Between writing my personal statement and ringing in the new year-look what I found! Apparently, in 1986 there was a short movie made called "Fresno" that was a spoof of soap operas like Dallas & Dynasty. It had Carol Burnett, Teri Garr, etc... in it. I guess it's no longer on video. But there's always the internet...

Plot Outline: A long-format spoof of 1980s prime-time soap operas, set in raisin town Fresno, California. Classy/goofy, straight-faced "Dallas" spoof set in raisin industry Central Valley.

Tagline: The Power!...The Passion!... The Produce! I'm gonna have to find this...

On the other hand, the four time Tony Award winning Broadway soprano, Audra McDonald went to my performing arts high school. She graduated from Juilliard when I was 15. A year later she had her first Tony award (the theatre equivalent to an Oscar). She is the first Broadway actress ever to receive a Tony Award for each of her first three major roles; and she has since added a fourth. That's right, she has 4 Tony's! Critics have hailed her as the next Broadway diva, comparing her talents to those of Barbara Streisand, Judy Garland, and Julie Andrews. New York Times Article
Here she is performing last year for the president with the Harlem Ballet and in A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway with Sean Combs and Phylisha Rashad ("Mrs. Cosby"). I saw Audra perform live in 1995 (just after she won her first Tony) and she's amazing! Drew and I saw part of her New Year's Eve Great Performances concert at Lincoln Center last night and he agreed she has a great voice. She's about 7 yrs older than me so I never went to school with her. The last photo is her in a performance at the Fresno music hall in the late '80's. She is perhaps the first African American superstar of musicals.

I recently discovered that Sharon Leal who played the music teacher in the series Boston public went to my high school, too. She is currently in the movie Dreamgirls, with Beyonce, based on the group the Supremes. She's the one on the left in the stage photo. She is of Filipino and African American descent. She is five years older than me.
Sharon graduated from Roosevelt High School of the Arts in Fresno and played Mimi in the long-running Broadway production of Rent.
Isn't she gorgeous!

Getting even closer to home my freshman year roommate (who was also from Fresno-I did not know her before college) has been in several TV shows in small roles. Her name is Kim Chueh. She has been in a very successful, on-going show on Sunset Blvd in LA called Asian for Dummies (she's Chinese American). Another friend of mine from high school was recently in a John Cusack movie... But Fresno's a cowtown, right?