Creative Arts Emmy Ceremonies. FAM airs on Apple TV+ and Apple wished to create an app that combined the show with its AR technology found in customers’ iPhones and iPads. Ben worked with Apple, who was already recognized internationally for its innovation in new technology, to create an app that incorporated the FAM world, characters, and story.

*During August 2015, Ben visited Stonehenge while filming season 2 of “Outlander.”*

“The story we told with interactive AR objects was an extension of the show, using objects from the time period such as a Sony Walkman, answering machine, VHS player, etc. Our actors helped out by doing voiceover work and one of the writers from the show, Stephanie Shannon, wrote some of the material. The attention to details is incredible, and there are tons of Easter eggs hidden in every corner of the app,” Ben says.

Over 10 years in Hollywood, producing credits from some of the last decade’s most popular and successful television shows, and an Emmy® win, it would be easy to forget that Ben McGinnis is only in his thirties. He has experienced great success and has no plans to slow down anytime soon. Last year, Tall Ship Productions signed a production deal with 20th Century Studios/Disney. Ben will serve as co-executive producer on new series. They currently have two ideas in development for Disney+ and one for Hulu.

Many folks head to LA with big dreams and never look back. This was not so for Ben McGinnis who has not forgotten his roots. “It was also my love for the stories and the connection to the characters of the shows I was watching growing up that made me want to pursue a career in film and TV. I remember obsessing about the latest episode of ‘Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman’ at the Kilpatrick Elementary School lunch table.”

Ben stays busy. He doesn’t get home to Texarkana as much as he’d like, but his parents enjoy visiting him in California. Ben’s parents, Rob and Camille McGinnis, are proud of their son’s success, and they don’t hesitate to brag about him on social media.

Ben knows that he was blessed from the beginning of his career to find and work with people who were kind, considerate, and loyal, and he knows this is not everyone’s experience. “There’s no right way or wrong way to break into the industry. Try them all! It usually comes down to a combination of who you know, being in the right place at the right time, and luck.”

Some say they would rather be lucky than good. But for Ben McGinnis, his career in television has been a lot of both.

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And the Emmy® Goes to ...