Tyji Mays

Persistent producer: Tyji Mays

School/College: Klein College of Media and Communication
Degree/Year: BA, media studies and production, 2019
Hometown: Bensalem, Pennsylvania
Current Job Title: Seasonal producer III
Current Employer: NFL Films

When Peyton Manning throws a snowball at your forehead, you best duck out of the way. That’s what Tyji Mays, KLN ’19, learned the hard way as an extra on an episode of Peyton’s Places, a football-themed documentary series starring the Hall of Fame quarterback. Just another day in the life for the NFL Films producer, who brushes elbows with world-renowned athletes as he helps create and edit internationally distributed programs for platforms like HBO and Netflix.

As a member of the Temple cross country team, Tyji learned a thing or two about staying in the race. A state qualifier at Bensalem High School, Tyji was recruited by former Temple Coach James Snyder and spent four years on the team, competing for championships and running a personal best 8K in just over 25 minutes—that’s about a five-minute mile for five miles in a row.

At Klein, Tyji benefited from the mentorship of Paul Gluck, associate professor of media studies and production and an experienced TV news producer, who brought in guest speakers including the late Lew Klein. A senior practicum also gave Tyji hands-on experience working with TUTV, handling everything from staging and lighting to camera operation and directing.

An Emmy to his name. Tyji and his colleagues reached the pinnacle of their field in 2025 when they won an Emmy in the Outstanding Edited Event Coverage category. Tyji served as associate producer on a documentary that chronicled NFL draft night by closely following the personnel of four league franchises. “You’re in the room with general managers and the coaches and see them working the phones and drafting players on the biggest days of their lives,” Tyji says of the film, which appeared on the Roku Channel.

Tyji had to grind for his success after he narrowly missed out on the prestigious NBC Page program following graduation. But for several years he climbed the internship ladder until landing at Mt. Laurel-based NFL Films. Tyji has performed various production tasks including logging footage, writing scripts, editing programs; and working on shoots as a production assistant, talent and director.

“Editing and writing are my favorite things to do now. Something I edited made the final cut of the most recent episode of Hard Knocks on HBO. It’s about getting those reps, working to get my stuff seen and showing that I can do it.”

—Tyji Mays
Seasonal producer III