The Brief

With Thanksgiving over, you might have more leftovers than you know what to do with. Fear not: we have a plan for you. Sure, it's easy to reheat turkey and stuffing on repeat, but there's a whole world of leftovers out there waiting to be reinvented.

We asked some of Los Angeles and Orange County's top chefs for their tips. From turkey tinga and hand pies to crunchy turkey carnitas tortas, mashed potato taquitos and a stellar sangria recipe, they offer multiple ways to get creative with what's in your fridge.

Turkey tinga + Turkey a la Mexicana

File photo of taquitos. At right: Elvia and Alex Garcia from Evil Cooks.

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Daniel Lloyd Blunk-Fernández/Unsplash, courtesy Elvia and Alex Garcia

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Elvia and Alex Garcia, husband-and-wife duo of Evil Cooks, are among the leading taqueros in Los Angeles, where they can be found slinging memorable dishes at their brick-and-mortar location in El Sereno.

Their inventive blend of black-metal iconography, creative tacos and other Mexican dishes has made them sought after in the Los Angeles taco scene. Evil Cooks felt like the perfect fit for crafting something yummy on the fly, using what you have on hand.

Here's how Elvia would do it: "I like to do turkey tinga. I usually have all the ingredients at home, which are onions, chipotle, cabbage, tostadas, crema, mayonesa, pico de gallo and salsita."

Here's how Alex would do it: "A la Mexicana means to make a guisado with the Mexican mirepoix (onions, tomatoes and cilantro). We add some shredded turkey and we put it in taquitos. We put it in a torta. You have some of those leftover panecitos (dinner rolls), so why not put them in there, add some gravy, maybe some mashed potatoes. That way you don't waste anything."

Thanksgiving hand pies

File photo of a pie. At right, baker Kristin Colazas Rodriguez

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Fruit & Flour, courtesy Kristin Colazas Rodriguez

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Kristin Colazas Rodriguez has been an outlier in the Long Beach bakery scene for over a decade, leading the charge behind the baker's bench and providing a fair and equitable workplace for her employees. Colossus Bakery is known for its pies this time of year, so using what she has on hand makes for a perfect bite of flavors.

Here's how she would do it: "My idea for your Thanksgiving leftovers is to make hand pies," she said. "So, you're just gonna take the pie scrap, the dough you left over from your pies ... Roll it out to your desired thickness, but it should be pretty thin cause you're gonna have two layers of pie dough."

Cut out circles of dough, then chill them in the fridge while you prep your Thanksgiving leftovers. "This is where you can kind of have some fun. You're gonna pair your favorite things," she said. "Maybe turkey and a spoonful of cranberry sauce. I think green beans or brussels sprouts would be really good, too."

Carefully spoon some of your mixture in the middle of one piece of dough, and top it with a second piece. Don't overstuff. "Crimp the edges with a fork." If you want to get creative, you can add a flourish, like a decorative cutout. "Cut some cute little vents in there ... You can do a little egg wash on top, and then you're just going to bake those in your oven."

About 350 degrees should do it, but the time will depend upon your oven and the size of your pies. Keep an eye on it and bake until just golden brown.

Turkey carnitas tortas

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Courtesy Aaron Melendrez

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Owner-chef Aaron Melendrez is is known for churning out some of the best sandwiches in town at his humble sandwich shop in Uptown Whittier, Uptown Provisions. So it was no surprise that he gave us a delicious torta recipe for his leftover idea. (A bolillo roll would be ideal for this sandwich, but so would leftover holiday rolls. Use what you've got.)

Here's how he'd do it:

• 1 pound of leftover dark meat
• 1 cup of Sunny Delight or orange juice
• 1 cup of water
• 4-6 garlic cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 chili arbol
• Cumin, kosher salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove meat and shred. Discard bay leaves. Continue to reduce the sauce for a few more minutes. Broil shredded meat for 3 to 4 minutes until as crispy as you like it.

