Drew McClellan

LACHSA Board Member
LACHSA Chair, Cinematic Arts

Drew McClellan is the Department Chair and Senior Program Specialist of the Cinematic & Visual Arts departments at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA) and serves on the LACHSA Foundation Board. A former graduate-level teaching assistant at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, he earned his MFA from USC’s Graduate School of Cinematic Arts and holds a BA in English Literature (Minor, TV/Film) from Howard University in Washington, DC.

Mr. McClellan was named a 2020 U.S. Presidential Scholar Distinguished Teacher by the U.S. Department of Education and has been recognized by the National Young Arts Foundation for his work mentoring, educating, and training talented, creative youth, including twelve (12) Young Arts Scholars and two (2) Presidential Scholars.

An accomplished writer/director/producer, his educational background includes extensive study of global media industries in Beijing, China at Peking University/The London School of Economics, English Literature at The University of California, Berkeley and Spanish language and culture at the Instituto de Comunicación in Oaxaca, Mexico.

In addition to designing, teaching, and implementing production focused curriculum in the LACHSA Cinematic Arts Department, he has created innovative cinematic arts pedagogies and instructional methods, including the cutting-edge Interactive Storytelling in Virtual & Augmented Reality course. Prior to his current position at LACHSA, he was the former lead instructor and education coordinator of cinema and media production for the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services’ Independent Living after-school program for foster teens throughout the greater Los Angeles area.

Drew has led numerous workshops focused on educating and developing talent in creative youth and has been a guest lecturer, consultant, moderator, and panelist at numerous conferences and symposiums, including the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, The Arts Schools Network Conference and Berklee College of Music’s City Music Summit.

Drew’s professional experience includes serving as in-house media director/producer for the W Hotel Hollywood, where he was responsible for producing W Hotel Worldwide branded content for in-room, online and social media platforms.

His professional credits include photography, ad campaigns, music videos and short films which have aired on Netflix, Viacom Networks, and international film festivals including The Palm Springs International Shorts Fest and the NY/LA International Independent Film Festival.