Once you get your hands on your broadcast journalism degree, here’s what happens. Nothing. Jobs are exceptionally elusive, and new graduates are trapped in a catch-22: You need experience to get a job, but you need a job to get experience.
But instead of lamenting the lack of opportunities, Charlie Neff was led by her torrent of determination.
“I went for job interviews at places like Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight.... I applied for everything; I just wasn’t landing anything,” Neff tells SUCCESS. “What I ended up doing was I just started my own entertainment blog.... Every morning I would wake up, I’d see the stories that were out there, and I would write it up for my blog.” As humble as it was, that blog allowed Neff to get red-carpet credentials for just about every event in Hollywood. She’d dress up, carry a fake microphone, and hit the carpet with two friends to film and photograph her celebrity interviews with stars like Kris Jenner, Eva Longoria, Eva Mendes and more. “It helped me get my feet wet in the industry,” she says. (Even her famous Hollywood legacy—including her great-grandfather, renowned Southern California architect Wallace Neff—couldn’t give her a foot in the door.)
Then came her big break. Neff was covering a party at the Playboy Mansion in 2010, and she knew that Hefner had experienced a bad breakup with then-fiancée Crystal Harris. “But when I took the photos of him, she was by his side. Then I started thinking like a reporter: I wonder if anyone’s reported on them. Nobody had. This was a window of opportunity. Who was I to sell them the photos to? I called TMZ on their tip line, they bought my photos, and they did a story.”
A few days later, she reached out to TMZ to ask about job opportunities, and they told her, “You start Monday.”
That was 14 years ago. Neff says the years between college and landing a job at TMZ tested her and challenged her passion. “For me, it was this: ‘If no one’s going to give me a job, then I’m going to kick down the door to get the job.' Journalists have to have that grit,” she says.
Now, as a senior news producer at TMZ, Neff has broken some of the biggest pop culture stories: Matthew Perry’s death, the Jay-Z/Beyoncé/Solange elevator fight, Justin Bieber’s engagement, and Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban’s separation, which she double confirmed before the story went live. “For a story like that, we can’t be wrong. We’ve set that bar so high that we’re really careful,” she says. "TMZ was really ahead of its time.”
Here’s a glimpse into how Neff spends a day reporting on the entertainment industry.
4:50 A.M. | Go Time
“It’s very specific. It’s before the sun is even up,” Neff says. She gets ready for her day, takes care of her three Persian rescue cats, then starts her 9-minute commute from her place in Los Angeles’ Playa del Rey neighborhood to the TMZ office in Playa Vista.
6 A.M. | Clock In
That’s when staffers need to arrive. Neff starts the day looking for headlines, seeing what’s out there, and staying plugged in to pop culture. “In the morning, I’m really homing in on what people care about, and I’m thinking of angles to news stories,” she says.
6:30 A.M. | News Desk Meeting
The first news desk meeting of the day is when the team is planning their approach to news. “That’s where we’re pitching ideas, talking about what we’re going to work on, and what stories people care about,” Neff says. “I might come in and say, ‘I saw a picture of Kim Kardashian with a singer, and I want to find out if they’re collaborating or doing a SKIMS campaign.'”
7 A.M. | But First, Makeup
There is no professional glam squad at TMZ. It’s very DIY. “My makeup usually takes 15 to 20 minutes, and I just do it at my desk,” she says of her time before she starts filming TMZ on TV at 8 a.m. “That’s our main show. When people think of TMZ, they think of all of us huddled in the newsroom and Harvey (Levin) drinking out of his sippy cup.”
10 A.M. | Story Time
“I’m able to dedicate time to working on my stories between 10 and 11 a.m.,” she says. As soon as that hour is up, Neff is back in front of the camera for the next show, TMZ Live, which is livestreamed on their YouTube channel.
12:30 P.M. | Lunch Break
Neff usually only has time for her go-to to-go lunch that she brings back to the office and eats at her desk. “I love Sushi Beluga in Playa del Rey. I’ll get a spicy tuna roll and a baked crab hand roll,” she says, adding that being in the office is important for the kind of news she’s breaking every day. After lunch—or during—the staff has a midday news desk meeting. Everyone checks in, and when needed, they collaborate. “If someone says, ‘I’m stuck on getting a police report for this story,' somebody will chime in and say, ‘I can help; I know somebody in that department.'”
1 P.M. | Getting News Out
In addition to Neff’s role as an on-camera reporter, she also contributes to the TMZ.com news page. She handles that in the afternoon. “I’ll have at least one or two stories going up on the website. So maybe I will interview somebody, send out notes to our news desk, tell our web edit department which parts of my interview I want to use, pick out what artwork will go with my story,” she explains.
4 P.M. | Beach Walk
When her workday is done, Neff heads to the beach by her house for a 30-60-minute walk. “I’ll try to get a little exercise in,” she says. If she has an event that night, she’ll head home to get ready for the second time. “I’ll shower, do my hair and makeup, and put on a nicer outfit. There’s a lot of networking, so I’ll try to look nicer than I do at work,” she says.
At a recent event, hosted by Sofía Vergara’s son Manolo, she was part of a master class on how to make empanadas. “It’s good for me if everyone in this town knows ‘Charlie from TMZ,' because at the end of the day, anybody could be a source,” she says. “If I’m at an event and I get to know the doorman, that doorman could end up with a video of a celebrity getting in a fight, and he’s gonna think, ‘Who do I give this video to?' And I want him to think of ‘Charlie from TMZ.'”
7 P.M. | Dinner With Her Husband
If there’s nothing on Neff’s calendar, she’ll have dinner at home with her husband, who loves cooking Italian food. Or they’ll go out to eat. “We love this Thai restaurant called Cobi’s in Santa Monica,” she says. Her husband works for the L.A. Times, so he’s very understanding of her job. “We actually went to high school together, so we’ve known each other for a very long time.” After dinner, they might watch some TV. They’re currently on season two of Nobody Wants This.
9:30 P.M. | Off To Sleep
When you’re early to rise, you have to be early to bed. “I usually end my night in bed scrolling on TikTok. I have so many good laughs,” Neff says, “so it kind of puts me in a good mood before I go to bed, and I have great dreams.”
Featured image provided by Charlie Neff.
