Alumni at CalArts

Click below to see selections of BFA and MFA alumni from each of the School of Theater’s two Program areas:

Performance

  • Hugo Armstrong (BFA 98), stage and screen actor (Waiting for Godot, Bleed Rail, Land of the Tigers) — Ovation Award
  • Matt August (MFA 97), director (How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Discord: The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, King Charles III)
  • Alison Brie (BFA 05), screen and voice actor (Glow, The Post, The Disaster Artist, Mad Men, Community, BoJack Horseman) — SAG Award
  • Tiffany Boone (BFA 09), screen actor (Hunters, Little Fires Everywhere, The Chi)
  • Don Cheadle (BFA 86), screen actor (Hotel Rwanda, Crash, Out of Sight, Ocean’s 11/12/13, House of Lies, War Machine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) — 2 Golden Globe Awards, Academy Award nomination
  • Monty Cole (MFA 19), director (Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company)
  • Eliza Coupe (BFA 05), stage and screen actor (Future Man, Happy Endings, The Mindy Project, House of Lies, Scrubs)
  • Jennifer Elise Cox (BFA 91), screen actor (Web Therapy, Six Feet Under, The Brady Bunch Movie)
  • Michael Cudlitz (BFA 90), screen actor (The Walking Dead, The Kids Are Alright, Southland, Band of Brothers) — Critics Choice Award
  • Ty Defoe (BFA 04), performance artist, activist, and writer (Straight White Men, Come to Me Great Mystery: Native American Healing Songs)  — Grammy Award
  • Nataki Garrett (MFA 02), director, artistic director of Oregon Shakespeare Festival
  • Dana Gourrier (MFA 10), screen actor (The Hateful Eight, Django Unchained, True Detective, American Horror Story)
  • Virginia Grise (MFA 09), playwright (blu) — Yale Drama Prize
  • Ed Harris (BFA 75), stage and screen actor (Westworld, The Truman Show, Apollo 13, The Hours, Game Change), director (Pollock) — 2 Golden Globe Awards, 4 Academy Award nominations
  • David Hasselhoff (73), “The Hoff,” screen actor (Baywatch), pop singer
  • Bill Irwin (72), clown, stage and screen actor (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Interstellar, Rachel Getting Married), director, playwright — Tony Award, MacArthur Genius Fellowship
  • Lars Jan (MFA 08), director, transmedia artist, founder and artistic director of Early Morning Opera — 2 TED Fellowships
  • Michael Jung (MFA 94), director, VP of Theatrical Development, Walt Disney Imagineering
  • Jessica Kubzansky (MFA 94), director, co-artistic director of Boston Court Pasadena
  • Debi Manwiller (BFA 83), casting director (24, Chicago Hope, The Blacklist, Rudy) — 2 Primetime Emmy Awards
  • Terence McFarland (MFA 03), producer, Associate Executive Director, The Younes and Soraya Center for the Performing Arts at CSUN; former CEO, LA Stage Alliance
  • Katherine Noon (MFA 90), director, co-founder and artistic director of The Ghost Road Company
  • Poor Dog Group, experimental theater collective
  • Condola Rashad (BFA 08), stage/screen actor and musician (Billions, Romeo and Juliet, The Trip to Bountiful, Stick Fly, Ruined, Steel Magnolias) — 2 Tony Award nominations
  • Paul Reubens (73), screen actor, creator of Pee-wee Herman and Pee-wee’s Playhouse — 3 Primetime Emmy nominations
  • Amy Keating Rogers (MFA 94), story animation writer (The Powerpuff Girls, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Johnny Bravo, Dexter’s Laboratory) — 4 Primetime Emmy nominations, 2 Daytime Emmy nominations
  • Douglas Rushkoff (MFA 86), media theorist, author (Team Human, Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now), documentarian
  • Katey Sagal (72), screen and voice actor (Sons of Anarchy, Married with Children, Futurama), singer-songwriter — Golden Globe Award
  • Catherine Sullivan (BFA 92), artist, director and filmmaker — Alpert Award in the Arts
  • Cecily Strong (BFA 06), stage and screen actor, comedian (Saturday Night Live)
  • Bresha Webb (BFA 07), screen actor (A Fall From Grace, Meet the Blacks, Ride Along 2, Marlon, Grey’s Anatomy)
  • Derek Webster (BFA 93), screen actor (NCIS: New Orleans, Ray Donovan, The Whispers)
  • Michole Briana White (91), stage and screen actor (Jitney, Bulrusher, Stick Fly, 100 Centre Street) — Obie, Drama Desk, and Ovation Awards
  • Chi-wang Yang (MFA 07), director, digital media artist, co-founder of Cloud Eye Control

