Hollywood and advertisers flock to campus as production booms at Oxy
As anyone looking for a parking space on lower campus while the cameras are rolling could tell you, it’s been a busy year for film production at Occidental in the greatest burst of activity since the mid-’90s heyday of Beverly Hills, 90210.
Recent productions include Rooster, the new HBO series starring Steve Carell as a visiting professor at the fictitious Ludlow College (where “Wisdom begins with wonder,” according to a banner on the Quad); The Shards, an adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ 2023 novel by prolific writer-producer Ryan Murphy, which premieres on FX in August; and the evergreen FX comedy It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, whose cast signed a life-sized cutout of Danny DeVito that’s on display in the Academic Commons.
Over the last 10 months, there have been 41 days of production activity on campus, according to Milena Warns, Oxy’s senior associate director of special events and projects. In addition to the aforementioned series, a number of national advertisers have filmed on campus, including Sprite, AT&T, Volkswagen, and Liberty Mutual. And while Limu Emu and Doug were nowhere to be found, at least it’s always sunny at Occidental.
Above: Steve Carell, as best-selling novelist Greg Russo, takes to the Choi Auditorium stage in the sitcom Rooster, which debuted on HBO in March.
