30 Rock Scribe Wins Best Writing Emmy

Matt Hubbard ’00 took home an Emmy for Best Writing for his work on the hit comedy series 30 Rock on Sunday night.

His episode, “Reunion,” beat out three other episodes of 30 Rock to win the award on a night in which the show was nominated for awards 22 times.

Kentaro Fujita ’00, who was Hubbard’s freshman year roommate in Thayer and is now a professor at the Ohio State University, said that he was happy to hear the news but not surprised.

“Matt [Hubbard] was one of those guys who always liked to laugh,” Fujita said. “He had sort of a charm to him and a glint in his eye. I’m not surprised he did so well for himself.”

During his time at Harvard, Hubbard wrote for the Harvard Crimson and comped the Lampoon, a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine.

He joins other prominent Harvard and Lampoon alumni, including Conan O’Brien ’85 and Simon Rich ’07, who were each nominated for awards at this year’s Emmy’s.

Both were former presidents of the Harvard Lampoon.

O’Brien was nominated for his writing on his own comedy show “Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” and Rich for his work on Saturday Night Live.

30 Rock, which was created by Saturday Night Live writer and comedian Tina Fey, has earned critical and commercial acclaim since the pilot episode aired in October 2006. The cast includes Fey, Tracy Morgan, and Alec Baldwin.

Perhaps as a testament to its success, 30 Rock took home the Best Comedy Series award for the third year in a row.

Hubbard has written and produced for the show since 2007 and made his way around the television world with writing credits for other programs including “Joey,” “Ed,” and the surprise anime hit “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”

As a History and Literature concentrator, Hubbard wrote his senior thesis on the television show, “All in the Family.”

When Hubbard—then a senior—was asked by the Crimson about what he would do after completing his thesis, he replied that he would probably watch a lot of TV, though not “All in the Family.”

Hubbard could not be reached for comment yesterday.