To serve: Cut open a toasted bolillo roll, add a slather of mashed sweet potatoes if available, and top with turkey carnitas. Optional toppings include pickled red onion, a squeeze of lime, diced cilantro, shredded lettuce lightly tossed in white wine vinegar, cotija cheese, crushed pepitas, mayonnaise, crema and avocado. And some of that sauce.

Mashed potato taquitos with gravy verde

Chef Ryan Garlitos of Le Hut Dinette in Santa Ana displays his mashed potato taquitos with gravy verde, a creative take on Thanksgiving leftovers.

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Ron De Angelis

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Chef Ryan Garlitos, executive chef at Santa Ana's Le Hut Dinette, is known for his innovative comfort food and commitment to seasonal ingredients. He brings this creative approach to Thanksgiving leftovers, drawing inspiration from his family traditions.

His wife is Mexican, and her family usually makes turkey taquitos with leftovers, but since Garlitos is a fan of potato tacos, he has incorporated leftover mashed potatoes into the taquito tradition in recent years. He also makes a "gravy verde," a delicious mash-up of Mexican and American holiday flavors.

Here's how he'd do it:

• Leftover mashed potatoes
• Corn tortillas, whatever size you prefer
• Oil for frying
  

Add oil to your desired frying vessel (a medium sauce pot or Dutch oven) and preheat to 325 degrees, or use a deep fryer if you have one.

Preheat a medium-sized frying pan over low heat to warm tortillas, making them more pliable to work with.

Take a warm corn tortilla and place enough mashed potato on top to slightly overfill the taquito. If you need to get rid of turkey, too, there's no harm in adding some shredded turkey to the taquitos as well.

Roll to a medium tightness and secure closed with a toothpick or skewer.

When the oil reaches the desired temperature, gently place the taquitos into the oil. Hold them shut with a pair of tongs for about 30 seconds to help keep them from unraveling.

Fry until tortilla is golden and crispy, about 3-5 minutes. If some of the mashed potato filling falls out during frying, just fill the taquitos with more warm mashed potatoes to top them off.

For the gravy verde (yields 1 quart):

• 2 cups leftover Thanksgiving turkey or chicken gravy
• 2 cups tomatillo salsa (homemade or store-bought)
  

If you want to do this the most pain-free way possible, use your favorite store-bought tomatillo salsa; otherwise, making your own isn't too difficult, either, as long as you have a blender.

Tomatillo salsa recipe:

• 2 cups peeled and cleaned tomatillos, cut in half
• 1/2 cup Anaheim chile, stem and seeds removed, chopped
• 1/4 cup jalapeños, stem and seeds removed, chopped
• 1/4 cup white onion, julienned
• 5 cloves of garlic, smashed
• Salt to taste

Char the ingredients over a barbecue grill (or even a stovetop burner) until charred, or toss them in oil and roast in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 to 30 minutes, then purée in a blender for added depth of flavor.

Once you have your tomatillo salsa, measure out equal parts leftover gravy and tomatillo salsa (in this example, 2 cups of gravy and 2 cups of salsa). Next, combine the sauce and salsa in a small sauce pot or sauté pan, whisk together and bring to a simmer — season with salt to taste.

The finished "gravy verde" can be used as a salsa or dipping sauce, or you can cover your taquitos with it if you have a lot of gravy to use up.

To finish:

Place a healthy pile of taquitos on a plate. Smother with gravy verde until the taquitos are resting in a pool of sauce. At this point, you can dig in, or you can top with sour cream, queso fresco, pickled onions and cilantro for pizzazz. They'll be tasty either way.

The Catalina wine mixer

Chef Johnathan Benvenuti with his Catalina Wine Mixer, a sangria cocktail that's regularly on the menu at Bar Becky in Long Beach.

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Courtesy Bar Becky

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Chef Johnathan Benvenuti, owner and chef at Bar Becky in Long Beach and an alum of TV's Hell's Kitchen, is known for his inventive takes on seasonal vegetables and pasta dishes. This time, he suggests a way to use up any leftover wine by turning it into a drink on Bar Becky's menu called The Catalina Wine Mixer. It’s his creative take on a classic sangria, using hibiscus, which adds a hint of "what the heck is that?" to keep you sipping until the next one.

