Finding a New Path

A Role in Roots Retelling

The History Channel's remaking of Alex Haley's Roots starred Sedale Threatt Jr. '08 in a featured role.

Threatt, who graduated with a degree in marketing and who was known for his prowess on the football field here, played the role of Tom, the great-grandson of Kunta Kinte, around whom the story of slavery is told.

"I'm just so fortunate, so appreciative really, being in Roots, being in something that's as historical as this is," said Threatt. He said he also appreciated being on the set and around established actors, such as Laurence Fishburne, who plays Haley.

"I wouldn't have thought this," Threatt said. "I couldn't have dreamt it."

In 2007, as a senior at Lehigh, Threatt caught the attention of scouts with his athletic abilities. Three credits short of his degree, he pursued professional football opportunities and later entertained playing basketball in Europe.

But Threatt said he decided to come back to Lehigh to finish his degree. He took a three-credit tax accounting course he needed and enrolled in some theatre courses. The latter, he said, "opened up something that was different in me."

A Chopped Champion

Matthew Arlington '06 has always loved cooking. Even when he was at Lehigh studying marketing, he would read cookbooks in his free time.

His passion for cooking led him to win the $10,000 prize on Chopped, a popular cooking competition show on the Food Network.

"I joke with my friends from Lehigh that I got my start cooking in the kitchen at Chi Psi," said Arlington.

"All the guys in the fraternity would line up outside my door when they got hungry."

In the final round on Chopped, Arlington opened his basket to find jalebi, sweet and spicy cocktail sugar, habichuelas con dulce and roasted red peppers. He created a chocolate chili rice pudding that propelled him to victory.

After graduating from Lehigh, Arlington worked in advertising for two and a half years until he decided his true passion was cooking. He left advertising to study at the Culinary Institute of America.

Arlington has worked as a chef at two restaurants in New York and plans to open Union Hall, a funky gastropub, in Hoboken, N.J.