Kathleen Lojkovic has plenty of experience working in television production.
Now, she’s taking her work to a new level with her own production company.
Lojkovic was born in Chicago but spent many of her formative years in Michigan. This was an idyllic time for her that she remembers “very fondly.” After her family moved back to the suburbs of Chicago, she found her calling. “I knew I wanted to work in television production the summer after my freshman year in high school,” she shares. “I was an audience member for a local ABC-TV talk show called Kennedy at Night. As soon as I walked into the studio, I was hooked.”
After high school, Lojkovic chose to attend Northwestern University because of its prestigious communication and theater programs. She graduated with a degree in Radio-TV-Film and worked as an intern for CBS TV and WGN TV. Lojkovic then got her first job “at ABC in Chicago as a production assistant on The Friday Night Show.”
She went on to work at ABC for three years. During her time there, she worked on a variety of shows that gave her experience handling different kinds of television. Lojkovic recounts this time as, “Late night talk show, in the field interviews and conversations in the homes of Chicago’s prominent citizens, and finally a 90-minute live morning talk show. Each had unique challenges.” Her responsibilities were diverse, which is part of what made the time so engaging. She recalls that she “booked the guests, researched the material, and prepped the host for the interview. Every day was different, which made it fun.”
After working in the television industry for so many years, Lojkovic has seen her fair share of changes. Despite this, it is still work that she is passionate about. According to her, “I’m most proud of the fact that after all these years, I still want to be creative and be involved with new opportunities to meet people and tell their stories. The industry has changed. I’m still willing to adapt and use my background to enrich a project that I’m working on.”
This desire to continue telling stories is what has led to the creation of Back 2 Originals Productions. Lojkovic heads the company, whose projects include The Mediator; Mr. Livingstone, I Presume?; and An Acceptable Loss. The company aims to produce a variety of projects for film and television that, as Lojkovic describes, is “programming that is entertaining and also informative about topics that I am passionate about.” The company has worked with big names like Jamie Lee Curtis, Ice-T, and Barrie Livingstone.
Lojkovic is also aware of the effect her work has on the environment. “I’m really drawn to environmental and animal welfare projects right now. All these issues can seem overwhelming, but if people make small changes individually, then collectively we can affect a large change,” she states. Furthermore, Lojkovic says her “mission statement is to have fun, help others, leave as small of a carbon footprint as you possibly can and hopefully the world will be a better place for your having been here.”
Lojkovic is looking forward to continuing her production work and creating her own version of success, which she defines as “feeling accomplished from within, knowing that you did your best and gave it a shot.” And, of course, she wants to have fun doing it. “I would be so happy if others wanted to work with me in five years because they’re impressed with what I’ve created and they want to collaborate on some fabulous, fun project,” she says.
