Please join us for the second season of the Chapman Master Classes, featuring some of the leading members of the entertainment industry. These one-hour interviews are open to all Chapman students, faculty, staff and Dodge alumni.

The Master Classes will kick off on Wednesday, Feb. 3 at 7 pm with a very special surprise guest! Trust us, you won’t want to miss this.

Please see our exciting line-up below. Links will be emailed to Dodge students or can be found at events.chapman.edu.

 

Wednesday 2/3 @ 7:00pm – SURPRISE GUEST

To launch the spring semester Master Classes, join us for our surprise guest. This award-winning actor-director is one of the most admired talents working in Hollywood today.

 

 

 

Wednesday 2/10 @ 7:00pm – LENA WAITHE, screenwriter-actor, Master of None

One of the most talked-about artists in Hollywood, Lena Waithe is a writer, producer and actor. In 2017 she became the first Black woman to win an Emmy Award for outstanding writing in a comedy series — for Master of None, in which she also starred.

 

Wednesday 2/17 @ 7:00pm – DEE DEE MYERS, former White House press secretary and Warner Bros. head of communications

Dee Dee Myers served as the 17th White House press secretary during the first two years of the Clinton Administration; she was the first woman and second-youngest person ever to hold that position. Myers later co-hosted the news program Equal Time and was a consultant on The West Wing. From 2014 until 2020, she headed corporate communications at Warner Bros.

 

 

Wednesday 2/24 @ 7:00pm – BARRY JENKINS, writer-director, Moonlight

Barry Jenkins became an overnight sensation with his Oscar-winning Moonlight. The writer-director followed that with If Beale Street Could Talk and now he’ll tell us about his new project: an adaptation of the bestselling Underground Railroad. In 2017, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

 

 

 

Wednesday 3/3 @ 7:00pm – BARBARA KOPPLE, documentarian, American Dream

One of the most revered documentary directors in the world, Barbara Kopple is a two-time Academy Award winner whose films include Harlan County, USA and American Dream.

 

 

 

Wednesday 3/10 @ 7:00pm – Frank Marshall, producer, Jurassic World

One of Hollywood’s top producers, Frank Marshall has made some of the biggest blockbusters of all time — including Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future and Jurassic World. A longtime partner of Steven Spielberg, he’s worked with a who’s who of Hollywood, from Martin Scorsese to Clint Eastwood to Brad Pitt.

 

 

Wednesday 3/17 @ 7:00pm – JASON BLUM, producer, Paranormal Activity

The king of the low-budget horror film, Jason Blum is known for such blockbusters as the Paranormal Activity franchise and Insidious. But he’s also one of Hollywood’s most admired producers, with Oscar nominations for Whiplash, Get Out and BlacKkKlansman.

 

 

Wednesday 3/31 @ 7:00pm – DAMIEN CHAZELLE, director, La La Land

Damien Chazelle is a director, producer and screenwriter known for Whiplash, La La Land and First Man. In 2016 he became the youngest person in history to win the Oscar for Best Director.

 

 

 

Wednesday 4/7 @ 7:00pm – BONG JOON HO, director, Parasite

Bong Joon Ho became world-famous last year when his Parasite became the first non-English-language film to win an Oscar for Best Picture, one of three Academy Awards the Korean master won that night. He’ll be interviewed by Chapman professor Nam Lee, the author of a new book about his movies.

 

 

Wednesday 4/28 @ 7:00pm – TED SARANDOS, CEO of Netflix

Arguably the single most powerful man in Hollywood — he’s spending $16 billion on content this year alone — Ted Sarandos is Netflix’s co-CEO and Chief Content Officer and the man who greenlights hits such as The Crown, The Queen’s Gambit and Bridgerton.

 

 

 

Wednesday 5/12 @ 7:00pm – PETE DOCTER, head of Pixar

Currently the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar Animation Studios, Pete Docter is the director of such films as Monsters, Inc., Up, Inside Out and Soul. He started his journey at Pixar in the early 1990s and was one of the lead screenwriters for Toy Story. Docter has won two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature.