By Juliana Riverin
Assistant Managing Editor
Mira Costa 2005 alumnus Rachel Bloom has recently received a special kind of gold to go with Costa green: a Golden Globe.
Bloom won the award for Best Actress in a Television Comedy for her role in “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” a musical television show that follows the life of a successful lawyer, Rebecca Bunch (Bloom), who uproots her life in New York City to follow her ex-boyfriend Josh Chan (Vincent Rodriguez III) to West Covina, California. In addition to starring in “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” Bloom is also a writer, creator and producer.
“I feel amazing about winning the Golden Globe,” Bloom said. “It’s the greatest honor of my life. I know that the Hollywood Foreign Press has really high standards and good taste, so to get it from them is especially an honor. It is also great for the kind of exposure it gives the show.”
However, Bloom’s involvement in the performing arts began far prior to “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” While at Costa, Bloom played an integral role in the Performing Arts Department. She acted in plays and musicals, such as “Chicago,” “Into the Woods” and “The Laramie Project.” She was president of the Thespian club and was a part of Costa’s ComedySportz team.
“She’s always been really active in the school drama departments,” Costa English teacher Maddie Hutchinson said. “I went to Manhattan Beach Middle School with her, and, when other kids were dancing to the Spice Girls as a talent show act, she was singing the song ‘Little Girls’ from ‘Annie’ the musical.”
Costa English teacher Jonathan Westerberg directed the play “Chicago,” which Bloom acted in. After graduating from Costa, Bloom continued to pursue her career in the theatre at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she graduated from in 2009.
“She was amazing to work with,” Westerberg said. “In or outside the classroom, she’s a delight, full of energy and ideas and raw talent. Rachel brings her A-game to anything that she does, which is why she gets the results she is striving for.”
Bloom said she is thankful for the education she obtained at Costa and said Costa is a well-funded public school that can provide a good, free education, while many of the public schools in Los Angeles County lack resources.
“I think about people at private schools and how they’re only getting to know other rich kids in the entertainment industry and think, how sad for them that their experiences will be so limited,” Bloom said. “My favorite part of Costa was the fact that people started appreciating each other for their differences rather than how well they blended in.”
Bloom plans to return to Costa on March 23 in order to speak to the Drama Department about the entertainment industry and her own path to success since her time at Costa.
“March is when the Drama Department goes to the Fullerton competition, so I think it is good that she will be coming to speak around then,” Costa Drama teacher Carol Mathews said. “When she was a student, I knew Rachel was destined to go out and make something of herself, and now that she has, it is great that she is coming back to Costa.”
When she visits Costa in March to speak with the Drama Department, Bloom is available to speak with any students who would like her advice about life after high school, she said.
“My advice for Costa students who want to break into the entertainment industry is to make sure you are doing it for the love of the work, not to be famous or rich,” Bloom said.
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