Whittell grad featured on new season of NBC's "Making It"

NBC’s show “Making It” is bringing creativity to television with a fantastic batch of Makers in a fun and lighthearted competition for the third summer. This season, 2010 George Whittell High School graduate Adam Kingman is part of the show that airs every Thursday at 8:00 p.m.

The industrial designer has always had a creative side he said, starting when he grew up in Lake Tahoe. The multi-sport athlete was an avid photographer and he created stories on film about his friends, but had never tried crafting. After Whittell, Adam went onto the University of Washington in Seattle where he majored in Industrial Design.

After college he designed what he knew from growing up in the mountains - outdoor gear, tents, backpacks, paddle boards.

"That's what I knew so I merged my passion with my career," said Adam.

He is currently making Lake Tahoe his home base due to the pandemic, but is set to move to San Francisco this fall with his job at a design agency.

Kingman was watching Season 2 with his sister when she told him, "I can see you on this show." He looked up how to apply, sent in an audition video, went through interviews, Zoom calls and a questionnaire.

"I enjoy being on the show to showcase how creative one can be with materials laying around the house," said Adam. When we spoke he couldn't reveal anything that hasn't happened on the televised episodes.

Stop reading here in case you're streaming old episodes and don't want to know what happened on the first episode which originally aired on June 24.

On Episode 1, Adam surprised the show's co-host Nick Offerman with a story about who his dad is. Adam is the son of Dave Kingman, former Major League Baseball player who was a three-time All Star with 442 career home runs and 1,210 runs batted in.

"He was my childhood hero," said Offerman.

Offerman's co-host on the show is Amy Poehler.

Adam's work that first episode told a story about him, his dad and his grandpa. All were depicted with the famous Kingman mustache. Adam said he missed baseball tryouts at Whittell and went skiing with his friends instead. He shared it caused a family rift which has since been mended.

"Never have I seen a baseball card come to life," said one of the judges of Adam's work during the first episode.

Adam won the first episode with his craft.

"It feels like a crafters utopia," said Adam of the show. "You're surrounded by other Makers who are so creative. It's been an absolute blast - the most challenging and fun opportunity."

Adam said being on the show surprised him as he didn't realize how much he loved telling stories. The crafters on the show share stories and reasons behind their work. He said he found he enjoyed telling the "why" of what he made.

"You have one planet and its fun to use what you can," said Adam of being creative. "You have everything you need."

Old episodes of Making It can be found on Hulu and NBC.com. Adam is also sharing behind the scene stories on his instagram, https://www.instagram.com/adamkingman/.

The show's introduction of Adam: Adam Kingman is an industrial designer and creative director from Lake Tahoe. Growing up, the mountains were his playground, influencing his stewardship of the planet and resourcefulness of craft. With recycled and retired materials, Adam is a modern day Macgyver, using design thinking to create simple, intuitive solutions. Outside of work, Adam loves to write stories, direct short films, and explore the Sierras. Adam believes we’re all just kids at heart and imagination is our finest resource. His dream is to be a Disney Imagineer and someday a design professor.