Andy Luckey - High School and Undergraduate Education

High School and Undergraduate Education

Luckey initially attended The Admiral Farragut Academy but left after his first year to return to a civilian high school in Marin County, California. He had an initial ambition to pursue a career as a Naval Officer.

After making an early departure from Redwood High School in the Spring of 1983, Redwood High School being a notably unusual institution made famous by the comedy routines of fellow alumnus, comedian Robin Williams (Class of '69), Luckey proceeded to The College of Marin – also an alma mater and occasional comedy fodder for Robin Williams. Willams and Luckey attended both schools over a decade apart and have only met casually on a handful of occasions, most of which were unrelated to either school. Luckey is an acquaintance of former San Francisco Mayor and current California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsome who was two years behind him at Redwood High School. Newsome was a star baseball player for the school and Luckey an avid baseball fan.

Luckey initially enrolled as a pre-med/biology student but decided in his third semester to move to film making and screenwriting. "The hell that is 'O-Chem' (organic chemistry) drove me from premed to film school and, in so doing, probably saved countless lives", Luckey told the College of Marin school newspaper in a 1984 survey on why people changed majors.

In 1986, Luckey continued on to the California State University Northridge, entering what was then known as the Radio-Television Film (RTVF) program of the university's College of Arts and Professional Studies (CAPS). In the early 2000s the school was renamed after alumnus Mike Curb, a former Lieutenant Governor of California and record mogul founder of Curb Records. There Luckey was primarily mentored by his Faculty Advisor Alan Armer, the founding President of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and Producer of the 1960s series The Untouchables and The Fugitive and the 70s series Cannon. Another key influence on Luckey was screenwriter-producer Benjamin Brady, the former President of ABC Television who had produced the series Perry Mason and co-created, with Raymond Burr, the series Ironside. Luckey also studied under such industry veterans as Nat Perrin (The Adams Family), Tom Burrows (director of the '60 Kennedy-Nixon TV debate), Peter Stearn( Happy Days, The Partridge Family), Beretta and Dr. Kildare writer-producer Irv Pearlberg and Academy Award (Oscar) winning writer-director Sydney Salkow who, despite his work on over 75 feature films, was best known as the producer of Lassie, I Love Lucy and its follow-up The Lucy Show. Luckey received his B.A. in Radio-Television-Film, Media Management in 1988.

Luckey is a member of the Sigma Nu Fraternity, Iota Upsilon Chapter, which he joined at California State University, Northridge in 1986. He remains an active Sigma Nu Alumnus.