2026 Awards Season Roundup - Bruin Winners
Jake Heggie ’84, M.A. ’05
Jake Heggie ’84, M.A. ’05, won the 2026 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for “Intelligence,” a work he composed for the Houston Grand Opera. Premiering in October 2023, it was inspired by the true story of two unlikely spies, Elizabeth Van Lew and Mary Jane Bowser, who ran a covert Union intelligence network from inside the Confederate White House during the Civil War. Heggie is best known for “Dead Man Walking”(2000), the most widely performed new opera of the last 25 years, with a libretto by Terrence McNally, and other critically acclaimed operas “Moby-Dick”(2010), “Three Decembers”(2008) and “It’s a Wonderful Life”(2016), all with libretti by Gene Scheer.
Joseph Lorge ’12
Joseph Lorge ’12 won the 2026 Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical as one of the engineers on “That Wasn’t a Dream”, an honor he shared with Blake Mills and mastering engineer Patricia Sullivan. Born and raised with a passion for music, Lorge began his journey playing piano and guitar before studying ethnomusicology at UCLA. “It was great,” he said of his UCLA experience. “We'd spend a quarter on the music from Africa and the next on the music of Asia. We were exposed to so many things.” Over the years he has become a respected audio engineer and mixer, working with Mills on projects by artists like Feist, Perfume Genius and Japanese Breakfast, and, on his own, helping to craft recordings for Ethan Gruska, Phoebe Bridgers and Christian Lee Hutson.
Frank Marshall ’68
Frank Marshall ’68 won the 2026 Grammy Award for Best Music Film as one of the producers credited on “Music by John Williams,” which took home the honor for outstanding achievement in long-form music documentary filmmaking. Born in Glendale, California, Marshall has built a remarkable career in Hollywood spanning more than five decades as a film producer and director, collaborating with major talents and co-founding Amblin Entertainment with Steven Spielberg and future wife Kathleen Kennedy. He produced movies such as “E.T.,” “Gremlins,” the “Back to the Future” trilogy, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?,” “Empire of the Sun” and the “Indiana Jones” trilogy. A political science major at UCLA, he serves on the School of Theater, Film and Television’s executive board.
John Williams
John Williams was celebrated at the 2026 Grammy Awards when “Music by John Williams” won the Grammy Award for Best Music Film, honoring the documentary that chronicles his extraordinary impact on film music and popular culture. The win highlights Williams’s enduring influence as one of the most prolific and respected composers of the modern era. Across a career spanning more than six decades, he has created some of the most iconic scores in cinema history, including “Jaws,” “Star Wars,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “E.T.,” “Indiana Jones,” “Jurassic Park,” “Schindler’s List” and many more — earning numerous Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes and Grammys along the way. After graduating from North Hollywood High School in 1950, Williams attended UCLA, where he studied composition before serving in the U.S. Air Force and later studied at Juilliard.
Kamasi Washington
Kamasi Washington earned Grammy recognition at the 2026 Grammy Awards, contributing as a co-producer and songwriter on the Record of the Year-winning track “Luther” by Kendrick Lamar with SZA, a major highlight of his expanding influence across jazz and popular music. Born in Los Angeles in 1981, Washington is a celebrated jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger and bandleader known for blending jazz with hip-hop, soul and other genres to reach broad audiences. After graduating from The Academy of Music and Performing Arts at Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles, Washington enrolled in UCLA's Department of Ethnomusicology, where he began playing with faculty members such as Kenny Burrell, Gerald Wilson and Billy Higgins. Other artists with whom he has collaborated include Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Horace Tapscott, Lauryn Hill, Nas, Snoop Dogg, George Duke and Chaka Khan.
Mariska Hargitay
Mariska Hargitay added a 2026 Producers Guild Award to her impressive résumé when “My Mom Jayne,” the intimate documentary she produced with Trish Adlesic, won the PGA Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures at the 37th Annual Producers Guild Awards. Best known for her iconic portrayal of Olivia Benson on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” — making her one of the longest-running lead actors in American primetime drama — Hargitay has also distinguished herself as a producer, director and philanthropist. Born in Santa Monica, she attended UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television, studying acting before leaving to pursue her career. Offscreen, she founded the Joyful Heart Foundation to support survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse.
Autumn Durald Arkapaw
Autumn Durald Arkapaw won the Oscar for Best Cinematography at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony for her work on “Sinners.” The 46-year-old American, who is of Filipino and American Black creole descent, is the first woman of color nominated for the award and the first woman to win. The film is the first to be shot by a female cinematographer using IMAX film cameras. Her previous works include “The Last Showgirl,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” the first season of “Loki” and music videos including Rhianna’s “Lift Me Up” and projects for Arcade Fire, The Weeknd, Jonas Brothers, Solange and Haim. She credits a night course at UCLA Extension with getting her started in the film industry. Arkapaw earned her M.F.A. in cinematography American Film Institute in 2009.
Our Proud Partners
