- LA’s Palisades Charter High School was damaged by a wildfire on Tuesday.
- The school has a rich pop culture legacy, with J.J Abrams, Will.i.am, and Forest Whitaker among its alumni.
- “Carrie,” “Teen Wolf,” “Freaky Friday,” and an Olivia Rodrigo music video were filmed on its campus.
A wildfire partially destroyed an iconic Los Angeles high school with A-list alumni, which was used as a set for iconic films including “Freaky Friday” and “Carrie.”
According to the California Department of Education, 335 schools closed as numerous fires raged across the greater Los Angeles area, affecting more than 211,000 students.
Palisades Charter High School, which was set to start a new term next week, set on fire on Tuesday evening. Some of the school’s athletic facilities and bungalow structures at the back of its campus were burned, The LA Times reported.
A representative for PCHS did not immediately respond to a comment request from Business Insider about the extent of the damage.
Staff members and student athletes who were at the school when the fire broke out were quickly evacuated from the premises, the outlet reported.
The main building is still standing, and PCHS’ principal, Pam Magee, told the parents of the approximately 3,000 students that 70% of the campus structures may have survived, the LA Times reported.
The school’s website said updates would be provided on a new term date start.
Palisades Charter High School has a rich pop culture legacy
PCHS, which opened in 1961 and became an independent charter school in 2003, has appeared in multiple TV shows and movies.
It was one of the many schools used as a location to represent Bates High School in the original 1976 film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel “Carrie.” The film received two Oscar nominations and has been referenced many times in movies, TV series, and by musicians.
All the school scenes for 2003’s “Freaky Friday,” starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, were filmed at PCHS. A sequel is currently in the works and due to premiere in August.
Seasons three to seven of “Teen Wolf,” a supernatural teen drama released in the mid-2010s, uses PCHS for the outside shots of Beacon Hills High School. The first two seasons were filmed in Atlanta. The LA Times reported in 2012 that the production moved to LA to take advantage of the tax relief system there.
In 2021, Grammy-winning pop star Olivia Rodrigo recorded part of her “Good 4 U” music video in the school’s locker room and sports facilities.
The PCHS website also states that 2012’s “Project X,” a found-footage teen comedy, was filmed there.
Palisades Charter High School’s alums is full of stars
J.J. Abrams, the co-creator of the Emmy-winning show “Lost” and father of newcomer pop star Gracie Abrams, is one of several stars who attended PCHS.
In 2015, Abrams told the community news outlet the Palisadian Post that he based “Star Wars” character Maz Kanata on Rose Gilbert, his former English teacher at PCHS, when he cowrote and directed “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
“We really wanted the story to feel authentic, despite being a wild fantasy. I mentioned Rose in an early story meeting as a sort of timeless, wise figure that I’d actually known in my life,” Abrams said of Gilbert, who worked at PCHS for over 50 years and died in 2017 at 95.
Forest Whitaker, another PCHS alum, is an Oscar-winning actor, who has starred in “Black Panther,” “Star Wars: Rogue One” and “The Butler.”
He began acting in high school, and told Collider in 2020 that he starred in two school musical productions, “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Cabaret.”
The Oscar-nominated actor Jennifer Jason Leigh, Whitaker’s costar in the 1982 movie “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” also attended PCHS.
Will.i.am, the seven-time Grammy winning member of the Black Eyed Peas, A. Scott Berg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, and Steve Kerr, the head coach of the Golden State Warriors, are some of the other successful alums who attended PCHS.
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