Here's how he'd do it:

Red wine syrup:

• 1 cup wine
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 stick of cinnamon
• 1/2 cup dried hibiscus flower
• 1 clove

Sangria:

• 1 ounce red wine syrup
• 1 ounce red wine
• 1 ounce vodka
• .75 ounce lime juice
• 1 ounce sparkling water (or champagne)
• Garnish with ice and any leftover sliced fruit.

"Food is subjective. Unless it's burnt, there's nothing wrong you can do," Benvenuti said. "Add what you want. If you have some white wine open, feel free to add it to your syrup. If you have champagne, use that to top your drink instead of sparkling water. Add fruit or any leftover warm baking spices you have. If you want to shake the syrup, wine and vodka, then you get extra credit. If you don't, then your drink will taste just as great."

This story was originally published by Boyle Heights Beat on Feb. 23, 2026.

Self Help Graphics & Art has long been a creative home for Chicano artists and families in East Los Angeles. Now, a new documentary is inviting the community to help tell its story.

Chicano Gráfica, a documentary about Self Help Graphics & Art, explores how a small group of East Los Angeles artists altered the art world by embracing and celebrating their identity as Chicanos.

To chronicle this history, filmmakers Gloria Westcott and Grace Amemiya are asking community members to share memorabilia from the 1970s and 1990s. This can include VHS tapes, photography, invitations, visual art, postcards, greeting cards, T-shirts, CDs and records, according to an open community call from Self Help Graphics.

A gathering for the memorabilia collection will be held March 7 at Avenue 50 Studio in Highland Park. All shared items will be returned.

The film, according to its website, “showcases the legacy of Self Help from its roots in the East Los Angeles barrio to its role as an international force that exported the Chicano art aesthetic and iconography in printmaking.”

A key player of the Chicano movement of the 1970s, Self Help Graphics & Art was founded in the East LA garage of Sister Karen Boccalero, a Franciscan nun and printmaker. It started with a small group of young Latino artists who used their medium to spread social justice messages.

From the onset, these artists involved members of the community in the process of making art and organizing programs, such as a 1972 Day of the Dead event considered to be the first public commemoration in the United States of a tradition rooted in Mexico’s indigenous origins.

This is the latest community call for personal memorabilia. Previous callouts have been held at the East Los Angeles County Library and Avenue 50 Studio, according to the Chicano Gráfica website.

The violence that erupted in Mexico after the death of a powerful drug lord has left many questioning whether the country will be able to co-host the World Cup in just over three months.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino thinks it can.

"Of course, we are monitoring the situation in Mexico these days, but I want to say from the outset that we have complete confidence in Mexico, in its president, Claudia Sheinbaum, and in the authorities, and we are convinced that everything will go as smoothly as possible," Infantino said late Tuesday in a press conference in Colombia.

"Mexico is a great country, like in every country in the world, things happen; we don't live on the moon or another planet," Infantino added. "That's why we have governments, police, and authorities who will ensure order and security."

The Mexican army killed Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, "El Mencho," who led the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, on Sunday, sparking several days of violence. Cartel members burned cars and blocked roads in nearly a dozen Mexican states and authorities report that at least 70 people have died.

Four high-level soccer matches from the local leagues were postponed last Sunday, including one in the central city of Queretaro, where Mexico defeated Iceland 4-0 late Wednesday in a friendly match.

Before the match, a minute of silence was held in the Corregidora stadium in honor of the soldiers who died during the operation to capture Oseguera.

Thirteen World Cup matches are scheduled to be held in Mexico, including the opening game in Mexico City on June 11 between the co-host and South Africa. Guadalajara, the central hub for the Jalisco cartel, is scheduled to host four.

Colombia is set to play one game in Mexico City and one in Guadalajara.

