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Arts and Entertainment

Photo Credit: IMDb

Andy Ackerman '78, TV producer and director, “Seinfeld,” “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Frasier,” “Two and a Half Men,” “Rules of Engagement,” and “Whitney”; co-producer, “Cheers”; producer, “The Ellen Show”; director, “Perfect Couples,” “The Conners”; winner, three prime time Emmys ( youngest person to win an Emmy for technical achievement in editing at the age of 24); winner, Golden Globe; winner, two Directors Guild Awards

Michelle Ashford '83, Emmy-nominated screenwriter and producer, HBOs “The Pacific” and Showtime’s “Masters of Sex”

Max Baer, Jr. '59, actor, Jethro on “The Beverly Hillbillies”; comedian; director, “Hometown U.S.A.”; writer and producer, “Macon County Line” (highest-grossing movie per dollar invested at the time)

Michele Borba '72, M.A. '75, Ph.D., author, “Thrivers,” “Don’t Give Me That Attitude!,” “Parents Do Make a Difference,” “Building Moral Intelligence,” and “Unselfie”; regular contributor, NBC’s “Today Show”; anti-bullying activist (her proposal “Ending School Violence and Bullying” (SB1667) was signed into California law in 2002; motivational speaker

Jeff Brazil '85, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist (1993 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Journalism); former staff writer, “Orlando Sentinel”; former writer and editor, “Los Angeles Times”; winner, Worth Bingham Prize; winner, Scripps Howard Award; communication director, University of Californias Humanities Research Institute’s Digital Media and Learning Research Hub

Lindsay Bruce '10, former contestant, NBCs “The Voice”; recording artist (Apple Music, Spotify)

Ken Eklund '79, producer, "World Without Oil" (an alternate reality game, ARG) ; recipient of the Peabody Legacy Class Award 

Blye Faust '97, producer, “Spotlight” (2016 Academy Award winner, Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay); three-time nominee, Golden Globe Awards; five-time winner, Independent Spirit Awards; co-producer, “The Queen Latifah Show”; producer, “LuLaRich”; documentary producer, “Belly of the Beast” (2021 News & Documentary Emmy Award winner, Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary) and “Rewind”; Advisory Committee member, Mill Valley Film Festival’s Mind the Gap; executive producer, "Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets"

Ron Hansen M.A. '95, author, “Mariette in Ecstasy” (wrote screenplay for 1996 film adaption), “Atticus” (adapted into the film “Missing Pieces”), “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (made into a feature film in 2007), and “Exiles and Desperadoes”; Literature Award winner, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters

Paul Hoen ‘84, TV director and producer, Disney Channel TV programming: “Luck of the Irish,” “Jump In!,” “The Cheetah Girls: One World,” “Dadnapped,” “Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam,” “Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide,” “Let It Shine,” "Raven's Home," "Andy Mack," "Zombies 1-3," and “Jonas”; director, “Sabrina the Teenage Witch”; winner, two Director’s Guild Awards

Khaled Hosseini '88, author, “The Kite Runner,” “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” “And the Mountains Echoed,” “Sea Prayer”; founder, The Khaled Hosseini Foundation (nonprofit to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan); U.S. goodwill envoy to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Refugee Agency

Jerry Howarth '68, former radio broadcaster, Toronto Blue Jays; winner, Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s Jack Graney Award

Dana Jang '70, program director, Digity San Jose; former program director, NextMedia Group; former radio personality, various Bay Area and San Jose radio stations including Live 105, KOME, and KSJO; 2021 Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame inductee

Francisco Jimenez '66, author, “Taking Hold,” “The Circuit,” “Breaking Through,” and “Reaching Out”; professor, 2002 U.S. Professor of the Year, CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education); winner, David Logothetti Award for Teaching in Excellence from Santa Clara University 

Jorma Kaukonen '64, guitarist, Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna; member, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; #54 of the 100 Greatest Guitarists, “Rolling Stone Magazine”

Ron Lagomarsino '73, movie director, “My Sister’s Keeper,” “Running Mates,” “Dinner at Eight”; stage and TV director, “Joan of Arcadia,” “My So-Called Life,” “Picket Fences” (winner, 1993 Directors Guild of America Award), “Driving Miss Daisy,” “Pretty Little Liars,” “Switched at Birth,” “Ghost Whisperers,” “The Fosters,” and “Hart of Dixie”; Primetime Emmy Award winner for “Homefront”

Michael Malone '75, MBA '77, author; columnist, ABC News, “Silicon Insider” column; op-ed contributor, “The Wall Street Journal”; contributing editor, “Wired”; editor-in-chief, Edgelings.com; former columnist, “San Jose Mercury News,” “Fortune,” and “The New York Times”; former editor, “Forbes ASAP”; producer, Emmy-nominated T.V. mini-series “The New Heroes”; Distinguished Friend, Oxford University; producer, “The New Heroes”

Kelly Moore '78, author, “Deadly Medicine” (a New York Times Bestseller), “Amber House”, “Neverwas,” and “Otherwhen”

Shemar Moore '92, producer and actor, “S.W.A.T.”; TV actor, “Criminal Minds,” “The Young and the Restless” (winner, Daytime Emmy Award, Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series); host, “Soul Train”; eight-time winner, NAACP Image Awards; model, DNA Model Management

Alex Nesic '96, actor, “Sleeper Cell”, “High Crimes,” and “What Boys Like”

Barry O'Brien '79, TV writer, “CSI Miami”, “Happy Days,” “Muppet Babies,” “Judging Amy,” “Hanging with Mr. Cooper,” “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” and “Ghostbusters”; co-creator, “Hannah Montana”; executive producer, “Gone,” “Guys Like Us,” “Between Brothers,” “Touch,” “Intelligence,” and “CSI: Miami”

Arthur Schmidt ’59, Oscar-winning film editor, "Forrest Gump," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," "Jaws 2," "Back to the Future," "Back to the Future Part II," "Back the Future Part III," "Contact," and "Cast Away," among many others.

Ted Templeman '66, record producer, produced for major artists such as Aerosmith, Carly Simon, Eric Clapton, Van Halen, Van Morrison, and The Doobie Brothers

Lex van den Berghe '85, final contestant, “Survivor Africa”; contestant, “Survivor: All-Stars”

Tyshun Wardlaw '06, director, “Growing Up Milwaukee,” “Hummingbird: A Sister’s Courage”; production manager, “The New Jim Crow: Majority Rules”

Adam Zotovich '97, Broadway producer, “The Color Purple,” “The Addams Family,” “A View From the Bridge,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “Of Mice and Men,” “Legally Blonde” (musical), “Dear Evan Hansen,” and “An Act of God”; performer, “Contact,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Chicago,” and “The Wedding Singer”; winner, Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical