Filmed on Campus: See Pomona College on Screen

Curb Your Enthusiasm shoot at Carnegie

Pomona College’s 140-acre campus serves primarily as a setting for students to pursue their academic goals. But its location 35 miles east of Los Angeles has also beckoned many TV and film crews over the years, with buildings often standing in for historic structures and further afield college campuses.

Alumni from the 1980s often recall the façade of Harwood Hall in the opening credits of The Facts of Life. Real Genius and Beaches also filmed on campus during that decade. Bridges Auditorium acted as The White House in the movie Dave in 1993 and again in the television series The West Wing in 2000.

Here are six movies and TV series that have filmed at Pomona more recently. Watch them and see if you recognize the scenes shot on campus.

Bliss
The 2021 film starring Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek made use of Bridges Auditorium, more commonly known as “Big Bridges.” Scenes were shot on the auditorium stage, in the lobbies and outside on the north patio.

Insecure
In 2021, the HBO TV series created by Issa Rae and Larry Wilmore filmed parts of episode 501 at Smith Campus Center, which doubled as Stanford University.

9-1-1: Lone Star
The FOX television series starring Rob Lowe as a firefighter has been on Pomona’s campus twice, once in 2022 and again in 2023.

Episode 311 filmed in the lobbies of Bridges Auditorium, and episode 406 returned to the auditorium, which was transformed to resemble a historic Texas building. Bridges Hall of Music (“Little Bridges”) stood in for the Texas Capitol in both episodes, and in the latter episode, Marston Quad and Stover Walk filled in for Austin, Texas.

Curb Your Enthusiasm
In 2023, the long-running HBO series created by Larry David shot its series finale outside Carnegie Hall. The academic building stood in for a courthouse in Atlanta. Bridges Auditorium and Marston Quad also made an appearance in the background.

The Student Life newspaper wrote about the shoot and featured a Pomona alumnus who returned to Carnegie Hall, this time on the crew of the show.

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
The second installment of the Netflix anthology series filmed on Marston Quad earlier this year, with a release date yet to be announced.