Schools with real history that no longer operate, or whose current operation we could not confirm from primary sources. They are kept out of the active directory on purpose. If you represent one of these programs and it is running, use the claim form and we will re-verify.
The West Coast campus of America's oldest acting conservatory (founded 1884 in New York) closed permanently at the end of the 2024-25 academic year, a casualty of declining national enrollment. The LA campus had operated since 1974, latterly in Hollywood next to the Jim Henson lot, granting a two-year associate degree. Incoming 2024 students were offered a teach-out transferring to New York, where the Academy continues to operate normally. Do not confuse AADA with AMDA, the separate and very much active college a mile and a half away.
Last known location: 1336 N. La Brea Ave, Los Angeles.
Checked 2026-07-16. Sources on file; tell us if this status is wrong.
The 45-seat Atwater Village theater and Stanislavski-based school run by Jamie Paolinetti for roughly two decades. Its website is gone and Paolinetti now describes his Atwater tenure in the past tense while teaching on-camera workshops in Pasadena under his new banner, Acting As An Artform. The building directory still lists the Playhouse, so we classify it Unverified rather than closed; if you know its current state, tell us.
Last known location: 3191 Casitas Ave, Ste 100, Los Angeles.
Checked 2026-07-16. Sources on file; tell us if this status is wrong.
For years a fixture of West Hollywood cold-reading and audition training on Fountain Avenue, with day and evening classes, a free orientation as the front door, and alumni claims reaching George Clooney and Tiffany Haddish. It is now confirmed closed: the listing is marked closed and the studio's old domain redirects to an unrelated business. What became of Brian Reise himself we could not determine.
Last known location: 7954 Fountain Ave, West Hollywood.
Checked 2026-07-16. Sources on file; tell us if this status is wrong.
The Studio City scene-study school co-owned by Cameron Thor and Alice Carter, once a well-known film-acting room with a waiting list. It ceased operating amid Thor's 2015 conviction for a lewd act on a minor, for which he served a prison sentence. Co-founder Alice Carter now runs her own separate, active school in North Hollywood (Alice's Studio for Actors), which should not be confused with this closed one.
Last known location: 12417 Ventura Ct, Studio City.
Checked 2026-07-16. Sources on file; tell us if this status is wrong.
A small Hollywood Method lab run by Cathleen Leslie, an Actors Studio lifetime member with Strasberg and Adler training who worked with Elia Kazan, and whom Frances Fisher has publicly credited. Her website has been offline since 2023 and no current schedule exists anywhere we could verify, so the lab is Unverified: she may still coach privately, but we cannot confirm classes. Directory-listed contact details are stale; verify directly before relying on them.
Last known location: , Los Angeles.
Checked 2026-07-16. Sources on file; tell us if this status is wrong.
David Kagen, a Carnegie Mellon-trained actor who taught at Yale and USC, ran a respected Sherman Oaks film-acting school founded in the 1980s, narrowing to private coaching by 2016. Both of the school's former domains have since been lost to squatters, Kagen retired from screen acting in 2015, and no evidence of teaching activity after the 2010s exists, so we classify it Unverified, leaning closed.
Last known location: , Los Angeles.
Checked 2026-07-16. Sources on file; tell us if this status is wrong.
The North Hollywood on-camera school run by David and Shanelle Gray, known for training young TV actors, is closed: its domain is parked for sale and its listing marked closed. The operation split into two successor schools after the founders parted ways. David Gray Studios in Burbank is active and has its own verified profile in this directory; Shanelle Gray Studios operates from Agoura Hills, largely on Zoom, outside our coverage area.
Last known location: 5250 Vineland Ave, North Hollywood.
Checked 2026-07-16. Sources on file; tell us if this status is wrong.
The LA branch of London's Identity School of Acting, the part-time drama school founded by Femi Oguns whose alumni include John Boyega and Letitia Wright, opened in East Hollywood in 2018. As of mid-2026 the school's own admissions pages list only UK and online branches, with every LA page redirecting to London content, though the homepage still names Los Angeles. That contradiction earns an Unverified label; email the school directly if you are seeking IDSA training in LA.
Last known location: 5481 Santa Monica Blvd (Thymele Arts), current use unverified, Los Angeles.
Checked 2026-07-16. Sources on file; tell us if this status is wrong.
John Kirby coached Hollywood actors for more than forty years from his Las Palmas Avenue studio, teaching Hagen-grounded scene study in intensive evening classes; studios hired him as an on-set coach worldwide. Kirby was diagnosed with ALS in 2023, community fundraisers support his care, and the studio's website lapsed in 2025. No closure announcement exists, so we list the studio as Unverified with warmth and respect rather than presume its end.
