Apply for the 2025 AAPI Careers in Entertainment Creative Fellowship
While the AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) community have helped build America and contributed to culture around the world, until very recently mainstream storytelling from Hollywood has not reflected these contributions or included narratives of the diaspora. We believe in empowering and guiding students to understand and find footing in careers in entertainment and seek to create a pipeline of creatives from Cal to Hollywood.
Through our AAPI Careers in Entertainment Creative Fellowship, BCNM, powered through the collaborative volunteer efforts of Cal alumni and entertainment industry veterans, aims to transform both how entertainment career opportunities are viewed by students, and how AAPI are viewed within the entertainment industry. Selected fellows will receive a summer stipend of $1,500 plus mentorship from industry professionals. The funding will help fellows pursue the start to their creative career journey in media and entertainment over the summer. From our experience the best way to enter the entertainment industry is through an internship at a Hollywood talent agency, management company, studio or a related hands-on internship at an entertainment company broadly defined.
Fellows will also receive valuable mentorship from industry leaders Jason Lin (Producer, Story Arch Pictures), Joanne Lee (EVP, Jackson Pictures, and Jonder Ho (SVP, Business Affairs, Universal Studios Group), which will include activities and events, such as lunches, 1-1 meetings, speaker events and more.
Apply today. Applications are due April 7, 2025.
This is the third year of our fellowship. Previous fellows secured full-time graduating jobs at companies like Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and have interned for companies ranging from Range Media Partners to Free The Work. We look forward to building a pipeline of young professionals to the entertainment industry.
Students should have already applied for internships they are seeking by the time of application and will need to secure their own internship offer, housing, transportation, etc. The criteria to unlock the fellowship is to have secured a full-time summer internship. We KNOW these internships are few and difficult to obtain. We are open to a variety of entertainment internships in functions such as mailroom, assistant, marketing, finance, PR, strategy, distribution, etc.; or types of companies such as talent agencies, management companies, large or small studios, production companies, toy makers, or video game companies). It is also highly suggested that the fellow and their internship be located in Los Angeles to fully take advantage of mentorship opportunities. Your internship in entertainment is the first step, you will have many ways to manage and guide your career, this fellowship and the mentors are here to share experience to help you make better decisions for your career goals. For students seeking internships, some resources include (with many more online or via your campus careers):
We want to build a network of Cal alumni in leadership positions in entertainment who, by developing narratives that feature AAPI and encouraging greater diversity at all levels within studios and agencies, will make strides to change the ecosystem of cultural production to be more reflective of the AAPI community at large.
This year, BCNM has one Fellowship to award. Students will be selected based on their commitment to developing narratives that feature Asian American and Pacific Islanders and encouraging greater diversity at all levels within entertainment.
Apply today. Applications are due April 7, 2025.
More information on our mentors here.
The AAPI Careers in Entertainment Creative Fellowship is made possible by the generous support of Sam Kwok and the College of Engineering.