Catching Up With LCC Alumni

La Costa Canyon is known for having a long list of impressive alumni. Graduates range from professional Football players, to Olympians, to actors and famous musicians. LCC has created a successful path for a countless number of students. Some of our LCC alumni decided to share their story and what their high school experience was like, as well as how much their lives have changed since they moved on from our campus.

Kendyl Stewart graduated LCC in 2012, moved on to college at USC, and is now one of the best professional swimmers in America. Not only has she represented the U.S. National swim team six times, but is also two time national champion, represented at the 2015 World Championships, and is name the 6th fastest 50m butterfly swimmer in American History. Even after all of this, she still keeps her memories at LCC close to her heart.

"Swimming has always been my main thing- I competed on the LCC Swim Team, and in combo with my club commitments. I didn't involve myself with too many other official school activities. I was a bit of an introvert, but had a great circle of close friends, a lot of which I still keep in close touch with. I loved my Spanish classes with Mr. Teague and English with Mrs. Lax. I have a very specific nostalgia to do with the parking lot at LCC- once I learned to drive, it was so fun to pull up early to school & have those parking lot catch ups with friends before the day got going. Chalk the Lot was so exciting!" said Stewart.

We all have to start somewhere. When Kendyl first started swimming, she could have never imagined that she would end up where she is now. She quickly fell in love with the sport, and dedicated lots of her time to it growing up.

"I started swimming just so that I could be safe in the ocean as a kid growing up in San Diego. It was an after school activity to do with my friends. I joined a club & started competing in summer league meets when I was 7, realized I was actually pretty good at it around 10 and only retired from my professional career about a year ago, at 26. I swam in college at USC, and continued to swim post-collegiality and professionally. My training regimen definitely evolved over the years, but was always around 20 hours of swimming a week and around 6 hours of "dry land" training per week which was usually weight training or Pilates. My favorite memories from swimming are all to do with the opportunities I have been provided: a scholarship to an amazing university, ability to travel the world & connection to some amazing people that will be lifelong friends. I'm really proud of some of the medals & records that I hold, but my favorite moments are simple ones: a sense of belonging and family with my teammates in college, eating out in new cities around the world with friends, and extending competition travel into a mini vacation," said Stewart.

To current students at La Costa Canyon, Kendyl believes that enjoying where you are right now is they key to a successful future. Focus on where YOU are, and not your peers!

" I am learning the importance of being present. I have always set high expectations for myself and tend to always be thinking ahead for "what's next." High school is a short chapter and LCC is an awesome community to get involved in, so soak it all up. Get connected in person as much as possible, less time on screens. If you are looking forward to college, great, it will be another amazing chapter; but don't let pressure or comparison eat away at your ability to enjoy the present," said Stewart.

Another successful face that has come out of LCC is Haley Webb, writer, actress and film maker. She is most known for her appearances in Final Destination, Teen Wolf, and Chicago P.D. She is the founder of the production company Legion of Horribles, and has worked on multiple films including Killer Cove on Netflix. Although she graduated a year early to start her career, she has many great memories from LCC.

"I was supposed to graduate in 2004, but got my GED 2 months into my junior year to pursue acting full time, so I technically graduated in 2003. I took drama class with Sue Raley which I loved and I starred in Bye Bye Birdie as Kim McAfee, Belle in Beauty and the Beast and Claire in Rumors while I was at LCC. I was also involved in dance, a fashion club and the Best Buddies program. I experienced a decent amount of culture shock when I arrived at LCC because I had just moved to Southern California from northern Virginia where I had lived all my life. The fashion was different, the way people spoke was different and the campus was certainly different! So I definitely ate lunch alone in the bathroom a few times the first few months as I acclimated. Luckily, I soon found a really good group of friends and happened to make a bunch of friends in lots of different circles, which helped make my experience really wonderful. Once I felt comfortable enough, I felt like I really flourished at LCC and actually really liked going to school," said Webb.

Just like Kendyl, Haley originally picked up writing and acting and a fun hobby, but quickly learned that she wanted to make a future out of her passion, and continued to pursue it throughout her youth.

