Meet the 2026 Spotlight Academy Class
The Los Angeles Film School is proud to announce the four alumni inductees to the 2026 Spotlight Academy: animation production manager Cynthia Hernandezgarcia (Animation 2017), Emmy Award-winning producer Lane Cheek (Film 2010), GRAMMY-winning recording engineer Brandon Harding (Recording Arts 2013), and filmmaker and educator Mario J. Novoa (Film 2004). Their work spans Nickelodeon and Netflix animation, network television, Beyoncé’s Album of the Year, and more than a decade of independent documentaries about LGBTQ+ and Latino Los Angeles.
What Is The Spotlight Academy?
The Spotlight Academy is The Los Angeles Film School’s honor for alumni who have excelled at their craft in the entertainment industry. Established in 2019, it recognizes graduates for excellence in their professional careers and for the time and connections they give back to students and the school community. The 2026 class joins 26 alumni inducted since the first class.
The 2026 Spotlight Academy Inductees
Cynthia Hernandezgarcia (Animation 2017)
The Casagrandes | The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish | The Soccer Football Movie
Cynthia Hernandezgarcia works on the side of animation most viewers never see: the schedules, budgets, and handoffs between artists and departments that get a series from pitch to screen. She started as an intern at DreamEast Pictures and moved up to production assistant, then production coordinator, in under two years. At Nickelodeon, she rose from production coordinator to production manager on The Casagrandes, The Mighty Ones, and The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish.
She also served as production manager on Netflix’s The Soccer Football Movie, the animated sports comedy starring “Weird Al” Yankovic. In 2025, she contributed to the Max & the Midknights) episode “Welcome to Byjovia,” which Nickelodeon showcased at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France. Outside the studio, she volunteers with Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County and Kids Reading to Succeed, and has spoken on alumni animation panels hosted by LAFS.
Lane Cheek (Film 2010)
The Vampire Diaries | Modern Family | This Is Golf
Lane Cheek began her career in production through the art department: props, set dressing, and coordination. After graduating, she worked as an on-set dresser on Lake Bell’s directorial debut, In a World… and she moved into producing from there, with credits for 20th Century Fox, ABC/Disney, AMC+, and Warner Bros., including The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, Halt and Catch Fire, and Modern Family.
Today she is the executive producer and co-director of the Emmy-winning golf and travel series This Is Golf on The Destination Channel, and as an in-house producer for Saatva, where she leads national commercial and branded content production. In 2020, she founded Cheeky Consulting to support brand development and production strategy. Her environmental work includes the documentary Our Planet 360, which examines human impact on shark populations.
Brandon Harding (Recording Arts 2013)
Cowboy Carter | Renaissance | Purpose
Brandon Harding worked his way from studio runner to assistant engineer to recording engineer at Triangle Studios West. His credits include records for Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Pharrell Williams, and Usher, among them Bieber’s Purpose, the album behind “What Do You Mean?,” “Sorry,” and “Love Yourself.”
His work with Beyoncé earned him GRAMMY nominations for Renaissance (Album of the Year) and “Break My Soul” (Record of the Year) at the 2023 GRAMMYs. Two years later, he won his first GRAMMY when Cowboy Carter took Album of the Year at the 67th GRAMMY Awards. He also worked on the soundtrack for Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, featuring Rihanna, Burna Boy, Future, and Snow Tha Product.
Mario J. Novoa (Film 2004)
L.A.: A Queer History | Nelly Queen: The Life and Times of Jose Sarria | Nancy From Eastside Clover
Mario J. Novoa founded Film Bliss Studios in 2012 to produce narrative, documentary, and short films centered on people of color and the LGBTQ+ community. His projects include L.A.: A Queer History, a documentary on the city’s LGBTQ+ history produced with director Gregorio Davila; Nelly Queen: The Life and Times of Jose Sarria; and Nancy From Eastside Clover. The City of Mass Incarceration is in development.
Novoa has spent much of his career in classrooms as well as on sets, teaching media production and theory at The Los Angeles Film School, CalArts, Columbia College Hollywood, and Mt. San Jacinto College. He also helped found the school’s alumni association, connecting graduates through industry mixers and events.
Read each inductee’s full story on their alumni profile, and meet every class since 2019 at The Spotlight Academy.
