By Marsha Labunsky

The latest event hosted by the Harvard-Westlake Alumni Entertainment Network was a screening last Thursday of “Shut Up  And Sing,” a movie co-directed by Cecilia Peck ’75.

The Entertainment Network was started by Justin Swarz ’98 and Stephanie Wang ’98 in the fall of 2003 as a way for people in the entertainment industry to be able to meet, mingle and make lifetime connections. 

The Entertainment Network puts together about four events a year including happy hours, movie screenings, Q&A sessions with alumni actors and a representation night with a Q&A panel of talent agents, managers and attorneys.

“Representation Night was probably the most attended event we’ve had,” Director of Alumni Relations Jill Shaw said.
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n addition to the Entertainment Network, which has a membership of about 300, the advancement office also sponsors a Real Estate Network, which was started by Danny Seo ’96.

“After realizing how many alumni and parents of students were involved in various disciplines in the industry, I decided to make something happen so that we could all connect,” Seo said. “Real estate is very focused on people and relationships, so I thought it was important for Harvard-Westlake alum to gain as much of an edge as possible since it is also a fiercely competitive, yet collaborative industry.”

The network averages about 100 people per event and membership is growing quickly, Seo said. 

The inaugural real estate networking event was organized in March 2005 at the Beverly Hilton and sponsored by Beny Alagem (David ’08) and Matt Hart (Shannon ’07, Meghan ’04).  The next event was hosted by Steve Soboroff (Hannah ’07, Molly ’05, Jacob ’03) at Playa Vista, where attendees were also given a tour of the property.

“I feel the events are pretty well attended, and the people who are there seem to get a lot out of it,” Shaw said.