Columbia College Chicago – Brag Sheet 2021

MIND IF WE BRAG? Because we’re proud of what we’ve got here. There’s our immersive and collaborative learning environment, our lively downtown campus, and our one-ofa-kind student body, just to name a few.

And others see it, too—Columbia College Chicago is only as great as the sum of our parts. Here’s where our clout is being recognized.

ACADEMIC RANKINGS

#1

College for Aspiring Comedians 2019 College Magazine

#1

Film School in the Midwest for eight years in a row Hollywood Reporter

#2

Master’s Degree Programs for Entertainment Management 2021 Intelligent.com

#3

Top 25 Music Schools for Composing for Film and Television Hollywood Reporter

#6

College for Video Game Design 2018 College Magazine

#8

Most Innovative Schools in the Midwest 2021 U.S. News & World Report

#8

Top 10 Colleges for Playwriting 2017 College Magazine

#11 TOP 50

Best Graduate Photography Programs 2016 U.S. News & World Report Best global Film Schools in 2019 Variety

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MIND IF WE BRAG?

OUR ALUMNI

OUR FACULTY

Aidy Bryant ’09 is a Saturday Night Live mainstay and the creator, producer, and lead actress of her Hulu show, Shrill—and she’s gotten multiple Emmy nominations for her roles on both awardwinning shows.

Tiffany Griffith ’92 won two Emmys in 2017 and 2018 for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series for her role as dialogue editor on Stranger Things.

Lena Waithe ’06 won the 2017 Emmy for Comedy Writing for a Television Series for Master of None, becoming the first Black woman to win the award. She also released her debut film, Queen & Slim, in 2019 to much acclaim.

Shea Couleé ’11 was crowned the Season 5 winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race: All-Stars in 2020, and their legacy is only getting bigger—Shea has since launched their own Shea Coul-Alé brew with Goose Island Beer Co. and a line of soap with Chicago-based brand The Quiet Girl Shoppe.

Kristen Kaza ’07 is an award-winning cultural producer and party promoter who collaborates with communities, brands and institutions on events designed within an intersectional framework, including: HBO, Museum of Contemporary Art, Nike, Navy Pier, Pitchfork Music Festival, Howard Brown Health and more.

Precious Brady-Davis ’13 published I Have Always Been Me in July 2021. The book is a powerful memoir of independence, releasing the past, and living the dream, testifying to the power of naming and claiming trans identity.

Rashid Johnson ’00 is an award-winning artist and film director.

Kevin Rhomberg ’11—better known as Knox Fortune— performed on Chance the Rapper’s Grammy-winning album Coloring Book. Their song “All Night” has over 129 million plays (and counting) on Spotify.

David Cromer won the Tony Award for Best Direction for “The Band’s Visit” in 2018.

Delvin McCray ’16 competed in Season 18 of Project Runway.

Tonika Johnson ’03 was named a 2017 Chicagoan of the Year for her social justice work through photography.

Beth Morgan ’02 has been nominated twice for an Emmy for Outstanding Costume Design on GLOW (2019) and HBO’s Deadwood (2004).

Bryan Smiley ’09 is the President of Film and Television for Hartbeat Productions (Kevin Hart’s production company).

Photography Professor Dawoud Bey received a 2017 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, known as the “Genius Grant.”

Kelli Connell, associate professor in Photography, won the 2017 Society for Photographic Education Imagemaker Award.

Jim DeRogatis, music critic and associate professor in English, broke a major story on R. Kelly’s alleged sexual misconduct in BuzzFeed in 2017. The story gained traction in Rolling Stone, Billboard, Spin, Slate, and Variety.

Alex Fruchter, Business and Entrepreneurship assistant professor and producer, was named one of Chicago Tribune’s “Chicago Artists of the Year.”

Teresa Prados-Torreira, associate professor in the Humanities, History and Social Sciences Department, is bringing scholarly humor into the classroom with her new position as vice president of the American Humor Studies Association.

OUR FACILITIES Columbia’s Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) was named the 2017 leading photography museum in the Midwest by Where magazine. In 2017, The MoCP hosted #AiWeiwei, an exhibition designed specifically for the museum by provocative artist Ai Weiwei.

The Columbia College Chicago library won a 2017 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award, which recognizes exemplary services and resources that further the educational mission of the institution.

The American Institute of Architects Chicago awarded Columbia’s Student Center the Distinguished Building Award and a Citation of Merit in Interior Architecture for its concept and design. The 114,000-square-foot facility opened in 2019 and is the first building in Columbia’s history to serve as a central, interdisciplinary gathering space for students.

The Media Production Center (MPC) received a Distinguished Building Citation of Merit Award by AIA Chicago. This professional space gives students opportunities to design and build sets, set up lighting, direct productions, capture human movement to use in video games—and more.

As a working and learning facility, our classes in directing, lighting, production design, and cinema visual effects all take place in the MPC to take advantage of the professional-level facility and collaboration opportunities.

ALUMNI WINS OVER THE YEARS

31

Primetime Emmys

29

Jeff Awards

10

Oscars

2

Grammys

2

Pulitzer Prizes

3

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