For most of her 23 years, Lesley Robins, AS '97, has dreamed of becoming part of the entertainment industry, and she is one of the lucky few to realize that dream. Shortly after she graduated, she got a job on the hottest sitcom in history, Seinfeld, and then on Newsradio.

While still an undergraduate majoring in communication and English, Robins landed summer internships on Live! Regis & Kathie Lee, Fox After Breakfast and The Howard Stern Show.

As luck would have it, Stern was filming Private Parts that summer, and Robins wound up in three scenes. She also made several appearances on his radio/TV show. One time, she was in the control room listening to the show, when she heard Stern invite her to come into the studio and sing. Another time, he had her hypnotized on the air. Since Stern's show ran on cable's "E" network, she was a campus-wide celebrity her last year at the University.

"I love performing," Robins said. "If I could perform for a living, that's what I'd want to do." A Dean's List student at UD, she sang three times a week for three years with the Golden Blues, a student a cappella group; served on the executive board of her sorority, Alpha Epsilon Pi; and appeared in a student production of Guys & Dolls.

Less than three months after she graduated from UD, she was living in Los Angeles and working as set assistant for Seinfeld. She also won a part in an L.A. production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. She sang, danced and had lines as Potiphar's wife. During that time, she and a friend developed a singing act-crooning everything from the classics to pop in a coffeehouse.

Even though being a performer is her first choice, she said she'd do whatever it takes to be part of the industry, whether or not she becomes an actor. That determination requires rolling with the punches.

Robins didn't know when she landed the Seinfeld job that it was to be that sitcom's last year.

After the show closed, she got a call from former Saturday Night Live regular, Jon Lovitz, whom she had met on the Seinfeld set. Lovitz was taping a pilot with comic actor and friend, Phil Hartman, and he wanted Robins to be his assistant. When the pilot wasn't picked up, Robins went to work on the set of Melrose Place until she got another call from Lovitz. Mr. Hartman had been a regular cast member of the NBC sitcom Newsradio, and after his death, producers wanted Lovitz to join the cast. When Lovitz finally agreed, Robins went with him. She worked on the set of Newsradio for a year until the show stopped production, and then she became an assistant agent for the J. Michael Bloom & Associates talent agency in L.A. Shortly after joining the agency, she began rehearsals for an original musical.

Of course, Robins doesn't consider any of it luck. She says it's her persistent, cooperative, high-energy nature that's gotten her this far. "I work hard, and I go after what I want."

More than anything, she wanted to work for Jerry Seinfeld. "Like every senior, I sent out lots of resumes, including one to Seinfeld for a job as production assistant. Then, I kept calling and calling and calling until I got someone. His name was J.T., and he was the assistant production coordinator. He remembered my resume because of the Howard Stern and Regis and Kathie Lee internships."

J.T. told Robins he wasn't sure the show would be coming back, but if she wanted to, she could fly to California for an interview. One month before she graduated, she was on a plane to California for a Friday night interview over dinner. She spent the rest of the weekend at Venice Beach and the next three months going on job interviews in New York City, all the while hoping to hear from Seinfeld. When word didn't come, she finally called California and was told the job had been filled. But, that same night, when she got home, J.T. called and offered her a job as set assistant. The one drawback was that she had to be there in one week.

"It was the hardest week of my life," she says. "I had to leave my family, friends, everything I knew." But, less than a week later, Robins, her father, her mother and nine suitcases were on the plane to L.A.

As set production assistant, she worked with the cast and crew during the taping of each show. "They became like my family," Robins says.

She was especially close to Michael Richards, who played Jerry's neighbor, the quirky Kramer. "He's extremely intelligent and was a good friend to me," Robins says.

She even appeared in two episodes of Seinfeld. In one, she played the love interest of one of Elaine's coworkers. Elaine, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, was one of Jerry's friends on the sitcom.

Mid-season, while vacationing in Florida, Robins got a call from her mother, who broke the news to her that Seinfeld wouldn't be back.

Robins said they shot the final episode in nine, 18-hour days under strict secrecy. It was her job to see to it that everyone signed a "confidentiality sheet," a legal agreement, promising not to tell anyone about the final episode. "I guess it was necessary, since there were plenty of people who tried to get me to tell," she says.

Robins says she is excited about her job as an assistant talent agent with the J. Michael Bloom agency because she'll get to meet and interact with some of the most important people in the entertainment industry. And, although her first love is performing, she's not ruling out a future with the agency or in any job that keeps her in show business.

-Barbara Garrison