We give students the knowledge and skills to become tomorrow’s artists, leaders and scholars.
At the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television we are committed to being a world-renowned interdisciplinary professional hub, dedicated to cultivating exceptional humanistic storytellers, trailblazing industry leaders, and insightful scholars.
Every day, everywhere, ideas for movies, media and theater compose our lives as makers of film and theater. We encounter moments that capture entire relationships or witness events that reveal breathtaking meaning. Life is amazing in this way for those acutely attuned to stories around us and in us. For scholars, the opportunities to theorize, historicize, critique, and celebrate movies, media and plays help us all achieve better lives. The formulation of new fields and frameworks enables better understanding of the self and the other. This is how we forge needed relations and inspire repair and recovery in a world where misunderstanding and schism often befall us.
UCLA TFT provides all students with the grammar, structure, and vocabulary to learn their craft as practitioners and scholars. Our hallowed halls, stimulating classrooms, challenging assignments, creative and analytic projects provide the scaffolding to experiment with and actualize raw ideas that will transform film and theater! The research and teaching of our world-class faculty and the expertise of our devoted staff ensure the development and success of our students whose talents and capacities for representing the widest range of humanity deserve and demand support.
As the new Dean, I bring to UCLA TFT the love of an alumna and the lessons of my personal story as an immigrant woman of color, a grieving mother, a high-achieving scholar and prolific filmmaker, all to bring UCLA TFT to its next eminence globally, nationally, regionally and locally with a sense of accountability, respect, awe, reverence, and unstoppable strength, force, and joy that befits our institution’s history.
I learned to teach here with Teshome Gabriel—whose focus on Third Cinema put UCLA TFT on the map. His work on the role of cinema and performance in times of national liberation is even more relevant today. My thesis advisor Bob Nakamura brought together film and theater with the civil rights movement as an alumnus of the storied Ethnocommunications program and the L.A. Rebellion, a movement that created a moving image archive of the highest aesthetic achievement aligned with goals of social justice. Under their tutelage, I obtained the confidence to step into my own power as an artist and scholar both. .
I believe that every encounter with our institution must be transformative, for that is what happened to me here as a student. I became my bold self and brave name known for fearless research and compassionate leadership. I carry with me a passionate vision of truly inclusive excellence for our community—independent creative experimentation, global awareness, and impactful innovation—for our alumni, faculty, staff and students. Join us!
UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television is aligned with UCLA’s mission as a leading public university. Our student, faculty, and program successes are made possible by private philanthropic support. Making a tax-deductible gift helps us achieve many goals for our programs and students while cultivating the next generation of storytellers.
