8 Television Favorites to Find on ‘MasterClass’ (PHOTOS)
Shonda Rhimes
After creating instant classics Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, monopolizing ABC’s #TGIT programming block, and booking us all one-way tickets to Shondaland, Rhimes became the self-described highest-paid showrunner on television with her lucrative Netflix deal. And if you wanna start your own small-screen empire, she’s teaching TV writing for MasterClass.
Aaron Sorkin
Anyone who has watched The West Wing, Sports Night, Studio 60, or The Newsroom on television can attest to Sorkin’s brilliance — and he’s also found critical acclaim on the big screen with his scripts for A Few Good Men, The Social Network, Moneyball, and Molly’s Game. “In this class, you’ll learn his rules of storytelling, dialogue, character development, and what makes a script actually sell,” MasterClass teases.
Ken Burns
Not everyone gets an iMovie and iPhoto slideshow effect named after them, but then again, Burns is a one-of-a-kind documentarian who’s renowned for PBS series including The Civil War, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, Prohibition, and The Vietnam War. Now he’s teaching documentary filmmaking for MasterClass, and students also get access to exclusive footage and production materials from his archives.
Martin Scorsese
When he’s not helming crime films like Goodfellas, The Departed, and The Irishman, this acclaimed filmmaker is producing and directing shows like Boardwalk Empire and Vinyl. And in his “first-ever online class,” Scorsese “deconstructs films and breaks down his craft, changing how you make and watch movies.”
Neil Gaiman
MasterClass customers can learn storytelling from one of the masters of the craft, whose novels and novel collaborations have inspired the TV shows American Gods, Good Omens, Neverwhere, and Lucifer. “Gaiman teaches you how he conjures up new ideas, convincing characters, and vivid fictional worlds,” the company says.
Margaret Atwood
Once you’re done bingeing Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Netflix’s Alias Grace — and assuming you’re not too traumatized — you can learn creative writing from the “Prophet of Dystopia” whose novels begat both series.
David Lynch
The mastermind behind the seminal cult TV mystery Twin Peaks, this surrealist auteur is also the writer-director behind the films Dune, Blue Velvet, and Mulholland Drive. “Embrace the art life … and learn to test the boundaries of your own artistic expression in any medium.”
Gordon Ramsay
Granted, we haven’t taken this chef’s MasterClasses — he has two cooking courses on the platform at the moment — but we’re assuming he’s far more even-tempered and far less foul-mouthed than he is on Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares.
Through MasterClass, students can learn acting from Natalie Portman, tennis from Serena Williams, fashion design from Marc Jacobs, and even “the art of performance” from Usher.
But several TV heavyweights are also teaching classes on the online education platform, too, including Grey’s Anatomy‘s Shonda Rhimes, The West Wing‘s Aaron Sorkin, and even Hell’s Kitchen‘s Gordon Ramsay. We’re not receiving any compensation from MasterClass for this post; we’re just pointing the way for fans to bone up on skills like storytelling, screenwriting, and filmmaking with some of the TV industry’s brightest talents.