"Our first two matches are in Mexico, but we know they will overcome this and move forward," said Ramón Jesurún, the president of the Colombian Soccer Federation. "I have absolute and total confidence in my geopolitical thinking that this is an issue Mexico will overcome, and overcome very quickly."

Other nations have expressed more concern. The Portuguese soccer federation said Tuesday that it was closely monitoring developments ahead of a planned friendly against Mexico in March. Jamaica is set to play New Caledonia in Guadalajara on March 26 in an intercontinental playoff semifinal, with the winner advancing to face Congo for a World Cup spot.

"The games are at the end of March, so we still have another month to see what happens; but it is making me very nervous, to be honest," said Michael Ricketts, the president of the Jamaican Soccer Federation. "We will be listening out for CONCACAF and FIFA to give us instructions (on) whether they are playing the games or whether they are immediately looking for other options."

Another Mexican city, Monterrey, will host a playoff where Bolivia plays Suriname and the winner faces Iraq for a spot in the tournament.

On Monday, Sheinbaum said there is "every guarantee" that the World Cup matches in Guadalajara will be played as planned and added that there was "no risk."

"We are in regular contact with the presidency and the authorities in Mexico and we are monitoring the situation," Infantino said. "The World Cup is going to be an incredible celebration".
Copyright 2026 NPR

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

One windy morning in December 2024, teachers at Orange Vista High School rushed students into a line that stretched to the street. Southern California Edison had cut the power for parts of Riverside County to prevent its equipment from sparking a fire.

Lessons ended. Classrooms went dark. And anxious parents in the Inland Empire city of Perris waited impatiently to greet their children. A month later, the school lost power again, days after the Eaton and Palisades fires to the northwest destroyed entire Los Angeles County neighborhoods.

Orange Vista High was among at least five Riverside County school districts that reported closures during winter high winds in 2024 and 2025. Local school officials say the disruptions hit harder in economically disadvantaged districts, where families rely on critical services such as free meals and child care.

Since 2012, the California Public Utilities Commission has authorized investor-owned utilities such as Edison to cut power during severe weather events to lower the risk of wildfires. The commission reviews every outage. Utilities may pay penalties – as Edison did in this case – if they don’t notify ratepayers properly, or meet other standards.

Edison says shutoffs are necessary to save lives and protect communities. “Our mission really is to keep the power on when it is safe to do so,” said spokesperson Jeff Monford.

After the power shutoffs, the Val Verde Unified School District redirected $500,000 from the school facilities budget to buy battery storage units that could help Orange Vista High keep the lights on during future outages. But Garrick Owen, the district’s assistant superintendent, said the money would be better spent fixing the grid itself.

“If I had a magic wand, would I spend all the money to harden our schools against power outages, or would I spend it to harden the actual infrastructure of the power lines to not have the power outages?” he said.

As climate change drives more extreme weather and more blackouts across California, the cost of adaptation is a growing bill schools say they can't pay alone.

Low-income students lose out on services 

Because state funding to schools is based in part on student attendance, emergency events like power outages bring a financial risk. When a school closes for the day, or when attendance drops, that cuts into attendance numbers. Schools then can file a waiver request with the state Department of Education to protect their funding.

That’s what happened at public schools throughout Riverside County during the 2024-25 school year, when smoke from nearby fires and high winds created problems.

Eight school districts confirmed to CalMatters that they filed waiver requests with the state Department of Education in December 2024 and January 2025. Three districts – Nuview Union, Perris Elementary and Perris Union High – reported closures for at least one day each. Three more – Banning Unified, Beaumont Unified and Jurupa Unified – reported material decreases in attendance on high wind days. Two districts, San Jacinto Unified and Val Verde, reported both closures and low attendance days.

According to the Val Verde district, three schools there lost a total of 13 days of instruction because of the wind events. That’s more than other Riverside County schools that confirmed filing waiver requests to CalMatters. Val Verde schools also reported lower attendance in September 2024, when smoke from the Bridge, Line and Airport fires spread to the region.

