When you attend summer school at Harvard-Westlake in Studio City, star sightings are a common occurrence. San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey was training on the track at Ted Slavin Field at lunchtime on Monday, June 17. 

The 2024 Summer Journalism class is in session for three weeks from 9 a.m. to 12:35 p.m. HW Media teachers Billy Montgomery and Jen Bladen, with teaching assistant Colin Ho HW ’26, run the class for 12 students from Larchmont Charter, St. Mark’s School of Texas, Marlborough School, and both the middle and upper schools of Harvard-Westlake.

But even before the students started investigating Los Angeles, they already had brushes with fame. 

“One of my biggest flexes is that in elementary school we had a buddy system and in second grade I was paired up with Sadie Sandler,” Maddy Wynholds HW ’28 said. Sandler, whose dad is actor-comedian Adam Sandler, was in fifth grade at the time and is now an actress, known for “Pixels” (2015), “Hotel Transylvania” (2012) and “Bedtime Stories” (2008).

According to LACounty.gov (2016), Los Angeles is home to approximately 640,500 entertainment industry jobs, among them being movie and TV stars, musicians, models and influencers. This industry contributes $158.3 billion to the economy of Los Angeles annually.

“Oh my God, you know who I saw at Erewhon yesterday?” Ho said. “Yung Gravy.”

Yung Gravy is an American rapper and singer-songwriter who made his debut in 2018 with “1 Thot 2 Thot Red Thot Blue Thot.” He’s been photographed at the Sportsmen’s Lodge Erewhon frequently by Harvard-Westlake students. 

Many celebrities are parents at Los Angeles schools. Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck send their children to Carlthorp where Vivienne Kremser Marlborough ’30 and Lila Minx HW ’30 just graduated.

“At our sixth grade graduation, JLo danced with us the whole time,” Kremser said. “The party was at Ben Affleck’s house,” Minx said.