Enjoy the stories of our Arts and Entertainment alumni, from acclaimed actors to award-winning filmmakers, as they've made their mark on screens and stages worldwide! Photo Credit: 2016 Getty Images
TV producer and director, “Seinfeld,” “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Frasier,” “Two and a Half Men,” “Rules of Engagement,” and “Whitney”; co-producer, “Cheers”; producer, “The Ellen Show”; director, “Perfect Couples,” “The Conners”; winner, three prime time Emmys ( youngest person to win an Emmy for technical achievement in editing at the age of 24); winner, Golden Globe; winner, two Directors Guild Awards
Emmy-nominated screenwriter and producer, HBO’s “The Pacific” and Showtime’s “Masters of Sex”
Photo Credit: FX Productions
Actor, Jethro on “The Beverly Hillbillies”; comedian; director, “Hometown U.S.A.”; writer and producer, “Macon County Line” (highest-grossing movie per dollar invested at the time)
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Author, “Thrivers,” “Don’t Give Me That Attitude!,” “Parents Do Make a Difference,” “Building Moral Intelligence,” and “Unselfie”; regular contributor, NBC’s “Today Show”; anti-bullying activist (her proposal “Ending School Violence and Bullying” (SB1667) was signed into California law in 2002; motivational speaker
Photo Credit: Family360
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist (1993 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Journalism); former staff writer, “Orlando Sentinel”; former writer and editor, “Los Angeles Times”; winner, Worth Bingham Prize; winner, Scripps Howard Award; communication director, University of California’s Humanities Research Institute’s Digital Media and Learning Research Hub
Photo Credit: DML2024
Former contestant, NBC’s “The Voice”; recording artist (Apple Music, Spotify)
Photo Credit: Arizona Foothills Magazine
Producer, "World Without Oil" (an alternate reality game, ARG) ; recipient of the Peabody Legacy Class Award
Photo Credit: Ken Eklund
Producer, “Spotlight” (2016 Academy Award winner, Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay); three-time nominee, Golden Globe Awards; five-time winner, Independent Spirit Awards; co-producer, “The Queen Latifah Show”; producer, “LuLaRich”; documentary producer, “Belly of the Beast” (2021 News & Documentary Emmy Award winner, Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary) and “Rewind”; Advisory Committee member, Mill Valley Film Festival’s Mind the Gap; executive producer, "Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets"
Photo Credit: David Duncan Livingston
Author, “Mariette in Ecstasy” (wrote screenplay for 1996 film adaption), “Atticus” (adapted into the film “Missing Pieces”), “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (made into a feature film in 2007), and “Exiles and Desperadoes”; Literature Award winner, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
Photo Credit: Slant Books
TV director and producer, Disney Channel TV programming: “Luck of the Irish,” “Jump In!,” “The Cheetah Girls: One World,” “Dadnapped,” “Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam,” “Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide,” “Let It Shine,” "Raven's Home," "Andy Mack," "Zombies 1-3," and “Jonas”; director, “Sabrina the Teenage Witch”; winner, two Director’s Guild Awards
Photo Credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez - © 2015 Getty Images
Author, “The Kite Runner,” “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” “And the Mountains Echoed,” “Sea Prayer”; founder, The Khaled Hosseini Foundation (nonprofit to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan); U.S. goodwill envoy to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Refugee Agency
Photo Credit: Elena Seibert
Former radio broadcaster, Toronto Blue Jays; winner, Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s Jack Graney Award
Program director, Digity San Jose; former program director, NextMedia Group; former radio personality, various Bay Area and San Jose radio stations including Live 105, KOME, and KSJO; 2021 Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame inductee
Photo Credit: Devon Lach for Drew Altizer
Author, “Taking Hold,” “The Circuit,” “Breaking Through,” and “Reaching Out”; professor, 2002 U.S. Professor of the Year, CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education); winner, David Logothetti Award for Teaching in Excellence from Santa Clara University
Photo Credit: Jazmine Turner Photography
Guitarist, Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna; member, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; #54 of the 100 Greatest Guitarists, “Rolling Stone Magazine”
Photo Credit: Guild Hall
Movie director, “My Sister’s Keeper,” “Running Mates,” “Dinner at Eight”; stage and TV director, “Joan of Arcadia,” “My So-Called Life,” “Picket Fences” (winner, 1993 Directors Guild of America Award), “Driving Miss Daisy,” “Pretty Little Liars,” “Switched at Birth,” “Ghost Whisperers,” “The Fosters,” and “Hart of Dixie”; Primetime Emmy Award winner for “Homefront”
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Author; columnist, ABC News, “Silicon Insider” column; op-ed contributor, “The Wall Street Journal”; contributing editor, “Wired”; editor-in-chief, Edgelings.com; former columnist, “San Jose Mercury News,” “Fortune,” and “The New York Times”; former editor, “Forbes ASAP”; producer, Emmy-nominated T.V. mini-series “The New Heroes”; Distinguished Friend, Oxford University; producer, “The New Heroes”
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Author, “Deadly Medicine” (a New York Times Bestseller), “Amber House”, “Neverwas,” and “Otherwhen”
Photo Credit: Audible
Producer and actor, “S.W.A.T.”; TV actor, “Criminal Minds,” “The Young and the Restless” (winner, Daytime Emmy Award, Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series); host, “Soul Train”; eight-time winner, NAACP Image Awards; model, DNA Model Management
Photo Credit: Cliff Lipson/CBS via Getty Images
Actor, “Sleeper Cell”, “High Crimes,” and “What Boys Like”
Photo Credit: IMBD
TV writer, “CSI Miami”, “Happy Days,” “Muppet Babies,” “Judging Amy,” “Hanging with Mr. Cooper,” “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” and “Ghostbusters”; co-creator, “Hannah Montana”; executive producer, “Gone,” “Guys Like Us,” “Between Brothers,” “Touch,” “Intelligence,” and “CSI: Miami”
Photo Credit: Rotten Tomatoes
Oscar-winning film editor, "Forrest Gump," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," "Jaws 2," "Back to the Future," "Back to the Future Part II," "Back the Future Part III," "Contact," and "Cast Away," among many others.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Record producer, produced for major artists such as Aerosmith, Carly Simon, Eric Clapton, Van Halen, Van Morrison, and The Doobie Brothers
Photo Credit: Van Halen News Desk
Final contestant, “Survivor Africa”; contestant, “Survivor: All-Stars”
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Director, “Growing Up Milwaukee,” “Hummingbird: A Sister’s Courage”; production manager, “The New Jim Crow: Majority Rules”
Photo Credit: Jessica Kaminski - DOC NYC
Broadway producer, “The Color Purple,” “The Addams Family,” “A View From the Bridge,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “Of Mice and Men,” “Legally Blonde” (musical), “Dear Evan Hansen,” and “An Act of God”; performer, “Contact,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Chicago,” and “The Wedding Singer”; winner, Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical
Photo Credit: Theatrical Index