KALAMAZOO, MI – Megan Ganz realized something important during her final years at Hackett Catholic Central High School: Other people thought she was funny.



That once-hidden humor has landed the 28-year-old Portage native several jobs as a writer for prime-time television, working with the likes of Chevy Chase and other stars.

“I don’t think any of my classmates would say I was a class clown,” said the 2002 Hackett graduate. “I started saying out loud what I was thinking, and people thought it was funny."

Ganz, who now lives in Los Angeles, recently left a writing job at NBC's comedy sitcom "Community" to begin writing for "Modern Family," where she works with famous actors, and where celebrities and athletes like Kobe Bryant randomly drop in to say, "Hi."



Ganz insists she was the opposite of a class clown growing up, a girl who didn’t come out of her shell until high school. Instead, she was a very dedicated student who stressed about her grades and was attentive in class, but she was always interested in humor and had a sarcastic flare.

She was born in Ann Arbor, but her mother raised her and her two siblings in Portage after her father died when she was 8 years old. She has 23 cousins and says her family was always around growing up.

She wrote her senior thesis on comedian David Sedaris and graduated with honors from University of Michigan in 2006. She jokes about how all of her hard academic work was “pointless” because she’s never been asked for a college transcript in her career.

As a college student, she wrote for a college publication for free, an experience she credits for helping her land an internship at The Onion in New York City when she graduated.

“I started reading The Onion when I was 13 years old,” she said. “Within a year after college I was working for the job I always wanted. When I was being interviewed, they asked me what my five-year plan was and I told them it was to eventually be working for The Onion. I worked there for 3 years, and the opportunity to work for Demetri Martin came up and I thought it sounded fun.”

She enjoyed writing for Comedy Central's "Important Things with Demetri Martin," but says writing sketch comedy wasn’t her forte. She wanted to be able to write more, so she decided to apply for a writing position at her favorite television show at the time, called “Community.”

“My agents said don’t expect anything,” she said. “It was my first interview and I got the job. I barely thought about doing it before I got the job. Now, I love it.”

Ganz, who said she hopes to eventually produce her own television comedy sitcom, started writing for the show in 2009 and helped write the last three seasons.

Among her highlights from her time with "Community," there are a few at the top of the list: Making Chevy Chase -- a main character on the show -- laugh, meeting Betty White and helping create an episode parodying “Law and Order.”

While Abed was originally her favorite character on the show, she said by the time she left, she felt personally connected to the character Britta.

Fun Facts

Favorite episode of "Community":

"Cooperative Calligraphy"

Favorite shows growing up:

All TGIF shows

Seinfeld

The Golden Girls

Rosanne

Law and Order

Advice for comedians:

1."Just keep making comedy. Make it all the time whether it's your job or not. Consider it like you are already working or in the middle of your career."

2. "It may be hard to hear, but you need to move to New York or Los Angeles. With the internet, now you can become famous from anywhere as a comedian, but you want to be where the jobs are."

3. "If you are applying for a specific job, know everything about that show or publication before you apply."

“I see so much of myself in Britta,” Ganz explained. “Growing up I was very feminist. I had strong opinions, but I would go about my beliefs in the wrong ways. “

She recalls making a big stink about how girls were not allowed to be altar servers when she was a fifth-grader at St. Monica School, which she demanded be changed.

“I went through two masses and I didn’t even want to do it,” she recalls. “Why did I care? I was just making a big point. That feels so Britta to me now.”

Ganz is thrilled to be writing for the Emmy Award-winning show “Modern Family,” where she is working alongside people who wrote the scripts for shows she grew up watching, such as “Cheers” and “The Golden Girls.”

She enjoys the close-knit family nature of the show and hopes to draw on her own past for inspiration, because much like the show’s Dunphy family, she grew up with an older sister and young brother.

“I’m a little nervous,” said Ann Ganz, Megan’s mother, who works for Western Michigan University. “I ask her if any of her bits are about her mom. She’ll poke fun at me, but I try to be a good sport about it. I give her comedic material.”

Ann says she loves trying to pick out which jokes Megan wrote when she watches the shows. She's not surprised that Megan became a writer, and says there were hints growing up that Megan would end up in Hollywood.

She recalls Megan as a preteen, entranced by the television, ignoring her mother's demands to help with chores.

“I was getting frustrated,” Ann said. “I told her, 'You need to stop watching TV.' She just looked up at me and said, ‘You just wait, Mom, one day I’m going to be on that TV.' It’s one of those subconscious things where for a split second I thought, that could happen and it did. I’m very proud of her.”

Contact Ursula Zerilli at uzerilli@mlive.com or 269-254-5295. Follow her on twitter.