Political heavy hitters and Hollywood stars gathered at the Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet School on Monday to discuss how they hope the unique pilot-program school will help to diversify the entertainment industry.
Actors and producers George Clooney, Mindy Kaling and Don Cheadle, who all serve on Roybal’s advisory board, joined Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho for a tour of the school. The group also took part in a roundtable discussion on how the school hopes to change the industry while uplifting underserved groups of young people, said principal Blanca Cruz.
“Talent is equally distributed across the country to all students,” Carvalho said. “Opportunity and equitable access to great educational opportunities in schools and programs is not guaranteed, and we cannot immediately guarantee it by ourselves. That guarantee comes through partnerships.”
The Roybal School was established in September 2022 as a partnership between the LAUSD and Clooney, actor and filmmaker Grant Heslov and talent agent Bryan Lourd. The school is focused on building a pathway for historically underrepresented young people to find careers in the film and television industry, according to its website.
“Part of the reason we were doing this was we looked at our industry and said it doesn’t reflect the society we live in,” Clooney said. “And the fix is not just hiring people to try and fix it. The fix is starting at a young age, basically a trade school, to get these young people able to do these jobs.”
Clooney also said that by training students the way a trade school would, he hopes that they are college- and career-ready, which can shorten the timeline for the payoff of the program. He also highlighted the school’s strong connections with major industry players like Disney, Fox, Amazon Prime Video and entertainment industry unions that will help with quick job placement for graduates.
During the tour, Clooney, Kaling and Cheadle spoke with teachers and students and watched some of the projects and lessons they were working on. Students shared the unorthodox way their lessons are taught — for example, in history class, students research for documentaries with the help of the History Channel. Students also showed how they learn geometry through set design and construction.
Cardona and Emhoff both said they felt that the real-world application of the school’s curriculum is beneficial and that the students are “lucky” to learn from the best in the industry.
“The public-private partnership is needed if we’re going to raise the bar on education in this country. And man, I’m proud of what I’m seeing here today,” Cardona said. “It’s really inspirational to me, and when I go back to D.C., this is the model that I’m going to think about when I say we need to raise the bar across the country.”
Like Cardona, Emhoff said Roybal could be the model for the future of public education that is tied to creating “great paying union jobs.”
“I love this program,” Emhoff said. “The secretary and I were talking about if we can replicate this program here at Roybal, which is training the below the line crew to go out there into the industry, we can do this with nurses, we can do this with tech, we can do this with so many different things all across the country. So not only are you helping the production community, but you’re going to really set the stage for helping this entire country.”
Roybal screenwriting and video production teacher John Paul Green said that he felt “starstruck” by the notable names stopping by the school on Monday, but was happy to have eyes on the school’s unique program and the future opportunities they hope to create for their students.
“If you go on any film set, there’s hundreds and hundreds of jobs and they’re all well-paying jobs, so we want our students to get filled into that category,” Green said. “We want that pathway to be open for them…It’s just a great spark for us that is the beginning of something that I hope to see built out.”
Green’s students were similarly in awe of their classroom visitors, especially since Clooney and Cheadle were cracking jokes with them any chance they got. One student noticed that Clooney and Cheadle were wearing similar outfits, and Clooney said “Don, did you get my memo about the black turtleneck and jeans?” which prompted giggles from the students. Once the antics were over, the students were eager to share their work and their enthusiasm for Roybal.
“Ever since I was a child, I have very much enjoyed creating stories and producing stories, so being here feels like a very nice opportunity where I get to not only just be with my friends and have fun with them, but I have fun with the material and the stuff that we practice every day,” said Karisma Quintero, an eleventh grader at Roybal. “I love this school with my whole heart.”