High schoolers in Boyle Heights and North Long Beach are getting a rare backstage pass into Hollywood this fall, thanks to a new free training program that puts them alongside real television crews. The Television Academy Foundation has launched its first-ever Production Assistant Training program for high school students, a 10-week after-school course built to prepare teens for entry-level production jobs and longer careers in entertainment.
The program, funded through an investment from Best Buy, runs at two Best Buy Teen Tech Center sites: the Weingart East Los Angeles YMCA in Boyle Heights and the North Stars YMCA Teen Tech Center in North Long Beach. According to the Television Academy, the funding supports the Foundation’s broader Skill-Building and Career Readiness initiative, and the free curriculum began this month. The North Stars site, located at 851 E Via Carmelitos, already serves as a hub for technology and workforce-development programming for local teens, per the Los Angeles County Office of Education.
The curriculum pairs classroom instruction with direct exposure to the people who actually run sets. Students learn from a cross-section of production professionals, including production assistants, production coordinators, assistant directors, production managers, producers, location managers and production accountants, the program notes. Field trips to both scripted and unscripted television productions let students experience professional sets, meet department heads and connect what they learn in the classroom with real production environments.
First Field Trip Lands at an AFV Taping
Students got their first taste of the program's hands-on approach on October 24, when the group attended a taping of America's Funniest Home Videos in Manhattan Beach. A photo caption from the Television Academy identifies David Haro, Morgan Crafton, Vin Di Bona, Kevin O. Campos and Aalijah Perez as participants in that outing, offering students a direct look at how an unscripted production actually operates on set.
Leading the classroom side is Television Academy Board Governor Donny Hugo Herran, who serves as the program's first instructor. Herran brings more than 20 years of experience overseeing large-scale scripted and unscripted content, the Television Academy's bio notes, and has worked as executive in charge of production for shows including Yellowstone, 1923, Landman, MobLand, The Challenge, Love & Hip Hop, Martha & Snoop's Dinner Party and Siesta Key. He previously served as senior vice president of physical production at Paramount and founded Ellevan Creative Consulting, which includes partnerships with CMG Productions in the United Kingdom. Herran is also the author of The Production Guru: Leadership Principles and Philosophies Across Film, Television and Beyond.
“I'm proud to lead this inaugural program and prepare aspiring crew members to help them thrive behind the scenes,” Herran said, according to the Television Academy. Tina Perry, chair of the Television Academy Foundation, said the program combines industry education, practical training, mentorship and real-world exposure to support students exploring television and entertainment careers.
Best Buy's Role and the Program's Finish Line
Best Buy Teen Tech Centers are an initiative of the Best Buy Foundation designed to help prepare young people for careers in Los Angeles's creative economy. Olivia Jefferson, vice president of social impact at Best Buy, said the company supports hands-on experience, mentors and industry relationships for young people in Los Angeles, according to the Television Academy's announcement.
The program wraps with a celebration at the Television Academy's North Hollywood campus, where participating students will receive a certificate of completion.
Part of a Wider Push to Open Entertainment Careers to Teens
The new program fits into a growing patchwork of creative-career pipelines across Southern California aimed at young people who might otherwise have no entry point into the entertainment industry. Los Angeles County's Creative Career Pathways for Youth program, for instance, is designed to develop pathways into arts and creative-industry careers through work-based learning and leadership opportunities, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture. That county program specifically targets access for youth of color, LGBTQ+ and disabled youth, young people on probation, and current or former foster youth, connecting participants to career advisers, case management, stipends and certifications.
The stakes for breaking into the field are real: California's creative economy accounted for roughly one in 10 jobs statewide and paid more than double the wages of the rest of the state's economy, according to a June 2024 Otis College report cited by the county arts department. Other efforts echo the same goal from different angles — Long Beach's Creative Corps program was scheduled to train a cohort of 10 young adults ages 18 to 24 in production assistant work on September 23–24, 2026, and provide career coaching, according to the City of Long Beach, while the California Film Commission supports K-12 Arts, Media and Entertainment career-technical education in public schools statewide.
