UCLA alumna, screenwriter and film scholar Alexandra Seros will deliver the keynote address at UCLA’s 2026 Doctoral Hooding Ceremony. Seros, who earned her Ph.D. in cinema and media studies from UCLA in 2019, has worked for decades as a screenwriter and mentor while also supporting educational initiatives and scholarship programs across the University of California system.

Born and raised in Southern California, Seros received a bachelor’s degree in theater arts from UCLA in 1969 and later earned a master’s degree in theater history and directing from UC Santa Barbara. In the late 1970s, after making a short film, she was invited by filmmaker Robert Wise to become a directing fellow at the American Film Institute.

Over the course of her career, Seros has worked as a screenwriter for major studios and collaborated with filmmakers, producers and writers including Jonathan Demme, Don DeLillo and Mike DeLuca. Her recent book, “Ida Lupino, Forgotten Auteur; from Film Noir to the Director’s Chair,” examines the career of pioneering filmmaker Ida Lupino. Seros also has served as a mentor at Sundance and in UCLA’s graduate screenwriting program.

“I was shocked when Dean Brian Kite asked me to speak at UCLA’s 2026 Doctoral Hooding Ceremony — a daunting honor, but one for which I have to find something up my sleeve that might actually stay with these brilliant graduates as they go on their way.”

The 2026 Doctoral Hooding Ceremony will be held in Royce Hall on Thursday, June 11, 2026 at 3:00 p.m.

 

Ceremony Information for Candidates

Ceremony Information for Faculty

Ceremony Information for Guests

 

Webcast

View the 2025 Livestream on the Division of Graduate Education’s YouTube Channel.

Ceremony Program

View the 2025 Ceremony Program