Lynchburg native's comedic creativity lands Emmy award

There’s nothing quite like laughing your way to a career milestone at the ripe old age of 30.

Just ask Lynchburg native Ryan Case, who has won an Emmy for Outstanding Editing for a Comedy Series for her work on the pilot episode of ABC’s “Modern Family.”

She’s the first woman to win the category, which was created in 2003.

Case says working on the popular show — which many in the industry have credited with reviving the sitcom genre — “might be even more fun” than actually watching it.

“I laugh all day,” Case, a 1998 E.C. Glass High School grad, said in a recent phone interview. “If you walk by my (editing) bay, you’d think I was crazy because I’m in this basement … and all you hear is me laughing out loud all the time.

“Sometimes, the only hard part of my day is picking which funny thing (to use).”

The show itself and most of its cast is up for awards tonight; Case’s was handed out last Saturday at the Creative Arts Emmy ceremony, where the series also won for casting and sound mixing.

When her name was announced, Case found herself standing on stage in front of a room full of stars and industry professionals, with only 45 seconds to thank her family, friends and coworkers.

“I knew (“Mad Men” star) Jon Hamm was there, and I was like, ‘I can’t think about that,’” she said with a laugh. “So I stared at (comedian) Wanda Sykes because she was right in front of me.”

After, “I kind of thought I was going to faint.”

But there was no time for that. Case was whisked backstage to talk to the press and take photos with her statuette, when all she really wanted to do was celebrate with her family.

“My sister was my date, and I really wanted to just go hug her. And I didn’t have my phone, so I couldn’t call my mom.”

It wasn’t until the next day — after finding the perfect spot to display her award, in the center of the piano in her apartment to “class up the joint” — that someone told Case she was the first woman to win the category

“That’s really cool for me because more girls should be in comedy.”

Case’s long-term goal is film directing, something she fell in love with as a kid watching old Woody Allen and Albert Brooks movies with her mother, Rachel Case.

“She decided at the age of 8 that she was going to be a director and go to NYU film school,” said Rachel, who still lives in the Hill City. (Case’s father is local commercial real estate agent Gary Case.) “And she never changed her mind.”

Even then, she was an editor-in-the-making.

“I would hook up two VCRs, or I would drive to Roanoke and go to the AV store,” Case remembered. “There was some store there where you could get little (sound) mixers.

“I really enjoyed the editing process, even on that level, which was really small. And some directors I really liked went from editor to director. I kinda figured that was the way I wanted to go.”

After graduating from Glass, Case went to NYU and finished the program in three years instead of four.

She soon moved to Los Angeles and did a brief stint working as a production assistant on “The Real World,” editing where she could.

That led to work as an assistant editor on shows like “What About Brian” and “Carpoolers.”

“She did it all on her own, which makes me proud,” Rachel Case said. “She never stopped working. She just went from one job to another.”

Case went from assistant editor to editor while working on “Carpoolers.” It was also where she met director Jason Winer, the connection that eventually led to her “Modern Family” gig.

After working with him on another pilot that didn’t get picked up, Winer took Case with him to his next directing gig, an episode of the short-lived NBC series “Kath & Kim.”

“I ended up staying there for awhile,” she said. “Then he calls me one day and says, ‘We got this big deal.’ And it’s ‘Modern Family.’”

Case read the pilot script when she was in the airport, waiting to fly home to Lynchburg for a visit.

“He e-mailed me, and I read the entire script in my iPhone. I was like, ‘This is amazing. This is so funny,’” she said. “I just kind of knew it was going to be a big deal. But we didn’t understand how big until we did it.”

As for that whole “reviving-the-half-hour-sitcom” thing, Case said being involved is “insanely exciting.”

“For me, that’s like giving a chance to so many people that want to do what I do. You know, writers, actors, everything. It’s a really great feeling. I work for geniuses.”

She edits every other episode of “Modern Family,” a process that usually takes between two and three weeks, in a building that sits next door to the set.

“They start on Monday, and I start on Tuesday. I get all the scenes they shot the day before, and I’m just cutting as they go,” she said. “I do each scene individually and, if I get chunks, I piece them together.”

Oh, and when the entire cast went to Hawaii last year for a vacation-themed episode?

Case was there, too.

But don’t let all of her talk about fun and laughter fool you; editing comedy is no walk in the park.

“It’s harder to do comedy, and I enjoy the challenge,” she said. “You can make someone laugh with a reaction shot. Telling a joke is timing, and if you don’t get the timing right on the jokes, then they’re not funny. And I like that I have a part in that.”

Her success with “Modern Family” looks to be just the beginning.

Case also edited the pilot episodes of “Running Wilde,” a Fox sitcom from “Arrested Development” creator Mitch Hurwitz and star Will Arnett, and “Happy Endings,” which is on ABC’s midseason schedule.

But her heart lies with “Modern Family,” a place she has no intention of leaving anytime soon.

“I want to edit TV for awhile,” she said. “I mean, obviously, I’m on this great show.”