The Southside Advocate 08-06-2025 by The Advocate

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Lafayette alum joins a distinguished class with Emmy nod

The academic struggles of Northside High School in Lafayette, an F-rated school in 2015, have been long documented. Northside has an even longer history of producing renowned alumni, such as million-selling R&B artist Cupid, two-time World Series champion Ron Guidry and UFC stars Justin Poirier and Daniel Cormier

But James Duhon, a cinematographer whose work has been seen by millions, isn’t always mentioned with the NHS famous Perhaps that’ll change with Duhon’s fourth Emmy nomination, this time for director of photography on “BBQ High,” a series about Texas teens cooking in regional competitions.

Daytime Emmy winners will be announced Oct. 17. Duhon said the latest nomination, for Outstanding Culinary Cultural Series, came as “a shock.”

“We don’t have any control when the producers turn in these shows for awards,” said Duhon, who graduated from Northside in 2000. “You never know when they’re going to say yes. This was one of those they said yes to.”

Duhon has heard many yeses in a career that includes 125 TV shows, 100-plus music videos, 63 features ﬁlms and 35 documentaries. His four Emmy noms include a win for “Rap Trap: Hip Hop on Trail,” a debate on the use of rap lyrics in criminal cases His two other nominations came for “Steve Gleason: No White Flags” and “Fear of the Black Quarterback.”

Duhon, who now lives near Dallas, credits his blue collar roots in Lafayette as the spark of his cinematic career He tagged along when his mother, a city worker who became a volunteer at the Acadian Open Channel, a public access outlet At the age of 13, Duhon became AOC’s youngest certiﬁed producer and camera operator The experience earned him

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Duhon, a Northside High alum and a cinematographer whose work has been seen by millions, has received his fourth Emmy nomination.

LAUGH TRACK

Sophia Brazda’s rise from Lafayette to Second City — and beyond

BY JAN RISHER | Staff writer

Sophia Brazda hasn’t updated her LinkedIn page yet. It still lists the Lafayette native as Mainstage understudy at The Second City, the legendary Chicago comedy institution where the likes of Tina Fey, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Chris Farley, Steve Carell, Amy Poehler, Mike Myers and Stephen Colbert got their start.

We all knew when she left for college that everyone would see what we saw: amazing talent, comedic timing and kindheartedness.”

Brazda has been busy On a self-described “off-day” in June, she had a series of coffee meetings and a grant development session for the theater company she and friends started in Chicago in 2023.

At 24, the Louisiana native is juggling meetings, rehearsals and momentum — a full creative plate in the Windy City With big comedy dreams, Brazda balances art, admin and ambition daily

Her “breaking news from last weekend” indicates that those aspirations could be falling into place.

“I was invited to audition for ‘SNL’ (Saturday Night Live),” she said by phone Tuesday, “and I am currently moving ahead in their process.”

From LSU to Chicago

That moment was a long way from her ﬁrst steps into Chicago but not so far from the path she’s been paving since she graduated from LSU in May 2022.

Seven months later, she and four LSU theater friends loaded up a U-Haul truck and headed north, arriving in Chicago on Jan. 1, 2023.

Within weeks, she auditioned for The Second City and was immediately cast into the conservatory, then hired shortly thereafter for the main stage — which is impressive enough on its own, but that’s not all she did. She and her LSU theater friends also started a theater group, Two Chairs Theatre Co. The name reﬂected their humble

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BY RACHEL MIPRO

which has a very attractive enclosure, and it is so much a part of this historic city,” Audiffred wrote. His question: What is the age, history and status of the merrygo-round in City Park? A treasured attraction The carousel, one of an estimated

Herman Fuselier

GERALD BROUSSARD founder of CYT Lafayette about Sophia Brazda

Xander Bemiss, 3, rides the carousel at the Carousel garden amusement park in New Orleans City Park. STAFF FILE PHOTO BY SCOTT THRELKELD

PROVIDED PHOTO

James

PROVIDED PHOTOS

Sophia Brazda, a Lafayette native, is a member of The Second City ensemble in Chicago.

BRAZDA

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resources — the idea being that any show could be done with nothing more than two chairs.

Imitating Brazda’s rising star with The Second City, Two Chairs’ scrappy band of playwrights, directors, actors and artists from LSU was voted Chicago’s “Best New Theatre Company” in 2023 by “Chicago Reader,” after just their ﬁrst season.

These days, Two Chairs is a full-fledged 501(c)3 nonprofit with 20 resident artists, a creative team of six and a nonprofit board. According to its mission, the company focuses on “storytelling-first,” providing support to up-and-coming, underrepresented artists.

