UCLA Extension is a
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
continuing education
Continuing education (similar to further education in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland) is an all-encompassing term within a broad list of post-secondary learning activities and programs. The term is used mainly in the United ...
institution headquartered in
Westwood, Los Angeles
Westwood is a commercial and residential neighborhood in the northern central portion of the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It is the home of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Bordering the campus on the south ...
, on the campus of the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
. Classes are held at UCLA, in
Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) contains the central business district of Los Angeles. In addition, it contains a diverse residential area of some 85,000 people, and covers . A 2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs. It is ...
, and other locations throughout Los Angeles County, including
Torrance.
Founded in 1917, it is part of the
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...
system, and all courses are approved by the University of California, Los Angeles, although it is financially self-supporting.
UCLA Extension is accredited, through UCLA, by the
Western Association of Schools and Colleges
The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) was an organization providing School accreditation, accreditation of public and private universities, colleges, secondary school, secondary and elementary schools in California and Hawaii, ...
.
History
On February 14, 1893, the
Regents of the University of California
The Regents of the University of California (also referred to as the Board of Regents to distinguish the board from the corporation it governs of the same name) is the governing board of the University of California (UC), a state university sy ...
adopted the extramural instruction plan, which officially founded University Extension.
In 1902, University Extension was reorganized as a self-governing body within the university.
The doors of UC Extension in Los Angeles (officially "University of California Extension Division, Southern District") were opened in September 1917.
Extension's original location was in downtown Los Angeles. For the growing film industry, one early course was "Motion Pictures: The Film as a Factor in Molding Tomorrow's Citizenry." By 1919, more than 1,600 students attended almost 100 classes.
Beginning in 1942, Dean Baldwin Woods guided University Extension through the revisionist era of World War II and the postwar years. "Long before many leaders in the community realized that the knowledge explosion had shattered the myth of ever 'finishing' one's education, he perceived the huge and unending task of continuing education."
Academics
UCLA Extension offers more than 5,000 courses and more than 100 certificate programs.
Entertainment Studies
UCLA's Entertainment Studies program has graduated Emmy-, Grammy- and Oscar-nominated and winning alumni, more recently including:
Gavin Hood
Gavin Hood (born 12 May 1963) is a South African filmmaker, and actor, best known for writing and directing ''Tsotsi'' (2005), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He also directed the films ''X-Men Origins: Wolverine'', ' ...
(''Ender’s Game'', ''Tsotsi'', ''Rendition'', ''X-Men Origins: Wolverine'') and
Darryl Swann (Macy Gray, Black Eyed Peas, Mos Def). Award-winning instructors include
Kirk Saduski (''John Adams'', ''The Pacific'', ''Game Change'', ''The Seventies''), among others.
Writers' Program
The UCLA Extension Writers' Program is the largest open-enrollment writing and screenwriting program in the world.
Notable alumni include:
Bryan Cogman, ''Game of Thrones'';
Stuart Beattie
Stuart Beattie (born 4 August 1971) is an Australians, Australian filmmaker. His screenplay for ''Collateral (film), Collateral'' (2004) earned him nominations for the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, Satellite Award for Best Original ...
, ''G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra; Australia; Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl; 30 Days of Night; Collateral'';
Zoanne Clack
Zoanne Clack (born July 14, 1968), also known as Zoanne Arnette, is an American television producer, writer, story editor, actress, and medical doctor/consultant. Clack's most notable work has been on the medical drama series ''Grey's Anatomy'', in ...
, ''Grey’s Anatomy'';
Tucker Cawley
Tucker Cawley is an American television comedy writer and producer, best known for writing episodes for ''Everybody Loves Raymond''. He has also written for ''Men of a Certain Age'', ''Parks and Recreation'', '' Up All Night'', and the short-lived ...
, ''Parks and Recreation, Everybody Loves Raymond'';
Eric Jerome Dickey
Eric Jerome Dickey (July 7, 1961January 3, 2021) was an American author. He wrote several crime novels involving grifters, ex cons, and assassins, the latter novels having more diverse settings, moving from Los Angeles to the United Kingdom to ...
, ''Resurrecting Midnight'';
Doug Ellin
Douglas Reed Ellin (born April 6, 1968) is an American podcaster, screenwriter and film and TV director, known best for creating the HBO television series ''Entourage''. Ellin also served as executive producer, director, head writer and supp ...
, ''Entourage'';
Janet Fitch
Janet Fitch (born November 9, 1955) is an American author. She wrote the novel '' White Oleander'', which became a film in 2002. She is a graduate of Reed College.
Fitch was born in Los Angeles, a third-generation native, and grew up in a fa ...
, ''White Oleander'' (
Oprah
Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', b ...
Pick); Alice Greenway, ''White Ghost Girls'' (winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction);
Gavin Hood
Gavin Hood (born 12 May 1963) is a South African filmmaker, and actor, best known for writing and directing ''Tsotsi'' (2005), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He also directed the films ''X-Men Origins: Wolverine'', ' ...