After one chaotic day in December, Orange Vista High principal LaKrecia Graham said school administrators bought floodlights to help keep classes in session in case the power went out again. But when the next outage happened, so many worried parents picked up their children that the district decided to close anyway.

“It disrupts a lot of things and it puts people in a panic that I don't think is necessary,” Graham said. “And that's what's gonna keep happening.”

Chairs placed on top of desks inside an empty classroom.

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Kyle Grillot

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CalMatters

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LaKrecia Graham, principal of Orange Vista High School, in Perris, on Nov. 18, 2025.

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Kyle Grillot

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CalMatters

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The lack of power isn’t just an inconvenience. It can pose a safety risk for students, said Catalina Chrest, principal of Skyview Elementary School, also in Perris. Children may hurt themselves navigating dark rooms, or they can lose access to essential needs like water, heaters and air conditioning.

Schools serve as community hubs. For low-income families and students with disabilities, losing access to them means more than a missed day of learning — it means losing child supervision, free meals and critical support services.

The meal they eat at school “might be one of their most nutritious meals of the day,” Chrest said.

In the Perris Elementary School District, more than 90% of students are low-income. At Skyview Academy and Clearwater Elementary School, wind whistling through buildings made classrooms frigid. Bathrooms went completely dark. Parents told school staff that their food was spoiling at home.

The outages “impact our families greater than families in a more affluent neighborhood,” said Perris Elementary School District superintendent Bruce Bivins.

Utilities weigh harms and benefits

When investor-owned utilities decide to turn the power off, the California Public Utilities Commission requires that they balance the potential harms against the benefits. Utilities regulated by the CPUC also must give notice before shutoffs and offer resources to make the outage easier on residents and schools.

In Riverside County, school officials and teachers said delayed notice during the winter wind events made it difficult to prepare for the shutoffs. At Orange Vista High, Graham said the school received notice of a potential outage at a certain time, but it came earlier, so staff was unprepared.

Paula Ford, assistant superintendent of business services at Jurupa Unified School District, said “actually, we would receive a notice that the power was down maybe an hour after the power was already down.”

After the January shutoffs that darkened Riverside County schools, the CPUC fined Southern California Edison $7.8 million for violating notification requirements. Terrie Prosper, a CPUC spokesperson, says the commission is still investigating Edison’s handling of the December shutoffs.

She added the utilities commission is closely monitoring Edison’s work to reduce power shutoffs.

“We understand that PSPS events can be disruptive for schools,” she said. “However, these actions are taken out of serious wildfire concerns. California has experienced devastating wildfires in recent years that have destroyed communities, closed schools for extended periods, and placed lives at risk.”

Clearwater Elementary in Perris, on Nov. 18, 2025.

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Kyle Grillot

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Southern California Edison did not comment on the penalty.

Edison spokesperson Monford said that, when possible, notifications for public safety power shutoffs take place three days in advance.

“In some instances, we are unable to send advanced notifications due to emergent weather,” Monford said. “This was especially the case last winter, when we had extraordinarily new wind events.”

Monford added the utility offers assistance to help schools become more resilient to the power outages. But not all schools benefit from the help.

The utility lends power generators to schools most affected by the power outages. He added the utility hopes to expand the program to lend battery storage systems. Edison also invited some districts, including the Jurupa Unified School District and San Jacinto School District, to daily emergency coordination calls, Monford said.

Critics said the outages may end up causing more harm than the events they’re responding to.

“They put a lot of time and effort and money, which I do not begrudge at all, into the analytics of fire risk to calculate the risk of a wildfire actually starting in certain weather conditions,” said Melissa Kasnitz, legal director for the Center for Accessible Technology. “What they have not done is put any fraction of effort into evaluating the risk of what happens when you turn people's power off.”

In response, Edison directed CalMatters to tools it uses to analyze shutoff risks, and to reports the utility has filed with regulators after incidents.

Power outages bring a financial toll 

School administrators say it’s unfair for districts to carry the financial burden of a problem they didn’t create. They also have to contend with a state education system that financially punishes districts for low attendance that results from emergencies out of their control.

