George Clooney and Eva Longoria to fund Los Angeles high school to help train teens for jobs in Hollywood

The public school funding aims to improve diversity in entertainment

George Clooney is among a group of celebrities banding together to help fund a Los Angeles public school, with the aim of improving diversity in Hollywood. Getty Images

Actors George Clooney, Don Cheadle and Eva Longoria have grouped together to help fund a new Los Angeles high school, with the aim of training students for jobs in the entertainment industry.

The New York Times reported on Monday that Clooney, Cheadle and Longoria, along with executives at the Creative Arts Agency, are to fund a specialised new magnet school, which is expected to open in August 2022.

The school is to be named the Roybal School of Film and Television Production, housed within the Edward R Roybal Learning Centre.

According to the newspaper: "The magnet school is intended to diversify the pipeline of cinematographers, engineers, visual effects artists and other technical workers in the city’s signature job sector, and is one of at least three joint initiatives started in the past two months between the Los Angeles schools and entertainment industry benefactors."

"We thought this would be a lot longer process," Clooney told the publication of suggesting the idea to Creative Artists Agency co-chairman Bryan Lourd. "But we found we were pushing an open door.

“Nobody is better at guilting a studio or union or guild into stepping up. It’s what we do.”

The high school is expected to open in autumn 2022 with an initial enrolment of 120 students and a budget of $7 million.

Clooney also told Deadline: "Our aim is to better reflect the diversity of our country. That means starting early. It means creating high school programmes that teach young people about cameras, and editing and visual effects and sound and all the career opportunities that this industry has to offer.

"It means internships that lead to well-paying careers. It means understanding that we’re all in this together.”