"It might sound cliché, but I have always loved writing. I would write short stories all the time as a kid and continued doing that through my teens and obviously to the present day. My Dad was also a writer and a really phenomenal one at that, so I really lucked out that I had such a talented person under the same roof. I respect the craft of writing so much and just find it one of the most exquisite art forms. I’ve been interested in writing and making films since I was four. I taught myself how to read when I was three and saw the movie Amadeus when I was four and I think the combo of those two experiences just created a little supernova of performative passion within me that has yet to burn out. My favorite memory of my career has to be being able to take my Dad and brother to the premiere of The Final Destination. I had been working for awhile at that point and it was my biggest role yet and it was just so fun to be able to put them in a limo and celebrate with them. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have a family that has supported me from day one. The achievement that I am most proud of is giving birth to my incredible, beautiful, curious, loving, hilarious ham sandwich of a child in 2021. If I’m able to convey just how much I love my baby to my baby, I will have accomplished all I need to do on this earth. Making films is my #1 hobby and happens to be my job as well so yes, blah blah blah, I’m very lucky in that regard. I also love to dance, do yoga, run and hike. I love to read, write, watch movies, sew, bake, cross stitch and cook. I also really love playing music" said Webb.

Now that is a long and successful path in the writing and acting world. Haley believes that every student has the ability to make it big if they work hard, and put their mind to it.

"The best advice I could give is to cultivate a really good relationship with yourself. Being a teenager is hard for so many reasons; you go through so many changes during that time, that I would encourage you to really lean into whatever interests you and go after whatever it is that ignites your flame. Explore all of your interests and remember that the intensity of the dark emotions are real, but they won’t last forever. None of us really know what the heck is going on, so be kind to yourself and others. Cultivate compassion for yourself. The most important thing I learned through the journey of high school and writing is how important my unique voice is. I tried to fit in, like we all do, in different ways and some of those ways just went completely counter to who I really am. No one can ever be me but me and that really is an enormous power. I learned to trust myself and am still very much on that journey. I keep learning what a gift failing and making mistakes are. That’s where the gold is," said Webb.

Andrew Briedis is our last visit in this week's visit with LCC alumni. He graduated in 2002 and went on to act in productions like The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and has written for The Golden Globes and Saturday Night Live! He is also well known for his online comedy persona, Annoying Actor Friend. To this day he remembers his experience at LCC, and feels that his time there was a gateway to his successful career.

"I feel I was lucky in that I had a truly wonderful experience at La Costa Canyon. It was hard in the beginning because I didn't have a lot of friends, or aim, but in the middle of tenth grade, I got connected with the improv and theater kids--who back then were very popular--and they took me in. Not that popularity matters, but I do think their visibility helped me gain a lot of confidence and that was key in growing me into the person I am today," said Briedis.

Even though Andrew's interest in the film industry grew before he arrived at the LCC campus, he was able to grow as a person, and actor during his high school years.

"I started acting because I was envious of Joseph Mazzello, the actor who played the kid in JURASSIC PARK. Because I was so deeply distraught that I wasn't an action movie star at nine, my mom suggested I write Steven Spielberg and ask him to be in the next JURASSIC film. I did, and his head of PR at Amblin responded with an explanation of how the industry works -- such as what agents are and the role of casting directors. That's when I asked my mom if I could start doing the youth theater she'd been suggesting for some time. As a kid, I always used to think in screenplays--as if my life were a movie--and I often sketched out little plays, but I didn't start actively pursuing writing as a career until my late twenties. After a series of rough years as a struggling actor in New York, I needed a pivot, and found myself rediscovering an old dream. I first started writing musicals with a friend, but then moved into comedy/satire when I created a parody twitter account called "Annoying Actor Friend." I wrote a few books under that name anonymously, and the account had a pretty good run between 2012 - 2015. After I revealed my identity, I moved fully into TV/Film and that led me to Saturday Night Live and screenwriting," said Briedis.