Districts with fewer resources like Perris Elementary School District can’t afford generators and have to prioritize other needs.

Bivins said the district looked into backup power but couldn’t afford generators or battery storage. The district is smaller – serving only elementary students – so it obtains less funding than Val Verde Unified or other unified districts. Schools serving more low-income students also tend to see lower attendance rates, he said, meaning even less money coming in.

With so many urgent needs competing for limited dollars, a generator that might only be used a few times a year doesn’t make the cut.

“That could be better security on our campuses, more modernized facilities, better access to technology, or other things they can actually utilize right now versus the preparation for the possible one day this year (the power goes out),” Bivins said.

Student teacher Mayela Covarrubias works with first-grade students.

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Kyle Grillot

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CalMatters

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An emergency generator on loan from Southern California Edison at Peralta Elementary in Riverside, on Nov. 19, 2025.

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Kyle Grillot

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CalMatters

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But even schools that can afford generators face hidden costs from the outages.

In nearby Jurupa Valley, Peralta Elementary School was able to keep its doors open, the lights on and the heating and cooling systems running.

The Jurupa Unified School District spent more than $364,000 on two generators – each capable of powering an elementary school – and is investing in infrastructure upgrades to make deploying them easier, Ford said.

Because Peralta Elementary is in a high fire risk area surrounded by brush, Southern California Edison also loaned the school another generator through its pilot program. So far this year, the school hasn’t needed to use it.

Still, the outages take a financial toll. Even if schools are open, some parents keep children home – costing the district attendance-based funding.

“Because we stayed open … we're actually impacted more heavily than schools that close,” Ford said.

To obtain a waiver from the state to protect funding from an emergency, schools have to submit paperwork signed by the school board and county superintendent explaining what happened, and certify they have a plan to keep students learning during the disruption. But the process is uncertain: Schools don't know how much funding they'll keep until the state reviews the waiver request and runs its own numbers. Ford said that more leniency on the conditions necessary to qualify for a waiver could help schools during emergency events.

Bivins, the Perris Elementary Unified superintendent, said the state should fund schools based on enrollment, not attendance, so that emergencies don’t threaten budgets.

Michelle Hatfield, a spokesperson for the state Department of Education, said any changes to rules for how schools handle planned outages – and any proposals to fund schools by enrollment rather than by attendance – would require legislation.

Even districts investing in backup power say they can't fully close the gap on their own.

At Orange Vista High School, newly installed battery storage units will help keep the lights on during the next planned outage. It’s all the Val Verde Unified District could do, said Owen, the assistant superintendent.

But the battery storage systems don’t really solve the broader problem. If a blackout happens at multiple schools over multiple days, “we don't have a plan for that,” he said.

Equipping every school in the district with generators would probably cost millions. "It's one of those numbers I don't need to know, because there's not gonna be that funding," Owen said.

Natasha Uzcátegui-Liggett contributed reporting.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

All you have to do is grab a drink with a friend, eavesdrop at a coffee shop, or open your eyes to see that entertainment professionals in L.A. are hurting these days. Last year there was a 16% decline in filming in the region, according to Film LA, and between 2022 and 2024, L.A. County is estimated to have lost more than 42,000 motion picture-related jobs.

I know this pain, personally. I was a TV writer for years, but my last writer’s room job was in 2021. Luckily, I was able to pivot to copywriting as I continue to work on my own projects, but I do wonder what the rest of my colleagues are up to. Where have the thousands of highly skilled entertainment professionals gone?

Turns out, school.

Specifically, to become therapists.

I first noticed this trend over a decade ago in 2013. I had just moved back to L.A. from New York and I started seeing a new therapist. Over the course of our sessions, she revealed to me that she used to be an actor — and quite a successful one. She was a co-star on a hit sitcom for nine seasons.

