Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences is a
private/independent,
college preparatory school in
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
, United States. The school is a former member of the
G30 Schools
G30 Schools, formerly G20 Schools, is an association of secondary schools founded by David Wylde of St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown, South Africa and Anthony Seldon of Wellington College, Berkshire, United Kingdom in 2006.
The G30 Schools ha ...
group.
History
The school was founded in 1971 as a secular institution affiliated with St. Augustine By-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Santa Monica.
Although the founders, and many of the school's original students, came from the former St. Augustine By-the-Sea Episcopal Day School in Santa Monica, Crossroads School has always been a secular institution. Crossroads started with three rooms in a Baptist church offering grades seven and eight, and an initial enrollment of just over 30 students.
The name Crossroads was suggested by
Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American Colloquialism, colloquial speech, Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New E ...
's poem, "
The Road Not Taken", in which Frost writes:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
As St. Augustine's grew to junior and senior high school, the founders started Crossroads with a separate board of directors and separate campus, which eventually merged in the 1980s under the name Crossroads. Co-founder Paul Cummins became the first headmaster and served until 1995.
In the media
The 2004 book ''
Hollywood, Interrupted'', by
Andrew Breitbart and
Mark Ebner, dedicated a large section to Crossroads; it depicted the school (and the celebrities who send their children there) in a negative light, focusing mainly on a handful of high-profile parents and "drug problems" stemming from the 1980s. The school was also featured in a May 2005 issue of
''Vanity Fair''; like Breitbart's book, it also focused on the school's celebrity clientele.
In his
2023 biography,
Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...
alleges that Crossroads teaches “full-on communism,” and blames his daughter's transition, alleged communist ideology, and decision to cut him out of her life on Crossroads.
Notable alumni
*
J. A. Adande, sports journalist
*
Maude Apatow
Maude Annabelle Apatow (born December 15, 1997) is an American actress. She is best known for portraying Lexi Howard in the HBO drama series ''Euphoria'' (2019–present).
The elder daughter of filmmaker Judd Apatow and actress Leslie Mann, ...
, actress
*
Sean Astin, actor, director and producer
*
Henry Baum, writer, blogger and musician
*
Michael Bay
Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer. He is best known for making big-budget high-concept action films with fast cutting, stylistic cinematography and visuals, and extensive use of special eff ...
, film director and producer
*
Z Berg, musician
*
Jack Black
Thomas Jacob "Jack" Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is known for roles in family and comedy films, in addition to his voice work in animated films. His awards include a Children's and Family Emmy ...
, actor, comedian, and musician
*Max Brooks
Maximilian Michael Brooks (born May 22, 1972) is an American actor and author. He is the son of comedian Mel Brooks and actress Anne Bancroft. Much of Brooks's writing focuses on Zombie (fictional), zombie stories. He was a senior fellow at the ...
, actor and author
*Gary Coleman
Gary Wayne Coleman (February 8, 1968 – May 28, 2010) was an American actor, known as a high-profile child star of the late 1970s and 1980s. Born in Zion, Illinois, Coleman grew up with his adopted parents, and a kidney disease; due to the co ...
, actor, comedian, and writer[
* Austin Croshere, ]NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...
basketball player and TV broadcaster
* Baron Davis, NBA basketball player and TV commentator
* Emily Deschanel, actress, director and producer
*Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Claire Deschanel ( ; born January 17, 1980) is an American actress and musician. She made her film debut in ''Mumford (film), Mumford'' (1999) and had a supporting role in Cameron Crowe's film ''Almost Famous'' (2000). Deschanel is known f ...
, actress, model, and singer-songwriter
*Alden Ehrenreich
Alden Caleb Ehrenreich (; born November 22, 1989) is an American actor. He began his career by appearing in the television series ''Supernatural'' (2005), and in Francis Ford Coppola's films '' Tetro'' (2009) and '' Twixt'' (2011). Following supp ...
, actor
* Maya Erskine, actress and TV writer
* Zack Fleishman, professional tennis player
* Robert Francis, musician
*Nicole Gibbs
Nicole Gibbs (born March 3, 1993) is an American former professional tennis player.
She won seven singles and five doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. On 25 July 2016, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 68. On 19 September ...
, professional tennis player
* Lauren Greenfield, artist, photographer, and filmmaker
* Petra Haden, musician and singer
* Rachel Haden, musician
* Tanya Haden, artist, cellist, and singer
*Simon Helberg
Simon Maxwell Helberg (born December 9, 1980) is an American actor and comedian. From 2007 to 2019, he played Howard Wolowitz on the CBS sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory'' (2007–2019), and won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Support ...
