THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 52 NOVEMBER 6, 2019
Illustrations by Wren McDonaldAnalysisThe Business
I
owe $104,530 in student
loans,” says Brian Kemm, an
aspiring screenwriter who
also works as a production assis-
tant on a variety of film sets and
as a bartender. “And it will be
higher by the end of this call.”
Though Kemm understands
that plenty of today’s Holly wood
power brokers didn’t have a col-
lege degree — examples include
dropouts Steven Spielberg and
Ellen DeGeneres — he attended
a master’s screenwriting pro-
gram at U.K.’s Sheffield Hallam
University. “I could come to L.A.
with empty pockets and no con-
nections or I could come to L.A.
with empty pockets, no con-
nections and a master’s degreeYoung Hollywood’s Student Loan Crisis
Increasing debt combined with high costs of living and stagnating wages means it’s more difficult than ever for those
without money or connections to break into the industry: ‘It has become a diversity issue and a class issue’range, adding that their work-
places rarely offered benefits nor
overtime pay. They also outlined
their work duties outside of the
traditional rolling call and script
coverage, including picking up
their boss’ children from school,
grocery shopping and “driving all
around Beverly Hills to find his
‘misplaced’ Porsche.”
“I was shocked and not shocked
to see that assistant wages were
as bad as when I started as an
assistant 10 years ago,” says
television writer Deirdre Mangan
(Roswell, New Mexico), who is
working with Alper to shine a
light on industry support staff
wages and is herself paying off
student loan debt acquired a
decade ago from USC.
Though low wages and living
on the cheap is a time-honored
tradition for industry newcomers,
the more than 40 recent gradu-
ates who spoke with THR say
their debt is holding them back
from advancing like their peers
without student loans. Many
note the irony of the situation
given Hollywood’s recent push
for inclusion. Student loan debt
“becomes a question of access,
and not everyone, especially
minorities, have connections in
the entertainment industries,”
says a Latinx production coor-
dinator for a major animation
studio. Many express a belief that
student debt only will exacerbate
the industry’s lack of diversity, as
those from low-income families
who carry debt will be unable to
sustain themselves on assistant
salaries. “It has become a diver-
sity issue and a class issue,” says
Alper. Adds Mangan, “There is a
small number of people who can
afford to take that pay, and it’s
rich white kids.”
The budgeting needed to pay off
student loans prevents some fromthat could tell someone reading
a résumé that I am serious,”
he says.
Kemm, 33, is a part of a
growing contingent of young
professionals trying to make
their way in the entertainment
industry while contending with
six figures’ worth of debt, illumi-
nating Hollywood’s increasingly
high barrier to entry. More than
one-third of the American popu-
lation between ages 25 and 34
carry student loans, which in the
U.S. now total $1.6 trillion. The
graduating class of 2016 owed an
average of $29,650, up 132 per-
cent from the average debt of the
graduates 20 years ago (according
to an inflation-adjusted analysis
of a federal study). Meanwhile,
entry-level Hollywood assistant
positions commonly pay $12.50
an hour (California minimumwage currently sits at $12), with
pretax weekly take-home pay
landing in the $650 to $700
range. While these wages have
remained relatively flat for the
past decade, monthly rent costs
have increased 34 percent from
2011 to 2018 (the median cost of
rent in L.A. is about $1,370; New
York i s $2,1 50).
“There are assistant salaries
that have not increased since
the early ’90s,” says Liz Alper, a
writer and WGA board member
who started the social media
movement #PayUpHollywood,
wherein Hollywood assistants
share their salaries and costs
of living. In the name of trans-
parency, under the hashtag,
dozens of former and current
Hollywood assistants offered up
their salaries on Twitter, most
in the $550- to $700-a-weekFINANCE | MIA GALUPPO AND KATIE KILKENNY
MIA GALUPPO is staff writer, film,
and KATIE KILKENNY is associate
editor, THR.com, at THR.