But despite the consistent work, she wasn’t fulfilled. She said acting was mostly sitting around in a trailer waiting and she craved more intellectual stimulation. So she went back to school and became a therapist, the irony being that she never fully escaped Hollywood. Today, as an L.A. based therapist, she spends most of her days listening to frustrated actors and writers complain about the biz. Ahh, the circle of life!

Not only was my therapist a former actor, I started to notice more and more of my peers and friends making the switch. I met Alan, 40, who prefers to be anonymous because he doesn’t want his patients knowing about his private life, at a co-working space. We both belonged to a charming apartment-turned-writer’s haven in Silver Lake.

At the time, Alan was a busy film producer, plugging away at his own feature script on the side. But despite having a shiny career working with hip actors and directors, he wasn’t happy.

He remembers going to schmoozy parties where everyone would name drop and brag about what they were working on.

“I had all those fancy things to drop, too, but it meant nothing, it didn’t make me feel any better about myself,” he said. “If I can’t even talk about what I’m up to without feeling sad, that’s kind of a problem.”

Alan started to realize maybe producing wasn’t his destiny. He was going through the motions. Things started to fall into place when he started therapy.

“Therapy made me feel more like myself. I just felt a little bit more enlivened… the rest of the week kind of deadened me,” he said.

He loved how real and deep the conversations were and became intrigued by the idea of becoming a therapist himself. He started taking a few psychology classes and was instantly hooked. Now, he has a thriving private practice and hasn’t looked back.

Primal emotions

Julie Mond is a therapist and an actor. Unlike Alan, Mond still loves acting, it’s not something she grew out of. She just needed a more stable career as she continued to pursue her passion. Becoming a therapist has actually liberated her to focus on the kind of acting she actually wants to do. Because she’s financially stable she can now pick and choose the kinds of projects that feel worth her time.

When I ask Mond why so many entertainment professionals become therapists she reflects on a couple of things. She said performers and directors crave “connecting authentically, being present moment-to-moment, being real and honest. We’re digging for these primal emotions.” All things you have to do as a therapist.

She also has another theory: “A lot of artists go to therapy. Many of us who become therapists have been in therapy and it's changed our lives. I think people in L.A. have been on a healing journey and want to give back.”

Charley Lang, who teaches at Antioch University.

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Jaymes Mihaliak

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Courtesy Charley Lang

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Even though I'm personally meeting more people who are becoming therapists, I wondered if it was an actual trend or just a coincidence.

So I talked with psychology professor Charley Lang at Antioch University to get his take. Lang, who's been teaching psychology for 30 years, said that in his graduate classes, at least 50% of the students come from entertainment careers.

When I asked why they make the switch, he’s blunt: stability.

That’s why Lang himself became a therapist decades ago.

Lang was an actor on Broadway, but eventually hit a wall.

“I had a nice career as an actor, I essentially got to do everything I wanted to do," he said. "But then I was in my late 30s and I was like, ‘Do I always want to be praying for another guest spot on a sitcom in order to feel secure and OK?’”

Does he have any regrets or miss acting? On the contrary, he tells a story:

“I had become a therapist and stopped acting and a friend of mine was directing a play at the Ahmanson and he was like, ‘Please do this play.’ And I was able to figure it out and I was just dipping my toe back in to see what it was like and it was a six-week run of the play. And at the end of the first week I remember standing in the wings waiting to make my entrance and thinking, ‘Oh my god haven’t we already told this freaking story?’ It was like Groundhog Day. It was the same story over and over.”

As a therapist, he said he loves that every day is different.

The point isn’t that working in entertainment is bad and therapy is perfect. To me, the takeaway is that it’s never too late to make a change. That just because something used to work for you doesn’t mean you’re committed to doing it forever.

Or in Mond's case, maybe there is a way to continue doing what you love, but more sustainably.

In today’s fragile and volatile job market, it’s nice to know that you can always begin again. Just because a job or career ends, doesn’t mean your life is over.

If, in the future, I’m too fried, burnt out, or tired of the rollercoaster of being a writer, maybe I’ll embark on a second career.

But until then, I’m still riding the dragon.