The Missouri School of Journalism’s Missourian newspaper has a nice profile of Class of 1998 supestar Nischelle Turner. After stints with the NFL on Fox, various major-market TV stations and an almost-talk show on OWN, Turner joined HLN’s Showbiz Tonight in December as west coast correspondent.

The MSJ article was written by school junior Margaux Henquinet, who spoke with a number of Turner’s former teachers. The HLN reporter’s high school volleyball coach suggested one of the reasons her former pupil has been so successful is due to the ability to remain “real and genuine.” Turner seconded that notion:

When she started working at Good Day LA during her time at KTTV, “I figured out it was OK to be yourself on television, and that’s when it all changed for me,” she said.

After the jump, you can watch Turner hug it out at her first Sundance Film Festival with Arbitrage star Richard Gere (also at the Park City event for the first time).