Two Dreher High School grads reach new film industry heights with ‘Superman’

“Superman” is soaring once again, as the new movie centered on DC’s nigh-invincible hero has become one of the highest grossing movies of 2025. The film also served as a reunion between two graduates of Columbia’s Dreher High School, who have charted different paths through the film industry.

Ed Tilden is the movie’s first assistant director, while Bonnie Discepolo plays Ali Jessop, an on-screen assistant to villain Lex Luthor.

Tilden studied at the University of South Carolina and Trident Technical College in Charleston before climbing the ranks in Marvel and DC studio films. After going to Boston University, Discepolo received acting training in Moscow, New York City and Los Angeles. She has a long list of acting credits, but she has also written and directed several projects herself.

The two reunited for 2020’s “Graceland,” one of Discepolo’s short films, with Tilden working as an assistant director. And with “Superman,” they were back together working on a large-scale production.

From Trustus Theatre to the big screen

Discepolo was born in Connecticut, and her family moved to Columbia during her early teenage years.

She joined the apprentice company at Trustus Theatre, the city’s lone professional company not pitched at children, in the 10th grade. Discepolo said the program is run the same way as any professional theater company in New York. Participants could assistant direct, audition for shows and help design costumes. The high school apprentices were held to high standards and involved with rigorous “right-off-Broadway” productions.

“I felt like, without realizing it, I was trained to be a professional actor, writer, director, theater maker just by virtue of being there,” Discepolo said.

After completing her college and acting training, she moved to Los Angeles to focus on acting, “because it was the path of least resistance,” Discepolo said.

“Graceland,” the 2020 short film she wrote and directed, was shot in Charleston and funded through South Carolina Indie Grants, a program from the South Carolina Film Commission and Trident Technical College that helps filmmakers with short films.

“I think once I was doing more of that writing, directing, producing, it made me a better actor,” Discepolo said. “Then more acting jobs started happening, and I sort of got back to what I was originally doing, which was being involved in all parts of the creative process.”

From USC to superhero movies

Tilden attended the University of South Carolina to study media arts with a focus on film. The courses were more theory than technical work, but Tilden got to help produce an Indie Grants-funded film that a professor had written.

“The classwork was great for getting us into the right place, but being on the set and actually shooting a movie, you’re like, ‘Oh, this is how it works,’” he said. “And that really relit the fire.”

Tilden moved to Charleston to attend Trident Technical College after someone recommended its hands-on, equipment-based program. After half of a semester, he got a job producing commercials at a local Fox affiliate and dropped out.

At the time, the TV series “Army Wives” was being shot in Charleston. A friend managed to get him in the show’s office. After working one day as an office production assistant on the fourth season, he said he was offered the position full-time for season five.

“I quit my Fox job, got rid of my benefits, called my parents. I was like, ‘I’m swinging for the fences. I’m gonna be an office PA for nine months and then not know what to do after that,’” Tilden said. “And my parents were like, ‘Go for it.’”

His duties ranged from printing and distributing materials to everyone on set to getting groceries for the production office.

Between seasons, Tilden got his first job on a set, working on 2012’s “The Hunger Games” thanks to the help of an “Army Wives” production assistant.

Returning to the show for season six, Tilden got an unexpected promotion.

“They offered me the key set PA job, which I was not qualified for, truly,” Tilden said. “I mean, that’s the person who manages the entire team of set PAs, who kind of knows what needs to be done in every aspect of that department, because there’s multiple roles within that title. I did not know all of those things. But they knew me, and there was no one else.”

Tilden continued in this role for the final two seasons. After the show ended, he was looking for work and ended up being hired onto the crew for 2014’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” in Cleveland. It was the first of many Marvel movies he’d work on, and the assistant director, Lars Winther, became a friend and mentor.

Tilden ended up moving to Atlanta to work on 2015’s “Ant-Man” and 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War.” He then joined Winther to work on the second Guardians of the Galaxy film, which introduced Tilden to “Superman” director James Gunn. Among other Marvel projects, Tilden worked on Gunn’s third Guardians of the Galaxy and followed the director to DC for 2021’s “The Suicide Squad.”

Eventually, Gunn became co-chair and co-CEO at DC Studios, and Winther rose to a senior vice president role there. Winther’s ascension left the first assistant director role empty, and he recommended Tilden to fill it, starting with “Superman.”

“It was one of the absolute pinnacles of my career,” Tilden said. “It’s Superman, right? I mean, I grew up watching Christopher Reeve’s Superman.”

Flying high

“Superman” was Tilden’s first time assistant directing at such a large scale, but the process is ultimately the same, he said.

“I got to be there for every step of the way and be part of the decision making and part of the thought process and understanding and seeing [Gunn’s] vision through and really working closely with him on a day to day basis to make sure that he’s getting what he wants,” Tilden said. “Because he knows what the audience wants, and it always works.”

Working on Superman was the most fun Discepolo said she’s ever had.

“Everyone is kind. The coworkers are the best at what they do. Everyone is joyful and grateful to be there and giving it their all. Everything about it was a dream come true,” she said.

The size and scale of Superman was also new for Discepolo, but working on a project involving such an iconic character also brings with it a big responsibility, she said.

“There are … adult men in their 60s and 70s who have told me that they cried three times watching ‘Superman’ because it touches them,” Discepolo said. “It touches the childhood part of them that first saw Superman.”

Looking back and ahead

Tilden still lives in Atlanta, just a three-hour drive down Interstate 20 from his hometown. His parents still live in Columbia, and he returns often.

“I’ve been very lucky to work my way into exactly where I wanted to be in the film industry over the last 15 years,” Tilden said. “And I couldn’t have done that without finding a group at the University of South Carolina of like-minded people who wanted to be creative and just made it happen.”

Discepolo, who has lived in Connecticut for the last few years, misses Columbia’s creative community, she said.

“I remember it being a place where you could go anywhere and you would run into five friends who were all doing something interesting,” Discepolo said. “Being in a bigger city, it doesn’t have that same sense of community.”

She has returned on occasion. She came back while “Graceland” was shooting, to take a film to the Indie Grits Festival and to watch the 2017 solar eclipse. This September, she plans to return to do a fundraiser for Trustus Theatre.

Discepolo’s recent sci-fi western, “Neo-Dome,” is making the festival circuit, with a screening at this year’s HollyShorts Film Festival coming up. It also stars Anna Camp, Discepolo’s friend and “Graceland” star. She is also working on a script for a vampire movie that she hopes to direct soon.

Tilden went straight from working on “Superman” to assisting Gunn with the second season of “Peacemaker,” which premieres this month on HBO Max.

“It was a nice decompress from ‘Superman,’” Tilden said. “‘Peacemaker’ was also epic and huge, but it was definitely a more rock ‘n’ roll party. You know what I mean? Whereas, if you’ve seen ‘Superman,’ it’s a little more punk rock.”