Growing up in the spotlight

Understanding Brazda’s work now requires going back to where it all began: home. Before Chicago, Brazda’s love of theater took root in Louisiana, starting in her hometown of Lafayette.

As a child, she lived under a spotlight as the daughter of two veteran local television personalities, Scott Brazda and Suzanne Ferrara.

Before moving to Acadiana, Ferrara was with WWL and WDSU in New Orleans and WAFB in Baton Rouge. The couple met while working at KATC-TV in Lafayette.

Sophia Brazda remembers the days of shopping with her dad in Lafayette grocery stores as random strangers stopped to chat with him

“He would talk to every person,” she said. “I used to get so annoyed when I was a little girl, like, ‘Do you have to talk to every person?

We’re trying to buy eggs.’”

She says even as a child that her parents’ careers gave her a sense of how big the world was.

Watching her parents tell honest stories that elevated and lifted people in the community planted the seeds for a lot of what Brazda does now

“Because every day I’d have to watch either my mom or my dad for six to nine hours continuously improvise and write their own scripts,” she said. “My parents taught me early about communicating and interacting with the world and with their communities.”

A triple threat

Sophia Brazda performed with a variety of theater groups in Acadiana, including CYT, where she starred in a number of shows between 2011 and 2018.

As a triple threat she acts, sings and dances — Brazda’s early theater days were focused on musicals.

“Sophia always had that special ingredient that made her different/special,” said Gerald Broussard, founder of CYT Lafayette. “When she first came to CYT, we

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a job at the CBS afﬁliate KLFY TV-10 following graduation. After two years, Duhon enrolled in ﬁlm classes at South Louisiana Community College. An instructor recommended him to BET when the network needed camera operators while shooting “College Hill” in Baton Rouge. The reality TV work opened the door to Bullet Films and 10 years of shooting non-scripted shows. Duhon later moved to New Orleans and Los Angeles, building a resume of more than 100 TV shows

He has the scars to prove it.

“A lot of people don’t know holding a camera for 12-15 hours a day just wears on your body,” said Duhon. “I went through some major injuries, like real-life sports injuries I had my shoulder replaced, my knee replaced. I had nerve damage in my hand and elbow This is all from operating so much.

“I was just so giddy about the shows, I just didn’t care. But after all these injuries, I just moseyed my way

knew she could sing and act, but it wasn’t until the musical ‘Hairspray’ that the funny side of her came alive.”

Broussard said even back then Brazda had “that quirky sarcasm that audiences loved.”

Sophia Brazda says that role in “Hairspray,” her first venture into comedy launched her love affair with making people laugh.

“It was so wonderful. I wasn’t used to getting laughs like that,” she said “I’m like 15, maybe 16 at this point. It was a unique opportunity to be able to improvise a lot on stage, which I had never, ever been able to do before. And I was surprised at how easily it came or at least how comfortable I felt exploring that.

From that point on, she only wanted to play parts that were “at least a little funny,” and college gave her a bigger stage — and more room to experiment Her subsequent theatrical success hasn’t been a surprise for those who watched her grow up on stage.

“We all knew when she left for college that everyone would see what we saw: amazing talent, comedic timing and kindheartedness,” Broussard said Sophia Brazda says her comedy bug continued to grow until she “got the comedy itch proper” when she landed at LSU in the fall of 2018, after graduating from Teurlings Catholic High School.

At LSU, she became president of the University Theatre Alliance and wrote “God Gun!: A Half-Written Play,” as her thesis for the

back into feature ﬁlms. That’s where I am right now, feature ﬁlms and documentaries.”

As he moves into directing and producing, Duhon started 2AM Motion Pictures, an independent company that has landed work with actress and wellness coach Pilar Sanders who’s interested creating Lifetime Christmas movies. He’s heading to LA for an eight-week job with wrestler/actor turned producer John Cena.

Duhon advises the next famous NHS alum to never quit and enjoy the journey

“Earlier this year, I did a series with Marc John Jeffries in Brooklyn, NY called ‘Love & Brooklyn.’ I’m riding around New York, the largest city in America, (thinking) they hired a kid from Northside High in this city with 20 million people. “I’m riding on Broadway, looking at all the buildings. I’ve really come a long way.”

Herman Fuselier is a writer, broadcaster and tourism director living in Opelousas. His “Zydeco

Ogden Honors College. She then directed “God Gun!” in the HopKins Black Box Theatre — the ﬁrst act is written, but the second act is improvised and changes with every performance. LSU has continued to perform “God Gun!” since Brazda’s graduation, with various students directing it and starring in it.

