IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Hilarie Burton Morgan remembers her 'TRL' debut, gives shoutout to Carson

A flashback video from MTV "absolutely made my day," she posted on Instagram.
/ Source: TODAY

Everybody's got to start somewhere, and for Hilarie Burton Morgan, it was on MTV's "Total Request Live" ... and future TODAY co-host Carson Daly was there for it all.

Morgan, who went on to star on shows like "One Tree Hill" and "Grey's Anatomy," shared a flashback video snippet from 2000 of her winning a competition to represent "TRL" on the red carpet for the MTV Video Music Awards, and it's a trip back in time:

"This absolutely made my day," she wrote in the Instagram caption. "Thanks for posting @mtv !I’d been doing theater since I was 8. I got an agent in NYC when I was 13. I'd arrived in the city two weeks before this video for college orientation and had cried my eyes out just a couple nights before because I didn’t know how I was gonna make it."

She added, "My babe roommate @clean_green_mama made me go to @trl that day. Love her forever. Miss the whole @mtv @viacomcbs family. What a fun memory."

Hilarie Burton
Hilarie Burton Morgan in 2019.John Lamparski / Getty Images

And it really was the moment when Morgan's career began: After that red carpet appearance, she went on to become a "TRL" VJ, and started to get work on shows like "Dawson's Creek." She joined "One Tree Hill" in 2003 and everything picked up from there. She married "The Walking Dead" actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan in 2019, and appears with him on "Dead" this upcoming season.

In the video, Daly is hosting the show and the competition she wins, and explains what she'll be doing on the red carpet that night. But that wasn't the only time he helped her ease into her new job. In 2008 she spoke to MTV and had nothing but good things to say about him.

Carson Daly (seen in 1999 on MTV) really helped Burton's (seen here in 2002) career take off.
Carson Daly (seen in 1999 on MTV) really helped Burton's (seen here in 2002) career take off.ImageDirect

"He was like my fairy godfather. He bestowed this career on me," she said.

And today, while posting the video in her stories, she made sure to give him a shoutout: "I haven't seen this in over a decade!!" she cried. "Such a fun memory. Thanks @carsondaly!"