Drew McClellan is a teacher and filmmaker leading Gen-Z’s new creators. A youthful mind and amicable personality, he couldn’t have been better suited to lead the departments of Cinematic and Visual Arts at LACHSA (Los Angeles County High School for the Arts), the famed public arts high school in Los Angeles. That he feels comfortable in his role is apparent to anyone who speaks to him, but there’s a good reason for it. As he puts it, “academia and education have been my family’s business”. With his father being on the faculty of Harvard Business School and then Dean of the graduate business school at Boston College, he grew up in academic settings – school libraries and lounges were his playgrounds. Yet, his own impulse was to follow his mother’s steps, a fine artist, and become a filmmaker. Ultimately, he was influenced by both parents – doing yoga and going on nature walks with mom, while reading the Art of War and strategic finance books after dad’s recommendations: “It was this yin and yang for me”.

“But I always loved movies,” he declared. After graduating from Howard University in English and working for an advertising company in Boston as a filmmaker, McClellan was ready to make the leap to Hollywood. His father agreed to pay for one week only but this did not deter him: “That’s all I need, just give me a week!” he laughed. In Los Angeles, the search for a job by cold calling, emailing and interviewing, led to the realization that going to film school and getting more experience was the thing to do. He ended up enrolling in USC’s graduate film school. The “USC chapter” as he called it, was pivotal:  “[It was my] entrée, the networks, the contacts, the relationships, and the training and education that solidified and validated me as a professional, a filmmaker, an artist”. While studying and working as a teaching assistant, his background in education “came creeping back in. Even if academia was less attractive to him than filmmaking, “academic work on the film side” seemed natural and desirable. 

“It has been refreshing to see that this generation really is looking at things from a lens that is universal. I hope that this stays and is not just a function of them being young”.

—— Drew McClellan, Chair of LACHSA Cinematic Arts

To read the full article visit https://www.goldenglobes.com/articles/doing-work-drew-mcclellan-lachsa

Originally published on https://www.goldenglobes.com/hfpa written by Ersi Danou June 12, 2020