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Experience Design and Production

  • Kevin Adams (MFA 86), lighting and scene designer (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, American Idiot, The 39 Steps, Spring Awakening) — 4 Tony Awards
  • Brandon Stirling Baker (BFA 10), lighting designer (New York City Ballet)
  • Chad Bauman (MFA 03), executive director, Milwaukee Repertory Theater
  • Robert Barnhart (BFA 87), lighting designer — 9 Primetime Emmy Awards
  • E.B. Brooks (MFA 08), costume designer
  • Jenny Foldenauer (MFA 12), costume designer — Ovation Award, LADCC Award, Stage Raw Award
  • Dan Friedman (MFA 03), editor, Dynasty Football Digest
  • Ian Garrett (MFA 08), producer and lighting designer — Center Theatre Group Richard A. Sherwood Award
  • Roger Holzberg (BFA 78), co-founder, Reimagine Well
  • Barbara Inglehart (MFA 86), costume supervisor (Scandal, Little Fires Everywhere, Fifty Shades of Grey), co-author of Shopping L.A.: The Insider’s Sourcebook for Film & Fashion
  • Jeff Kleeman (BFA 87), technical director, Los Angeles Opera
  • Peter Ksander (MFA 01), scene designer (Untitled Mars [this title may change]) — Obie Award
  • Etta Lilienthal (MFA 99, BFA 97), designer for performance, environmental installation, and architecture
  • Brian J. Lilienthal (MFA 03), lighting designer — Ovation Award
  • Christine Marie (MFA 09), shadow artist, director, inventor — TED Fellowship
  • Jamie McElhinney (MFA 03), audio artist, sound designer, engineer; Head of Audio, Found Sound Nation
  • David Kay Mickelsen (MFA 83), costume designer
  • Marco Morante (BFA 02), fashion and stage costume designer (Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Shakira)
  • Laura Mroczkowski (MFA 02), lighting and scene designer, co-artistic director of Blank-the-Dog Productions
  • Cricket S. Myers (MFA 03), sound designer (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo) — Drama Desk Award, Tony Award nomination
  • Leon Rothenberg (MFA 02), sound designer (The Nance) — Tony Award
  • Darcy Scanlin (MFA 00), production designer for stage and screen — Ovation Award
  • Meredith Lynsey Schade (MFA 05), producer (The Inheritance, Hadestown, Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike) — 2 Tony Awards
  • Qadriyyah “Q” Shamsid-Deen (MFA 10), creative executive, Higher Ground Productions (American Factory, Becoming)
  • Laura Kay Swanson (Theater–Music MFA 11), executive director, Los Angeles Youth Orchestra
  • Justin Townsend (MFA 03), lighting and scene designer (Moulin Rouge, The Humans, American Psycho) — Obie and Drama Desk awards, 2 Tony Award nominations
  • Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt (BFA 01), production manager; Senior Director, Current Series and Development at Nickelodeon Animation
  • Miranda Wright (MFA 09), executive director and producer, Center for the Arts at Kayenta — Center Theatre Group Richard A. Sherwood Award
  • Laura Youngkin (MFA 10), entertainment producer, writer, creative consultant

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