Andrews success didn't stop there, his hard work carried him to make countless amazing memories that he still cherishes to this day.

"When I was starting out in comedy, I got connected with Tina Fey and when she was going to host SNL in 2015 with Amy Poehler, I randomly pitched her an idea I had for a sketch. Since I had no way of using it myself, I happily gave it to her. She ended up bringing the idea in, and head writers Rob Klein and Colin Jost wrote it up. I'd had this concept in my head since I was twenty, and it ended up making it on the show and I got to see it at dress rehearsal. It was my first time experiencing any of my ideas realized on that scale and just seeing it play out with all of these comedians I'd respected for years was enough to make me cry. It ended up getting picked for the live show and played well, and that's sort of my origin story of how I ended up on Saturday Night Live's radar. I've been fortunate enough to have a lot of really special memories but none will hit quite the same as being part of what has now become one of SNL's memorable game show sketches, "Meet Your Second Wife." Another project that still sticks out to me is probably Annoying Actor Friend because it was the first consistent writing project that I committed to with every fiber of my being, and saw through all of the goals I had with it. More importantly, it was a three year learning experience where I essentially taught myself how to write, as well as craft my point of view. And it was an opportunity I gave to myself. The entertainment business is so unstable, and the only way to feel grounded is to try and create projects on the side that reward you creatively. A lot of the time, people aren't going to say "yes" to you, so you have to say "yes," to yourself, and there's just so much you can do today with the tools on your phone," said Briedis.

LCC stills hold a special place in Andrew's heart. He talks about his experience there on his social media platforms and how the environment helped him grow as a person. He wants current students to feel the same way he does.

"You go to one of the greatest, most unique high schools in the country. And you won't fully understand this until you step outside of it. For the rest of your life, people beyond your current circle will not understand you when you speak about La Costa Canyon. To this day, I see eyes glaze over when I try to explain that I went to a high school with a rattlesnake catcher, surf team, lip-sync competition, TV cable morning announcements, lunchtime DJ, food carts, themed quads, improv team--and yet somehow, no lockers. Some of these things might be familiar to you, and some may be long gone. But you probably have something else exciting in their place. These certainly are "the days" but I'm not going to tell you they're the only days -- because you will have many, glorious, golden days. And for a lot of you, right now might be some of the hardest days of your life. I get it. I genuinely, thoroughly, and unabashedly loved high school, and my mom died in the middle of it. Many things can be true at once. So, my best advice right now is this: Just be. Be where you are right now. And when it's hard, try to focus on the one thing that gives you spark. It can be your drama class, or a lacrosse game, or the person who sits behind you in English. Heck, it might just be that cactus you like in the 300s. Whatever it is to you, just remember that you're not alone. Because right now, you're having a shared experience with a student body as great, and unique, as La Costa Canyon itself. And one day, when some colleague at your law firm, or NFT factory, or whatever, tries to tell you that stories about your high school are a lie, you'll remember that out there in the world somewhere, there are a whole bunch of Mavericks--always wished it were "rattlesnakes"--having your exact same experience, and know it was all true.I always say there were two versions of me at LCC: The kid who did the musicals and the one who did improv. There were two roads I could have taken after graduation and I chose the path that did the musicals. It didn't quite pan out the way I wanted it to, but I feel so fortunate that I ended up finding my way back on the path of the kid who did improv. And honestly? Judging by how I managed things in my twenties, I don't think I would have gotten half as far in my current career had the paths been switched to begin with. I essentially lost sight of who I was and it took some time to find my way back. This is all to say that staying authentic to the best parts of who I was in high school -- hopeful, joyous, kind of a goofy idiot -- is what has helped me most in life," said Briedis.

Its amazing to think how many successful and well known people have come out of our community. These three individuals only being a small part of our Alumni population. One thing they all had in common? The belief that any student who has a goal or dream at LCC can make it if they put their heart to it. They were once in the same shoes current students at LCC are right now; they trust that because of the opportunities and resources that are given at La Costa Canyon, any aspiring athlete, actor, or student of any kind can make it.