, actor, comedian and musician
*Jonah Hill
Jonah Hill (born Jonah Hill Feldstein; December 20, 1983) is an American actor. List of awards and nominations received by Jonah Hill, The accolades he has received include nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, BAFTA ...
, actor, director, producer, screenwriter, and comedian
* Oliver Hudson, actor
*Kate Hudson
Kate Garry Hudson (born April 19, 1979) is an American actress and singer. Born to singer Bill Hudson (singer), Bill Hudson and actress Goldie Hawn, Hudson made her film debut in the 1998 drama ''Desert Blue'', which was followed by supporting ...
, actress, author, and fashion entrepreneur
* Bronny James, basketball player
* Brody Jenner, television personality, disc jockey and model
*Jenni Konner
Jennifer A. Konner (born May 15, 1971) is an American television writer, producer, and director. She is best known as co-showrunner and writer with Lena Dunham of the HBO series '' Girls.'' In 2016, she directed the season finale of the fifth se ...
, television writer, producer and director
*Alex Kurtzman
Alexander Hilary Kurtzman (born September 7, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for co-writing the scripts to ''Transformers'' (2007), '' Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)'', ''Star Trek'' (2009), ''Star Trek Into Darkness ...
, film and television writer, producer, and director[
* Alexandra Kyle, actress
*]Zosia Mamet
Zosia Mamet (; born February 2, 1988) is an American actress. She is known for her breakout role as Shoshanna Shapiro in the HBO series '' Girls''.
Mamet also starred as Annie Mouradian in the HBO Max original series '' The Flight Attendant'' an ...
, actress and musician
* Milo Manheim, actor
* Shareef O'Neal, basketball player
* Michael Ojo, basketball player
*Roberto Orci
Roberto Gaston Orcí (July 20, 1973 – February 25, 2025) was a Mexican-American film and television screenwriter and producer.
Born in Mexico City, Orci began his longtime collaboration with Alex Kurtzman while at school in California. Toge ...
, film and television writer and producer[
*]Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Kate Paltrow ( ; born September 27, 1972) is an American actress and businesswoman. The daughter of filmmaker Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner, she established herself as a leading lady appearing in mainly mid-budget and perio ...
, actress, businesswoman and author
* Amy Pascal, business executive and film producer[
* Austin Peralta, jazz musician
* Whitney Port, television personality and fashion designer
*]Jack Quaid
Jack Henry Quaid (born April 24, 1992) is an American actor. The son of actors Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid, he made his acting debut with a minor role in the dystopian film ''The Hunger Games (film), The Hunger Games'' (2012). Quaid was part of th ...
, actor
*Jason Ritter
Jason Morgan Ritter (born February 17, 1980) is an American actor. The son of actors John Ritter and Nancy Morgan, he is known for his work in television series such as ''Joan of Arcadia'' (2003–2005), ''Gravity Falls'' (2012–2016), '' Anot ...
, actor and producer
*Maya Rudolph
Maya Khabira Rudolph (born July 27, 1972) is an American actress and comedian. In 2000, she became a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL''). During her tenure on the show, she appeared in supporting roles in ...
, actress, comedian, singer, and voice actress[
* Tamir Saban (born 1999), ]American-Israeli
Israeli Americans () are Americans who are of full or partial Israeli descent.
The Israeli-American community, while predominantly Jewish, also includes various ethnic and religious minorities reflective of Israel's diverse demographics. This c ...
basketball player
* Blake Schwarzenbach, musician
*Evan Spiegel
Evan Thomas Spiegel (born June 4, 1990) is an American businessman, co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc. Spiegel was the youngest billionaire in the world in 2015. , he had a personal net worth of $2.6 billion according to ''Forbes''.
Early li ...
, businessman, co-founder of Snapchat
Snapchat is an American multimedia social media and instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of the app are that pictures and messages, known as "snaps", are usually availa ...
* Dayna Tortorici, writer
* Liv Tyler, actress and former model
* Andrew von Oeyen, classical musician
* Gillian Welch, musician[
* Vivian Wilson, daughter of Elon Musk
* Jessica Yellin, journalist]
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
1971 establishments in California
Buildings and structures in Santa Monica, California
Educational institutions established in 1971
Organizations based in Santa Monica, California
Preparatory schools in California
Private K–12 schools in Los Angeles County, California
Schools in Los Angeles County, California