"Work hard, say yes, and always be nice!"

UGA grad Angelique Jackson had humble beginnings -- she had no job and no apartment after moving halfway across the country to LA. Now that same woman with extraordinary determination is the Associate Producer at Entertainment Tonight & The Insider. Learn about Angelique's path to success and why she is our #WCW!

1. What's your story? What makes you unique?

It turns out that I was destined to be a journalist. I taught myself how to type on a typewriter before 1st Grade. I used to create newsletters for my made-up clubs with my friends. My family thought I might be the next Oprah. But then I decided being a lawyer was more practical, even though Entertainment Tonight was my favorite show and I lived & breathed celebrity news in my spare time. I spent 15 years telling myself that I was too busy to pursue journalism, until one day I realized I would always regret it if I didn't give it a try.

I graduated from UGA in 2012 with a Bachelors degree in Broadcast News and a passion for Entertainment. And I had no idea how to make that a career. Fortunately, UGA was just creating a summer program where students would move to LA, work at an internship and take classes and I was selected to be in the inaugural class. I landed two internships, one with Hollywire.com and the other with my dream job at Entertainment Tonight. I worked 5 days a week between the two and got a ton of great experience. But in typical LA fashion, at the end of the summer, I found myself in LA with no apartment and no job. Those days where I struggled are probably the ones that I'm most proud of because I could've easily given up and moved back to Georgia, but instead, I stuck it out and found both a place to live and the opportunity to join Entertainment Tonight & The Insider as a Production Assistant.

Over the last three years with the show, I've worked as a PA both at night and very very VERY early in the morning; worked as the Assistant Photo editor to both shows, coordinating with photo and paparazzi agencies clearing all of the photo and video for our shows; and worked out in the field conducting interviews and producing our on-air talent. I will never forget my first red carpet interview...with none other than Ron Howard. People still ask me if I get nervous when doing interviews and the answer is yes. But not because I'm "fangirling". The way I've always thought of it is this - I'm already out on the shoot, so I have no choice but to get over it and do a good job. Plus, I think the little bit of nerves always reminds me that I care about my job and that's what it's all about. The best part about my journey with the show is that I've had the opportunity to have my hand in almost every part of the production process and each bit of knowledge I've learned has made me better at the next job.

Today I'm proud to call myself an Associate Producer at Entertainment Tonight & The Insider and even more proud to know that I've worked really hard to get here. Lots of long nights and weekends and skipping out on brunches, but it's all been worth it to be one step closer to my dreams.

2. What motivates you?

I am motivated most by my pure love of entertainment and talking to people . I am one of those lucky people who gets to do a job that's even CLOSE to my dream. I get to work red carpets and sit down one on one with some of my favorite celebrities, experiencing things I honestly only dreamt of years ago.

3. Who is a hero of yours?

My greatest hero is my mother. She's the strongest woman I know and a fantastic example of what it truly means to be independent. My mom worked in accounting and banking for 15 years and then worked as a stay at home mom. My parents have been married for 30 years and they spent most of the time apart because my dad was in the Navy, deployed on nuclear submarines for 3 months at a time, every 3 months. So in short, they spent half of their marriage apart. I have a tremendous amount of respect for military spouses and how they keep things together; how they run their lives when their spouse is deployed, not focusing on the fear or the loneliness, and how they seamlessly integrate their spouse back into the family when they come back home. And most of all, she's always influenced me to chase my dreams.

My greatest hero in the workplace has been Brooke Anderson. I was so blessed to work with my fellow Bulldawg for 3 years and she is the best mentor anyone could ask for. Brooke is the kind of person that you can go to with any question about the business and she has the experience to answer it. She is a phenomenally talented journalist and host & an even nicer person. I've learned how to prepare from her, how to perform and most importantly, how to treat people. I'm so lucky to have worked as her producer!

4. What's your future plan? Your goals?

My future goal is to become an on-air correspondent, focusing on film news.

5. If you could give one piece of advice, what would it be?

Work hard, say yes, and always be nice! People completely underestimate how important it is to be nice. Entertainment can be a really cutthroat business and people might encourage you to be more cold, business-focused and unfeeling but being friendly and genuinely caring for people has gotten me farther than I could've ever predicted. And to be honest, every day is easier for you, your crew & whoever you interview, when people are nice and if makes it much easier to find something or someone to care about.

6. What is something you feel strongly about (a cause, belief, etc.)?

Never give up if something is your dream. But also know that YOU alone have to make it happen. People may help you along the way but you can't rely on anyone to hand you an opportunity; you have to chase them and sometimes CREATE them yourself. You have to be bold in this life because we have a limited time to make it count. I work to do something that excites me every day, that pushes me closer to that happy life we all want. It's not always career related, like adopting my dog, but it's always a good reminder of the bigger picture.

7. What's one of the coolest things you've ever done?

One of the coolest things I've gotten to do was to produce a piece for ET about the dangers of specializing our youth, where we partnered with one of my favorite actresses Geena Davis and I had the pleasure of interviewing her. She later tweeted her support for the piece and her gratitude that we were promoting the cause. I also had the opportunity to do an interview on the Insider platform at the Grammy Awards this year and have worked every major televised award show. But probably the coolest moment was being featured on the show as a producer/reporter to talk about an event I was asked to cover.

8. Anything we haven't asked that you'd like to talk about.

One thing I wanted to mention I that I was actually promoted last August to Associate Producer with ET & The Insider, working with the News Desk out in the field conducting interviews, producing our talent and producing segments for the show.