Renowned writer-producer Steven Bochco, Turner Broadcasting chairman and former president of CNN Philip Kent, pay-television magnate Harlan P. Kleiman, and chairman and chief executive officer of MGM Harry Evans Sloan have been named to the Executive Board of the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television, announced Robert Rosen, dean of the school.

"We are very fortunate to have these stellar individuals join our board," Rosen said. "The participation of people of this caliber at the school's executive level will help us further our mission of providing a solid grounding for tomorrow's media makers."

Bochco's credits include the Emmy-winning and innovative TV dramas "Hill Street Blues" and "NYPD Blue" - set in a police precinct in Bochco's childhood home of New York City, "L.A. Law," "Doogie Howser, M.D.," the critically acclaimed "Murder One," "Blind Justice," and the more recent "Over There" and "Commander in Chief."

As chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting System Inc., Kent oversees the TBS Inc. domestic and international entertainment, animation and news networks and businesses, including TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, CNN, CNN Headline News, CNN International and CNN.com. His responsibilities include corporate oversight of all advertising and distribution, and corporate functions. Turner Broadcasting recently made a major donation of equipment to the School of Theater, Film, and Television.

A leading packager of pay television programming in the United States, Kleiman also is a former vice president of programming for HBO. He is known for his experience in high-profile investment banking and for helping finance public companies through periods of transition. In 1992, he founded Shoreline Pacific LLC to address what he saw as an unfulfilled need for growth funding for public companies. He also has been a senior vice president for Warner Communications, Cable Division.

Sloan, a graduate of UCLA, is known for having built three successful publicly traded media companies over the last two decades, and was recently named chairman and CEO of MGM after having served on its board of directors. He formerly headed Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., New World Entertainment and, most recently, SBS Broadcasting, a leading European media company sold in October for $2.6 billion.

Consistently ranked among the leading institutions in the nation, the School of Theater, Film and Television is unique in the world in that it brings together the arts of theater, film and television in one academic institution. UCLA's reputation as an outstanding training ground for the theater, film and television professions, and for critical scholarship, is based on its long tradition of fostering creative growth, encouraging experimentation and ensuring artistic freedom. Many of the most respected names in the entertainment and communication arts, and the world of scholarship, are UCLA alumni.

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