‘Severance’ creator recounts trajectory from Western to the writer’s room

“Severance” creator Dan Erickson was working as the office manager of a door factory in San Fernando Valley, California, when he thought to himself: “What if I could jump ahead to the end of the day?” That was his lightbulb moment and, at the cost of being yelled at by his boss, he wrote a premise that day for what would become Apple TV’s most streamed show for a time.

On Friday, May 15 Erickson shared his 20-year “Severance” odyssey — which in no sense was straightforward, and better put as “cattywampus” – and accepted an Alumni Award during a couple of artist talks at his alma mater, Western Washington University. The 4 p.m. talk with Rich Brown, chair of Western’s theater and dance department (and Erickson’s former professor), was open to the public.

“I had come to see Western as a place where weirdos can thrive, and where the education is not going to be this stale or stodgy thing,” he said. “This is a place where you could identify what about you is special and try to nurture that.”