, ''Tsotsi'' (Academy Award winner, Best Foreign Film);
Randi Mayem Singer
Randi Mayem Singer is an American screenwriter, producer and showrunner best known for writing the screenplay to the 20th Century Fox blockbuster comedy ''Mrs. Doubtfire'' starring Robin Williams and Sally Field.
Professional career
Randi May ...
, ''Mrs. Doubtfire'';
Melissa Rosenberg
Melissa Anne Rosenberg is an American television writer, television producer, and screenwriter. She has worked in both film and television and has won a Peabody Award. She has also been nominated for two Emmy Awards, and two Writers Guild of A ...
, adaptation of ''Twilight; Dexter'';
Earl W. Wallace, ''Witness'' (Academy Award winner for Best Original Screenplay);
Joseph Wambaugh
Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh, Jr. (born January 22, 1937), is a best-selling American writer known for his fictional and nonfictional accounts of police work in the United States. Several of his early novels were set in Los Angeles and its surroun ...
, ''The Onion Field'';
Kevin Williamson, ''Scream, Dawson’s Creek'';
Iris Yamashita
Iris Yamashita is a Japanese-American screenwriter.
She was hired by Clint Eastwood to write the Japanese side of the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima, once rumored to be titled ''Lamps Before the Wind'', then called ''Red Sun, Black Sand'', bef ...
, ''Letters from Iwo Jima'' (Academy Award nominee for Best Original Screenplay).
Notable instructors and lecturers
Notable instructors and lecturers at UCLA Extension have included the
Pablo Casals
Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan: ; 29 December 187622 October 1973), usually known in English by his Castilian Spanish name Pablo Casals, ,
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...
,
Steve Allen
Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen (December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American television personality, radio personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. In 1954, he achieved national fame as the co-cre ...
,
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems.
Born into the prominent Huxley ...
,
Henry Kissinger
Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...
,
Jascha Heifetz
Jascha Heifetz (; December 10, 1987) was a Russian-born American violinist. Born in Vilnius, he moved while still a teenager to the United States, where his Carnegie Hall debut was rapturously received. He was a virtuoso since childhood. Fritz ...
, and
Peter Drucker
Peter Ferdinand Drucker (; ; November 19, 1909 – November 11, 2005) was an Austrian-American management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business co ...
, Giammario Villa, among others.
Notable alumni
People who have taken classes or graduated from UCLA Extension include:
*
Troy Aikman
Troy Kenneth Aikman (born November 21, 1966) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. After transferring from Oklahoma, he played college football at UCLA, ...
, NFL Hall of Fame quarterback, earned his B.A. from UCLA by taking his last two courses online through UCLA Extension.
* John R. Blythe, an independent film producer, member of
Producers Guild of America
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is a 501(c)(6) trade association representing television producers, film producers and New media, New Media producers in the United States. The PGA's membership includes over 8,000 members of the producing esta ...
, graduated in 2010 in the Business and Management of Entertainment Program. He has produced several award winning films include
My Amityville Horror
My or MY may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* My (radio station), a Malaysian radio station
* Little My, a fictional character in the Moomins universe
* ''My'' (album), by Edyta Górniak
* ''My'' (EP), by Cho Mi-yeon
Business
* Mark ...
and
The New Hands
Sally Kirkland (born October 31, 1941) is an American film, television and stage actress and producer. A former member of Andy Warhol's The Factory and an active member in 1960s New York avant-garde theater, she has appeared in more than 250 fi ...
.
*
James Franco
James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. For his role in '' 127 Hours'' (2010), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Franco is known for his roles in films, such as Sam Raimi's ''Spider-Ma ...
attended UCLA Extension, taking courses in literature and creative writing.
*
Frederico Lapenda
Frederico Lapenda is a movie producer and fight promoter who is one of the founders of the sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). Lapenda is credited, along with Ultimate Fighting Championship co-creator Art Davie, as being responsible for the glo ...
graduated in the Film & Television Program in 1994. He is a movie producer, MMA promoter, ''Allies of the Amazon'' co-creator with Stan Lee, Beverly Hills Film Festival President, and Brazilian Tourism Ambassador.
*
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...
attended UCLA Extension in April 1951, taking "Backgrounds of Literature" with teacher Claire Soule.
* Univision news anchor
Jorge Ramos received a journalism certificate from UCLA Extension.
*
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...
enrolled in Extension classes during the 1970s as a young actor and bodybuilder, and helped celebrate Extension's 90th anniversary.
*
Benson Taylor
Benson Taylor (born Mark Davison 10 September 1983), is an English composer, music producer, and humanitarian who is best known for producing music for film. His style of music has a British influence, often working a classic film score sound ...
attended UCLA Extension, taking courses in game music production.
References
External links
*
{{coord missing, Los Angeles County, California
Extension
Extension, extend or extended may refer to:
Mathematics
Logic or set theory
* Axiom of extensionality
* Extensible cardinal
* Extension (model theory)
* Extension (predicate logic), the set of tuples of values that satisfy the predicate
* E ...
Educational institutions established in 1917
1917 establishments in California