{"id":4129,"date":"2025-02-01T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-01T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/?p=4129"},"modified":"2025-02-04T11:11:47","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T16:11:47","slug":"au-alums-on-the-silver-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/2025\/02\/01\/au-alums-on-the-silver-screen\/","title":{"rendered":"AU Alums on the Silver Screen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AU isn’t just a Capitol Hill breeding ground\u2014it’s also the alma mater of a number of acclaimed actors, writers, and directors of whom you may have heard. Here are a few AU alumni in the entertainment industry with works you can check out from our collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
Image via Jewish News<\/a>.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Caroline Aaron<\/strong>
Actor and playwright Caroline Aaron graduated from AU in 1974 with a BA in performing arts. Just last year, she returned to campus for a commencement address<\/a>. With a lengthy filmography, a few highlights in our collection include Edward Scissorhands<\/a><\/em> (1990), Sleepless in Seattle<\/a> <\/em>(2003), and 21 Jump Street<\/a><\/em> (2012).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
Image via My Central Jersey<\/a>.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sean Astin<\/strong>
After a forty-year career in entertainment with credits in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (Fellowship of the Ring<\/a><\/em>, Two Towers<\/a><\/em>, Return of the King<\/a><\/em>) and The Goonies<\/a><\/em> (1985), Sean Astin decided to continue his education and enroll at AU. Astin graduated in 2024 with a Masters degree in Public Administration and Policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
Image via <\/em>West<\/em> Point<\/em><\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Max Brooks<\/strong>`
Author, actor, zombie aficionado and son of Mel Brooks graduated from AU in 1997 with a Masters in film. In the early 2000s, Brooks was a writer for Saturday Night Live<\/em>, and in 2006, he published the novel World War Z: an Oral History of the Zombie War<\/a><\/em>. Brooks earned writing credits on the 2013 film adaptation World War Z<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
Image via Creative Commons<\/a>.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Goldie Hawn<\/strong>
Academy award-winning actress Goldie Hawn attended AU in the mid 1960s before dropping out to pursue a career in dance. After a stint of supporting roles in sitcoms and sketch shows, Hawn found success in the film industry, appearing in movies such as The Sugarland Express<\/em><\/a> (1974), Shampoo<\/a><\/em> (1975), and Everyone Says I Love You<\/em><\/a> (1996). In 2002, AU granted Hawn an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
Image via The Baltimore Sun<\/a>.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Barry Levinson<\/strong>
Film director and producer Barry Levinson studied broadcast journalism at AU, graduating in 1967 with a BA. With an oeuvre featuring acclaimed titles such as Diner<\/a><\/em> (1982), Good Morning, Vietnam<\/em><\/a> (1987), and Rain Man<\/em><\/a> (1988) which earned him an Academy Award for best director. Levinson regards his time at AU as the origin of his interest in radio and television.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
Image via Creative Commons<\/a>.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tom Maddox, PhD<\/strong>
A close collaborator of science-fiction novelist William Gibson, Tom Maddox is notable in his own right for authoring the novel Halo <\/em>and numerous short stories. In the late 1990s, Gibson and Maddox co-wrote two episodes for the science fiction drama series The X-Files<\/em>, titled Kill Switch<\/a> <\/em>and First Person Shooter<\/a><\/em>. Maddox held a PhD<\/a> in Literary Studies from AU and taught literature at Evergreen State College prior to his passing in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
Image via Creative Commons<\/a>.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ernest Thompson<\/strong>
Playwright and author Ernest Thompson is perhaps best known for his 1979 play On Golden Pond<\/em>, which was adapted into a film<\/a> two years later and earned him an Academy Award for best screenplay. In years since, Thompson has written and directed a number of films, some of which he adapted from his own Broadway productions. Thompson was interviewed<\/a> by American University Magazine in November 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
Image via Rotten Tomatoes<\/a>.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Charlie Wachtel<\/strong>
After graduating from AU in 2008 with a Bachelor’s in Film & Media Arts, Charlie Wachtel moved to Los Angeles with Hollywood aspirations. Less than a decade later, he walked onto stage and accepted the Academy Award for best screenplay for the 2018 film BlacKkKlansman<\/a><\/em>. After developing the screenplay from a 2014 memoir of the same title, Wachtel and his writing partner David Rabinowitz teamed up with Jordan Peele and Spike Lee to produce what would become a hugely successful, six-time-nominated Academy Award film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Russell
Image via IMDb<\/a>.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Russell Williams II<\/strong>
Now a distinguished artist-in-residence in AU’s Film and Media Arts department, Russell Williams II began his career as an audio engineer while working on his BA in film production and literature. After graduating from AU in 1974, he pursued further training in audio engineering in Los Angeles, where he got his start in the film industry. Williams worked as a sound mixer for dozens of films and TV productions in the 80s, and in 1989, he won the Academy Award for best achievement in sound for his work on the movie Glory<\/a><\/em>. The following year, he won the same award for Dances with Wolves<\/a> (1990)<\/em>, making him the first African American to win two Academy Awards.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honorable <\/em>mention: Judge Judy Sheindlin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
Image via Creative Commons<\/a>.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Any listicle on AU alumni in entertainment would be remiss without the venerable Judge Judy. With a nearly three decade on-screen career and well over 6000 episodes broadcast to date, no other television arbitrator has had such an enormous impact on the American conception of the legal system. Enrolling at AU in the early 1960s, Sheindlin earned a BA in Government and started her JD at Washington College of Law as the only female student in the class. While our media collection regrettably doesn’t feature any of her televised career, her pre-stardom book “Don’t Pee on My Leg and Tell Me It’s Raining<\/a>” is available at the library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AU isn’t just a Capitol Hill breeding ground\u2014it’s also the alma mater of a number of acclaimed actors, writers, and directors of whom you may have heard. Here are a few AU alumni in the entertainment industry with works you can check out from our collection. Caroline AaronActor and playwright Caroline Aaron graduated from AU […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":4186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,9],"tags":[438],"class_list":{"0":"post-4129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-academy-awards","8":"category-actors","9":"category-directors","10":"tag-au-alums","12":"post-with-thumbnail","13":"post-with-thumbnail-large"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4129"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4208,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129\/revisions\/4208"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}