William Howard Taft Charter High School is a public school located on the corner of Ventura Boulevard and Winnetka Avenue in the Woodland Hills district of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California, within the Los Angeles Unified School District. The school gained affiliated charter status beginning with the 2013–2014 school year.
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History
Named after former U.S. president William Howard Taft, the school first opened in 1960. It was in the Los Angeles City High School District until 1961, when it merged into the Los Angeles Unified School District.
In the 2013–2014 school year, Taft High School became a charter school.
Notable alumni
Sports
Jeshua Anderson – track and field sprinter
Rick Auerbach – MLB shortstop 1971–1981
Mike Bercovici – college and pro football quarterback
Mike Borzello – 5-time World Series champion. Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees
Craig Buck – Olympic volleyball player
Kihei Clark – NCAA champion basketball player at Virginia
DeAndre Daniels – professional basketball player, college player at UConn
Bryce Dejean-Jones – basketball shooting guard
Larry Dierker – MLB pitcher, manager, broadcaster
Spencer Dinwiddie – NBA guard for the Los Angeles Lakers
Larry Drew II – basketball point guard
Jordan Farmar – basketball point guard, 2-time NBA champion
Jeff Fisher – former NFL player and Tennessee Titans coach 1995–2010, as well as the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams 2012–2016
Roy Foster – former NFL Pro Bowl offensive guard
Guy Hansen – professional baseball pitcher and coach
Steve Hartman – sportscaster
Airabin Justin – NFL and CFL defensive back
Entertainment
Steve Bartek – musician, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Oingo Boingo
Matteo Barzini – Italian filmmaker
Justine Bateman – actress, TV series Family Ties
Phil Buckman – musician, actor, and voiceover artist, bass player for Filter
Eazy-E – rapper, West Coast hip hop
Adam Eget – podcaster, presenter and former talent coordinator at The Comedy Store
Everlast – rapper/singer House of Pain
William Finnegan – Pulitzer Prize-winning writer surfing essayist
Char Fontane – actress and singer
Barry Green – orchestral and solo double bass player and teacher
Ice Cube – rapper, actor, director, producer, Friday, Are We There Yet?, Straight Outta Compton
O'Shea Jackson Jr. – actor, rapper and songwriter
Dave Koz – smooth jazz saxophonist, radio personality
Lisa Kudrow – actress, TV series Friends
Dale Launer – comedy screenwriter
Ken Levine – Emmy-winning comedy writer, screenwriter, radio announce and play-by-play commentator
Epic Mazur – vocalist, rapper, and record producer
Politics
Sandra Black – member of Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers
Scott Bloch – Office of Special Counsel
Other
Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson – suspected gunman in the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur
Elliot Rodger – mass murderer responsible for murdering six people during the 2014 Isla Vista killings
Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan – NASA Space Shuttle astronaut
In popular culture
A handful of films and TV shows have been filmed at Taft. The 1976 film The Boy in the Plastic Bubble was filmed at the high school, as well as the films Mask (1985), The Brady Bunch Movie (1995), Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), The Prom (2020), and the television series Never Have I Ever (2020).