Last known location: 1510 N Las Palmas Ave, Los Angeles, CA.
Checked 2026-07-16. Sources on file; tell us if this status is wrong.
John Sudol's North Hollywood studio taught his Language of the Face approach, reading and producing genuine emotional expression on camera, for years before the physical location closed. Sudol remains professionally active online under his Emotion Training Center brand, teaching facial-expression workshops and memberships remotely. The LA studio itself is closed; actors interested in the technique can find him online.
Last known location: 11650 Riverside Dr, Ste 11, North Hollywood, CA.
Checked 2026-07-16. Sources on file; tell us if this status is wrong.
David Rountree's on-set, on-camera film school in North Hollywood, distinctive for filming every class with professional crews and handing actors the footage. Its enrollment store remains live with published prices, but the main website is entirely down and the store itself tells students to email before registering, so we classify it Unverified pending confirmation. Not to be confused with the Los Angeles Acting Studio (Irene Muzzy, Burbank) or the Danner conservatory in Culver City.
Last known location: 5435 Cahuenga Blvd, Studio B, North Hollywood.
Checked 2026-07-16. Sources on file; tell us if this status is wrong.
Richard Brander taught acting in Studio City for decades, claiming coaching work with Sylvester Stallone and Kevin Costner among others, and offered free audits at his one-man school on Moorpark Street. The school is confirmed closed: its listing is marked closed and its website no longer exists. An obituary index entry suggests Brander may have passed away, which we could not fully confirm.
Last known location: 12445 Moorpark St, Studio City.
Checked 2026-07-16. Sources on file; tell us if this status is wrong.
Paola Coletto's academy for physical theatre in the Lecoq tradition, founded in Chicago in 2012 and later based in Hollywood, offering professional training, Italian study programs, and educator intensives. Coletto, one of about forty people Lecoq personally certified as a pedagogical specialist, died in April 2023. The LA program is defunct, its domain lost, and its Italian successor school is also closed. Listed in her memory.
Last known location: , Los Angeles.
Checked 2026-07-16. Sources on file; tell us if this status is wrong.
Karen Storms coached actors of all ages from Sherman Oaks, with traveling seminars and early adoption of remote audition coaching by video call. The studio's website survives but has been effectively frozen for years, with no verifiable current classes from any primary source, so we classify it Unverified. Private coaching may well continue informally; contact the studio directly if interested.
Last known location: , Sherman Oaks.
Checked 2026-07-16. Sources on file; tell us if this status is wrong.
One of Hollywood's oldest acting schools, founded in 1927 as Ben Bard Drama and later home to Max Reinhardt and Michael Chekhov's teaching, with self-reported alumni including Marilyn Monroe and Clint Eastwood. Its accredited two-year conservatory shut down in 2025 after the parent consortium's owner died, and the school's own site describes a relaunch as a smaller workshop-based Creative Lab. Only two one-day workshops, both past, have appeared since, so we list it Unverified pending real scheduled programming.
Last known location: , Los Angeles.
Checked 2026-07-16. Sources on file; tell us if this status is wrong.
The Burbank studio of casting directors Christy Faison and Jami Rudofsky, known for its Audition Workout classes and no-audition enrollment. It is closed: the studio's domain now redirects to Faison's new casting and coaching business in Atlanta, and Rudofsky coaches in LA under her own name. No formal closure announcement exists, but no Village-branded activity has appeared since 2024.
Last known location: 847 N Hollywood Way (former location), Burbank.
Checked 2026-07-16. Sources on file; tell us if this status is wrong.
Wayne Dvorak taught a traditional two-year Meisner program in Los Feliz from 1982, structured into seven progressive exercise levels with an invitation-only industry showcase for graduates, at famously reasonable tuition. His site remains online but appears frozen since roughly 2018 and the studio's social accounts went quiet in 2020. We found no retirement or closure notice, so the studio is Unverified: call before assuming either way.
Last known location: 1949 Hillhurst Ave, Los Angeles.
Checked 2026-07-16. Sources on file; tell us if this status is wrong.
William Alderson served as Sanford Meisner's principal assistant and Associate Director at the Neighborhood Playhouse for some twenty years before founding his Hollywood studio in 1993, making it one of the purest first-generation Meisner rooms in Los Angeles. His own site bounded his teaching years as 1967 to 2024, and the studio is now closed following his retirement. A significant chapter of LA Meisner history.
Last known location: 1103 N El Centro Ave (last known; studio closed), Los Angeles.
Checked 2026-07-16. Sources on file; tell us if this status is wrong.