Gary Spatz’s The Playground

Specialties

Gary Spat’z The Playground is the première on camera acting school for kids and teens with locations in Orange County and Los Angeles.

Our focus is teaching young actors the craft of on camera Film and Television Acting. We have two locations — one in the heart of the Century City area of Los Angeles, adjacent to the Westfield Shopping Center; and our Orange County Satellite Studios, located in Costa Mesa, California in the Offices of South Coast Plaza. Both locations are designed to create a comfort zone for young actors and a professional atmosphere with studio-​grade lights, cameras and monitors.

Gary Spatz, the Director of The Playground, is one of the top child acting coaches in the world who has over 20 years of experience working with children for entertainment industry projects including the Mickey Mouse Club, Suite Life, Roseanne, Everybody Loves Raymond and many more. Gary is still sought after to work with young actors for film and television projects and has worked with many of the most successful young actors in Hollywood from Britney, Christina and Justin to Dylan and Cole! A complete list of Gary’s projects is available on IMDb.

Gary has crafted a place for young actors to study and has incorporated his years of experience at teaching children into every activity.

The environment is a comfort zone for child actors that provides a professional atmosphere with studio-​grade lights, cameras and monitors.

Meet the Business Owner

Gary S.

Business Owner

Gary was born in New York and raised in New York and Miami then moved to Washington, DC to attend American University before making the move to Los Angeles.

In LA, Gary Spatz continued his study of acting with Paul Sills. He was a company member (1978 – 1985) of the respected American Theater Arts in Hollywood where he continued training, performing and eventually teaching. For the fifteen years after that, he was a teacher at The Young Actors Space.

For seven seasons, Gary Spatz served as the on-​set acting coach for «Roseanne». He went on to work with Jonathan Lipnicki on «The Jeff Foxworthy Show», with Tia & Tamara Mowry on «Sister, Sister» and later, with Tia and Tamara’s younger brother, Tahj, when he got the starring role on the WB series «The Smart Guy». Gary Spatz was also the acting coach for several Disney Productions including the feature film «Honey, I Shrunk The Kids» as well as The Disney Channel’s «Mickey Mouse Club», on which he also served as the creative consultant