2023 Inductee Matt Lawrence

For unparalleled excellence in film and television production education at Ballard High School in Seattle. Your program allowed your students to build on their passion and enter the industry while consistently garnering national and international recognition. 

Matt Lawrence earned his M.S. in educational television from the University of Wisconsin (where he was a writer on the original staff of The Onion). He has won teaching awards and recognition from the Washington Association of Career & Technical Education, the Washington State PTA, ParentMap magazine, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and the National YoungArts Foundation.

Matt was a founding member of the Media Educators Excellence Team, an inter-district consortium of high school media educators in the Puget Sound region, and in 2011 was selected by members to be its first president.

In 2001, Matt founded the Digital Filmmaking Program at Ballard High School, where he taught until retiring in the summer of 2019. His students won numerous prizes at prestigious film festivals and awards from the National YoungArts Foundation as well as many high school awards for excellence in a variety of categories at the northwest and national Emmy Awards. In 2009, Matt was elected to the Board of Governors (Northwest Region) of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

His 20 years of professional experience in radio, television and film include writing, videography, lighting, animation, audio recording, directing, technical directing, editing, sound design and scoring. Matt has worked for corporate and non-profit clients on studio and film-style productions. His work has been shown at film festivals, art exhibits and on cable and broadcast television.