Explore new horizons at Meliora Weekend 2024! Made up of family weekend, alumni weekend and reunions, plus homecoming, this four-day celebration offers more than 150 events, lectures, and performances across the University community for alumni, students, families, friends, and faculty and staff.
Headliners
Leslie Odom, Jr.
Leslie Odom, Jr. is a two-time Academy Award nominated, Tony and Grammy Award-winning, three-time Emmy Award nominated actor, singer, songwriter, and entertainer. With an expansive career that touches many performance genres, Odom has been repeatedly recognized as a unique performer with a serious and distinct dedication to the craft of storytelling. Best known for his breakout role as Aaron Burr in the hit musical Hamilton on Broadway as well as his critically acclaimed performance as legendary soul singer Sam Cooke in Regina King’s 2020 film, One Night in Miami. Most recently, Odom made his long-awaited return to Broadway starring in, and co-producing, the new Broadway production of the classic American comedy Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch by the legendary Ossie Davis. He will perform songs from his five full-length albums, including 2023’s When a Crooner Dies, a collection of ten original tracks.
Tickets for An Evening with Leslie Odom, Jr. are on sale now at EastmanTheatre.org or by calling the Eastman Theatre Box Office at (585) 274-3000.
Norah O’Donnell
The veteran newscaster and Emmy Award-winning journalist Norah O’Donnell is anchor and managing editor of CBS Evening News, a contributing correspondent for 60 Minutes, and the lead anchor of political events for the network. She is one of just three women in history to solo anchor a network evening news broadcast and the first to be granted a television interview with Pope Francis.
O’Donnell joined CBS This Morning in July 2012. Prior to that, she served as CBS News chief White House correspondent. As a journalist with nearly three decades of experience, she has covered seven presidential elections and traveled around the globe to interview some of the world’s most notable leaders, including every living president of the United States.
After the 2024 election, O’Donnell will transition from her current role as the anchor of the CBS Evening News into a new role as a CBS News senior correspondent, where she will contribute her signature newsmaker interviews that are the hallmark of CBS News.
Shankar Vedantam
Shankar Vedantam is the host and executive editor of the Hidden Brain podcast and radio show, which reach millions of listeners each week. The podcast is consistently listed as one of the top 20 in the world. Vedantam speaks internationally about how the “hidden brain” shapes our world and is the author of two non-fiction books: The Hidden Brain: How our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars and Save Our Lives, published in 2010, and Useful Delusions: The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain published in 2021, an exploration of deception’s role in human success.
Vedantam was NPR’s social science correspondent between 2011 and 2020 and spent 10 years as a reporter at The Washington Post. From 2007 to 2009, he was also a columnist, and wrote the Department of Human Behavior column for the Post. From 2009 to 2010, Vedantam served as a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Joel McHale
Joel McHale is an actor, comedian, and television host. Most recently, McHale stars in and executive produces FOX’s hit comedy series Animal Control, where he plays Frank Shaw in the upcoming season three. McHale also returned on FX’s season three of The Bear. McHale will also reprise his role as Jeff Winger in the upcoming Community movie on Peacock, based on the hit comedy series of the same name, which ran for five seasons on NBC with the sixth and final season airing on Yahoo!. Joel also continues to host and executive produce FOX’s competition baking show Crime Scene Kitchen and E!’s reality competition series, House of Villains, which brings 10 of reality television’s most infamous villains under one roof to compete for the title of America’s Ultimate Supervillain. He was previously in the DC Universe series Stargirl on the CW, as the voice of Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms now available on VOD and Queenpins, a comedy based on a true story, alongside Kristen Bell as her husband. Other projects include ABC’s Card Sharks, Becky alongside Kevin James and Lulu Wilson, The Twilight Zone, Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge, The Happytime Murders as well as Netflix’s A Stupid & Futile Gesture opposite Will Forte, in which he played Chevy Chase, his former Community co-star. McHale hosted The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale on Netflix, a half-hour topical series that took a sharp, absurdist look at pop culture and news from across the globe. In 2015, he wrapped the twelfth and final season of E! Network’s The Soup, in which he satirized pop culture and current events.