In high school and college, she performed with big bands in New Orleans, including being the lead singer for the Jimmy Maxwell Orchestra. “I sang for a lot of wed-

dings and Mardi Gras balls, New Year’s celebrations, that kind of thing,” she said. ‘You get where I’m from’ Remarkably Sophia Brazda is not the only Lafayette product shaping The Second City Kate Eddy, also from the Hub City, is the organization’s marketing director However, the two had never met until their paths crossed at The Second City “Sophia’s dad knows my dad. They both separately mentioned to each of us,” said Eddy “I saw her last

summer She was understudying for the main stage. I was there because we were working with ‘Sesame Street.’”

“Sesame Street” sent the real Cookie Monster to play the third act of the show, a fully improvised 30-minute set.

“Sophia played the set with Cookie Monster It was unreal,” Eddy said. “Lafayette powers — they’re out there!” Eddy has high praise for Brazda and says being an understudy at The Second City is no small feat. She noted that having

someone from Louisiana, and more specifically Lafayette, not only living in Chicago but working within the same organization was special.

“It’s like, ‘Oh you get it. You get where I’m from.’ It’s a commonality,” Eddy said. “Moving from Lafayette to a big city can be scary When you’re in the same building with someone, it’s a reminder that the world is big, but it’s also very small.”

Email Jan Risher at jan. risher@theadvocate.com.

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Sophia Brazda, a Lafayette native, performs as a member of The Second City ensemble in Chicago

chief external relations ofﬁcer for City Park Conservancy But it stood along City Park Avenue before it was moved to its current location in the 1920s, Duplechain said.

Currently, the carousel lives in the center of City Park’s Carousel Gardens, encased in a 10-sided pavilion. The carousel’s three rows contain 30 jumping horses, 21 standing horses, a giraffe, a lion, a camel and two chariots. The carousel sees regular use, especially in summer when all rides in the park stay open on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

“It’s one of my favorite little hidden gems in the park,” Duplechain said.

“It’s beautiful. We realized how special it is, and it’s a priority, you know, amongst most things in the park for us as stewards, to make sure that we’re caring for it in a way that preserves it over time.”

The history of New Orleans carousels is a long and twisting one, as reporter Mike Scott wrote for The Times-Picayune in 2024 City Park’s carousel horses are the work of Bartholomew and Timothy Murphy, noted carousel creators who learned how to create the attraction in then-popular Coney Island style, under Charles Looff, a trailblazer of the craft.

Duplechain said the last major restoration done to the carousel was in 2013, when all the horses were taken down, stripped of paint, examined for cracks and damage, and then hand-painted to regain their original appearance.

‘An antique to ride’ WRF Designs, a familyowned carousel restoration company based in Plainville, Connecticut, comes for a week each year to maintain the carousel. Company founder Bill Finkenstein worked

on the carousel for over 40 years, and his son, Gabriel Finkenstein, now leads the team, making the yearly trip from Connecticut to Louisiana to examine the carousel.

“It’s lasted, and it’s still a beautiful piece,” Gabriel Finkenstein said. “It’s an antique that people get a chance to ride, and the next generation gets a ride, and the next generation gets a ride Our main goal as both restorers and people who really enjoy carousels is to make sure that it goes to that next generation.”

Finkenstein’s crew blends paint by hand to match original colors. The horses’ tails, made from real horsehair, are restored by a process in which they are wetted and stretched out on wooden plugs. Finkenstein said the horses are hollow, built like barrels The plugs for these tails were drilled, so some go into the empty space in the middle.

“We found 100-year-old coins, notes from carvers, sweepstakes tickets, all different things inside those figures,” Finkenstein said. “It works like a time capsule If any kid could fit something somewhere, there’s a little hole that goes right through the horse If a kid can fit a ride ticket or a piece of paper in through that hole they will and then say, 25, 30, 40, 50, 100 years later, you find those things.”

Keeping a tradition going

Another unique feature are the horses’ glass jeweled eyes. Workers used a special method to get a snug ﬁt between the socket and eye by ﬁtting the eye into place, then wrapping wet cloth around the eye.

The water would be absorbed by wood, and as the piece dried and shrunk, the wood contracted around the eye, leaving the eyes ﬁrmly embedded in place.

Finkenstein said features like these contributed to the overall style of the carousel—one that has lasted throughout the years.

“They can last,” Finkenstein said. “It just takes a whole community to make anything work. So the fact that they (City Park staffers) work so hard to keep theirs going is wonderful, and I hope it lasts as many more generations as possible.

“I said that my father started working on it. I’ve been working on it. And if my kids want to work on it in the future, I’ll have them come down with me. I would love to just keep it going.”

Do you have a question about something in Louisiana that’s got you curious? Email your question to curiouslouisiana@ theadvocate.com. Include your name, phone number and the city where you live.

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