People sometimes wonder how those who make it to the big time get their big break. For English professor Cynthia Paradise, it all began with a writing contest.
While attending Cal State Bakersfield in the late ’80s, Paradise entered a screenwriting contest. She wrote a screenplay for the TV drama “21 Jump Street” starring Johnny Depp.
“That screenplay beat out 4,000 other applications,” Paradise said. “That ought to attest to my Cal State education.”
Paradise was one of two winners, and she was offered a potential three-year contract with Disney. After weighing her options, she decided against continuing college and moved to the Los Angeles area to work for Disney.
She began work writing for the teen drama, “Hull High.” The show, however, quickly went off the air, and after six months Paradise was moved to write for the situation-comedy “Blossom,” where she stayed for another six months.
At the end of that year, Disney offered Paradise a spot as a writer on a list of sit-coms that included “Empty Nest,” “Blossom,” and “The Golden Girls.” Paradise turned down the offer and moved back to Bakersfield where she finished work on her master’s degree at CSUB.
Shortly after that, Paradise was hired part time by the English Department at Bakersfield College, and she has been here ever since. Although she was born in Detroit, her family moved to Bakersfield when she was young, and over time she has taken a liking to the city.
“Bakersfield is my security blanket,” she said. “My family moved away when I was in the 11th grade, and I stayed here by myself. I just like the town.”
This semester, Paradise is teaching 17 units in English.
“The best part of my job is the student interaction,” Paradise said. “It certainly is not the grading!”
She mainly sticks to teaching composition, but she also teams up with her brother, David Moton, who is also a BC English professor, to teach African-American Literature.
“He’s my officemate for now, and he is the one who thinks it is so funny to keep ordering every ‘Blossom’ doll that he can find for me and put them up on my side of the office,” Paradise said.
Paradise teaches late afternoon and evening classes, and she says she likes it that way because she doesn’t go to bed until really late most of the time.
As far as future goals, Paradise is not sure what she wants to do, but she does know it will involve writing.
“I am very content right now, but I would like to do more writing,” Paradise said. “I’ve written a novel and a movie-length screenplay just to get the formulas down, and maybe in the future I’ll pursue that more.”
After all that she has accomplished, Paradise said the one thing that she would like to be remembered for has nothing to do with teaching or writing.
“I have four nephews, one niece and I am adopting a son, and the one thing in life that I would like to be remembered for is my mothering,” she said.
Paradise endured 10 separate surgeries between the ages of 20 and 30, and therefore, she is unable to have any natural children of her own.
“The one thing I wanted to be was a mother,” she said. “Isn’t it ironic how things turn out?”
Paradise has gone from West High to Bakersfield College to CSUB – where she obtained her bachelor’s degrees in sociology and English, and a master’s degree in English with minors in religious study, psychology, and philosophy. Paradise told of her secret to success.
“To be successful, it is about how you market yourself,” she said. “I think I won that contest because I had a good cover letter, and everything that I needed to know to produce that screenplay I learned in English 1A: format, how to mimic a style, research, and how to stylize.”