The University of Texas at Austin is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 51,913 students as of fall 2023, it is also the largest institution in the system.
Andy Samuel Griffith was an American actor, comedian, television producer, singer, and writer whose career spanned seven decades in music and television. Known for his Southern drawl, his characters with a folksy-friendly personality, as well as his gruff but friendly voice, Griffith was a Tony Award nominee for two roles. He gained prominence in the starring role in director Elia Kazan's film A Face in the Crowd (1957) and No Time for Sergeants (1958) before he became better known for his television roles, playing the lead roles of Andy Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show (1960–1968) and Ben Matlock in the legal drama Matlock (1986–1995).
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom television series that was aired on CBS from October 3, 1960, to April 1, 1968, with a total of 249 half-hour episodes spanning eight seasons—159 in black and white and 90 in color.
Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll. Cronkite received numerous honors including two Peabody Awards, a George Polk Award, an Emmy Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Andrew Aitken Rooney was an American radio and television writer who was best known for his weekly broadcast "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney", a part of the CBS News program 60 Minutes from 1978 to 2011. His final regular appearance on 60 Minutes aired on October 2, 2011; he died a month later at the age of 92.
Judd Seymore Hirsch is an American actor. He is known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy series Taxi (1978–1983), John Lacey on the NBC series Dear John (1988–1992), and Alan Eppes on the CBS series Numb3rs (2005–2010). He is also well known for his career in theatre and for his roles in films such as Ordinary People (1980), Running on Empty (1988), Independence Day (1996), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Independence Day: Resurgence (2016), Uncut Gems (2019), and The Fabelmans (2022).
Elmore Rual "Rip" Torn Jr. was an American actor whose career spanned roughly 60 years. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing Marsh Turner in Cross Creek (1983). Torn's portrayal of Artie the producer on The Larry Sanders Show (1993–1998) received six Emmy Award nominations, winning in 1996. Torn is also known for his roles as Judas Iscariot in King of Kings (1961), Thomas J. Finley, Jr. in Sweet Bird of Youth (1962), Dr. Nathan Bryce in The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Bob Diamond in Defending Your Life (1991), Zeus in Hercules (1997), Zed in the Men in Black franchise, Jim Brody in Freddy Got Fingered (2001), Patches O'Houlihan in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), and Louis XV in Marie Antoinette (2006).
Richard Stuart Linklater is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for making films that deal thematically with suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies Slacker (1990) and Dazed and Confused (1993); the Before trilogy of romance films: Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013); the music-themed comedy School of Rock (2003); the adult animated films Waking Life (2001), A Scanner Darkly (2006), and Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (2022); the coming-of-age drama Boyhood (2014); the comedy film Everybody Wants Some!! (2016); and the romantic comedy Hit Man (2023).
Kyle Martin Chandler is an American actor. He received critical acclaim for his performance as Eric Taylor in the NBC series Friday Night Lights (2006–2011), winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2011.
Andy Fickman is an American filmmaker. His credits as a theater director include the premiere of the Reefer Madness! musical, the first Los Angeles production of the play Jewtopia, and the Los Angeles, Off-Broadway and London productions of Heathers: The Musical.
Valerie Mahaffey is an American character actress and producer. She began her career starring in the NBC daytime soap opera The Doctors (1979–81), for which in 1980 she was nominated for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
Stephen Harrigan is an American novelist, journalist and screenwriter. He is best known as the author of the bestselling The Gates of the Alamo, for other novels such as Remember Ben Clayton and A Friend of Mr. Lincoln, and for his magazine work in Texas Monthly.
Benjamin Jeffrey Steinbauer is an American film director, showrunner, screenwriter, and film producer who directed the feature documentary Winnebago Man (2009). Steinbauer also directed the documentary Chop & Steele (2022), which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. He was the showrunner and director of the episodic television show High Hopes for Jimmy Kimmel's Kimmelot. He also directed the PBS show Stories of the Mind, and the CBS documentary series Pink Collar Crimes.
Alessandro Liborio Madrigal is an American comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is a co-founder of the All Things Comedy podcast network, alongside Bill Burr. He rose to fame on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as a regular correspondent for five seasons. Outside of the standup world, he is known for his co-starring roles in the film Night School, Showtime's dark comedy I'm Dying Up Here, NBC's About A Boy, as well as CBS sitcoms Broke, Gary Unmarried and Welcome to The Captain. He has also performed on Conan and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. He is currently developing multiple projects for TV within his current deal at CBS Studios.
Glen Thomas Powell Jr. is an American actor. He began his career with small roles on television and in films such as Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003) and Fast Food Nation (2006). Powell had roles in the comedy-horror series Scream Queens (2015–2016), the teen comedy Everybody Wants Some!! (2016), and the romantic comedy Set It Up (2018). He also portrayed astronaut John Glenn in Hidden Figures (2016) and aviator Tom Hudner in Devotion (2022).
Matthew David McConaughey is an American actor. He achieved his breakthrough with a supporting performance in the coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused (1993). After a number of supporting roles, his first success as a leading man came in the legal drama A Time to Kill (1996). His career progressed with lead roles in the science fiction film Contact (1997), the historical drama Amistad (1997), and the war film U-571 (2000).
John J. Strauss is an American producer and writer of film and television. He has written a variety of films across numerous genres - animation, drama, comedy, and more. He is best known for writing There's Something About Mary (1998), The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003), and The Santa Clause 2 (2002).
Andy Cowan is an American writer and script consultant for television and other media. He is the creator and host of the comedy/therapy podcast, The Neurotic Vaccine, launched in 2022 from Benztown + McVay Media Podcast Networks. The Neurotic Vaccine wound up landing among the top comedy interview podcasts in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Italy, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, and Romania, and in 2023 was a multiple final Quill (podcasting) Award nominee for Best New Podcast and Best Comedy Podcast. From 2010–2011, he co-hosted his radio comedy therapy talk show, Up & Down Guys, on KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles.
Balls Out is a 2014 American sports comedy film directed by Andrew Disney, based on a script by Bradley Jackson. The film stars Jake Lacy, Beck Bennett, Jay Pharoah, Nikki Reed, Kate McKinnon, DC Pierson, Nick Kocher, Brian McElhaney, Nick Rutherford and Gabriel Luna, and focuses on a group of college seniors that decide to form an intramural football team before graduating.
Gabriel Isaac Luna is an American actor and producer. He is known for his roles as Robbie Reyes / Ghost Rider on the ABC action superhero series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Tony Bravo on the El Rey Network drama series Matador, Paco Contreras on the ABC crime drama series Wicked City, Rev-9 in the Terminator film Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), and Tommy Miller in the HBO post-apocalyptic drama series The Last of Us. He has also starred in the films Bernie (2011), Balls Out (2014), Freeheld (2015), Gravy (2015), and Transpecos (2016).
