Mike De Luca: Storyteller. Inspiration. FWCD Parent. 

Film Studies Teacher (and History Department Chair) Colin Douglas ’05 invited Mike De Luca to speak to his class along with classes of Lisa Wallace (videographers from the publications team) and Sil Azevedo (photography students exploring video). What a gift to hear from Mr. De Luca, FWCD parent and Co-Chair and CEO of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Groups. A self-described storytelling junkie, De Luca told his own story of finding film as a young child in Manhattan and pursuing his passion from undergraduate school at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts to various roles as a Hollywood Producer, Director and Executive. 

My thrill was hearing these stories in the presence of our students. Someone in that room is going to find their life altered by what De Luca shared.  Either they will get an internship (in whatever field they are passionate about) like De Luca did and parlay that into a career, or they will find some way to tell their story as an artist, like De Luca did. Everyone in that room heard great stories about films they knew and didn’t know. (DeLuca shared that his all-time favorite film is Laurence of Arabia, noting a fantastic screenplay). Everyone knew they were hearing from a man who has been in the room where it happened many times over. 

De Luca is an industry leader. His industry happens to be the highly visible world of film. In our remarkable school community, we have any number of industry leaders. Every time you tell your stories to our students, you have the very good chance of altering the trajectory of a student's life … for the better. Please let us know if you are willing to share your story or know someone we should ask to meet with a class.