Setting the standard

UCLA alumni are everywhere in entertainment ““ from
books to movies, to theater to music. Behind the scenes and in
front of the camera, their talents have made an impact and paved
the way for future Bruins. Carol Burnett:
actor – The Carol Burnett Show, Annie
James Dean: actor – Rebel Without A Cause,
East of Eden Daphne Zuniga: actor –
Spaceballs, Melrose Place Gina Prince-Bythewood:
director – Love and Basketball Alexander
Payne: director – Election, Citizen Ruth
Dean Cundey: cinematographer – Apollo 13, Back
to the Future trilogy, Jurassic Park Stephen H. Burum:
cinematographer – Mission: Impossible, The Outsiders,
Carlito’s Way, Raising Cain,The War of the Roses
Francis Ford Coppola: producer and director –
The Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now, Bram Stoker’s Dracula,
Don Juan DeMarco, Mi Familia, The Rainmaker Rob
Reiner: director – Stand By Me, When Harry Met Sally,
Misery, A Few Good Men, The American President, The First Wives
Club,Sleepless in Seattle, Ghosts of Mississippi, The Story of
Us Todd Holland: director – The Larry
Sanders Show Jay Sandrich: director –
Mary Tyler Moore Show, Soap, The Cosby Show Tom
Shadyak: director – Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The
Nutty Professor, Liar Liar, Patch Adams David
Silverman: producer and director – The Simpsons
Tim Robbins: actor,director, and writer – Bull
Durhan, The Shawshank Redemption, Dead Man Walking, The Cradle Will
Rock, Mission to Mars Richard Lewis: producer
– Backdraft, Prince of Thieves Barbary Stoll:
producer – Roseanne Jim Morrison and Ray
Manzarek: musicians – The Doors Harve
Bennett: writer – Star Trek II – V, Mod Squad
Shane Black: writer – Lethal Weapon, Lethal
Weapon II, The Long Kiss Goodnight Jeff Boam:
writer – Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Lon Diamond: writer – Parker Lewis Can’t Lose,
Leave it to Beaver Laurence Dworet: writer –
Outbreak Gloria Katz: writer –
American Graffiti Scott Rosenberg: writer
– Beautiful Girls, Con Air, Gone in 60 Seconds
David Keopp: writer – Jurassic Park, Carlito’s
Way, Mission: Impossible, Lost World, Death Becomes Her, Snake
Eyes Ramon Menendez (writer and director) & Tom
Musca (writer) – Stand and Deliver Dan
Pyne, writer – Doc Hollywood, Miami Vice
Eric Roth: writer – Forrest Gump, The Horse
Whisperer, The Insider Lloyd Schwartz: writer
– The Brady Bunch Kathy Stumpe: writer –
Cheers Michael Werb: writer – The
Mask, Face/Off UCLA grads head off to make a name for
themselves, following the lead of the alumni, steadily making their
way to the top. Kristy Grant – Department of
Theater (undergraduate program) at the UCLA School of Theater, Film
and Television. After a series of internships in the
entertainment industry Grant has landed a job as an assistant to a
creative executive at Paramount Studios ““ motion picture
division. Last summer Grant worked for Kathleen Kennedy (producer
of E.T. and Jurassic Park, The Sixth Sense) as an intern within a
10 person production company. More recently she interned as a
research assistant at Paramount Studio, in the office of a creative
executive in the motion picture division. This internship lead to
her new job as an assistant. In her new job she will be a key link
in the motion picture decision-making team coordinating ‘weekend
read’ of perspective scripts and pitches of story ideas by
producers and writers. Grant starts her new position July 10.
Bambi Haggins – Ph.D. critical studies in the UCLA School
of Theater, Film and Television. This fall, Haggins starts
work as an assistant professor in the communications studies and
film and video departments at the University of Michigan (Ann
Arbor). She will be filing her Ph.D. dissertation this summer.
Haggins position is unique because it is rare to have an academic
job already lined up before officially graduating with a Ph.D.
John Paul Castro – MFA screenwriting program, officially
graduates this June. Castro recently closed a
three-picture, $1 million deal with Digital Mercury partner Richard
Lewis and tyro scribe. His films will include Castro’s original
screenplay ‘A Gift for Mom’ about a 16-year-old boy’s mission to
find the man who raped his mother. Castro has directed various
short films and won several awards for his work. Kevin
Fisher – Ph.D. critical studies in the UCLA School of Theater, Film
and Television. Fisher will be taking a teaching job in
New Zealand. He will be filing his Ph.D. dissertation this summer
or fall. Joaquin Alvarado – MFA directing student.
Alvardo will be taking a job at the University of Arizona teaching
production. He starts immediately after graduation teaching a
summer session. Alvardo will be moving with his family very soon in
order to get settled and start his new job. Amy Winfrey –
MFA animation student. Recipient of the prestigous Student
Academy Award, Brisbane International Animation Festival.
Winfrey’s film ,”The Bad Plant,” in which a small
potted plant plots and plans against his happy home, was also
screened at the Brisbane International Animation Festival.
Jose Javier Martinez – MFA animation student.
Martinez is also a recipient of the Student Academy Award, as well
as the first place winner Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
College Television Awards. His work has been screened at the
Slamdance Film Festival, Los Angeles Independent Film Festival,
Newport Beach Film Festival, Sonoma Valley Film Festival and
Florida Film Festival. In his film “Luz, “ a little
girl plays in the street while her mother calls her home for
dinner. SOURCE: School of Theater, Film and Television director of
marketing and communication, Teri Bond Michael.

Web Adaptation by Avishai Shraga/Daily Bruin Senior Staff