Walt Whitman HS Alumna Jazzy Collins Wins 1st Emmy Award

SOUTH HUNTINGTON, NY — Jazzy Collins, a Walt Whitman High School alumna, won her first Emmy, the South Huntington School District announced.

Collins, 31, is a casting director who had been nominated twice for a Primetime Creative Arts Emmy in the category of Outstanding Casting for a Reality Program. This time she walked away with the coveted gold statuette for her work on "The Traitors," a murder mystery game on Peacock that took place at an ancient castle in the Scottish Highlands.

"I still feel like I have to pinch myself," Collins said in a news release. "But I think eventually it will start to settle in. I'm proud of the fact that I’ve had this accomplishment at such a young age. Being able to stand with your peers, people you’ve looked up to, and have them congratulate you for what you've done in your career, is something that I can never take for granted."

She also made history by becoming the first Black person to win this Emmy for Outstanding Reality Program Casting. Her previous nomination in this category was for her work on "Lizzo's Watch Out For The Big Grrrls" on Amazon Prime Video. The awards were given out in January at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles.

Collins graduated from Walt Whitman High School in 2010. Her classmates and teachers may remember her by her maiden name Jasmine Norman.

After graduating from Walt Whitman, Collins attended Quinnipiac University where she studied Film, Television and Media Arts. She packed up her car and headed for the West Coast immediately after she completed her dachelor’s degree in May 2014.

Even though she didn’t know anyone in L.A., Collins knew she wanted to work in the television industry and make an impact, according to the school district. She found work as a production assistant for commercials but quickly realized it wasn’t the job for her and started looking for other work. Fate took her in her current direction.

"So I applied to do office production assistant work," Collins said. "And I went in for a job and was going to interview for it. And they said, 'We just filled this position, but are you interested in casting?' And I said, 'Sure. You know, I'll try anything.' So from there I fell in love with it. My first job was working as a casting assistant for 'Let's Ask America,' which was like a game show."

Her resume now includes popular shows like "America's Got Talent," "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette."

As a casting director, she wants to be responsible for viewers seeing more diversity and inclusion in the entertainment industry.

"Ever since 2020 and the Black Lives Matter movement, a lot more networks and production companies are understanding the impact of having diverse candidates on a show and how we can move forward doing that with casting," she said. "So we make sure that we're casting sensibly, and not just expecting [cast members] to be like the stereotype of a person."

In addition to doing casting, Collins and her husband have started their own production company hoping to tell more stories from underrepresented groups. She credits her involvement with the theater program and Video Yearbook at Whitman for helping her realize what she wanted to do with her future, and her education in South Huntington for providing the foundation for the person she has become.

"I took quite a few AP classes and I felt like that really gave me a voice in a setting where you're being challenged," she said. "And I was exposed to a lot of various cultures at Whitman, especially at such a young age. And I think that definitely translates into how I work and how I operate and want to make sure that people get seen on television. A lot of times when I was growing up watching reality TV, I would see one Black person on the show and they always kind of fit the stereotype. So for me, when it comes to casting, I make sure that I get all of these people from different diversities and orientations, and make sure that these people get seen and their stories get told."

She loves Los Angeles and admits she’s probably not going to leave anytime soon, but added that one thing will never change: "I'm a Long Island girl forever and always!"