Active Students (as of April 2024)*
Graduate students: 24
*All active students with declared CAH programs are included in the enrollment counts.
UCF’s Themed Experience graduate programs remain the largest and most selective academic degrees in themed experience and attractions. With approximately 80 enrolled candidates in our Master of Science degree and Themed Experience track in the theatre MFA program, Themed Experience has become one of the largest graduate programs in the College of Arts and Humanities.
Themed Experience enjoys a “very selective” acceptance rate and over 90% placement in long-term internships or full-time employment in the industry, with 66% of our students and graduates working for Universal Creative or Walt Disney Imagineering. Although the Themed Experience program is relatively young, our students and graduates have already significantly impacted the industry with graduates obtaining positions such as creative director, art director, show set designer and production manager.
Themed Experience continues its successful collaboration with Universal Creative and has offered a second year of the UCF/Universal Creative Lab, where students learn from top creatives at Universal and go behind the scenes at Universal Destinations and Experiences. We have also continued our collaboration with the avant garde artists collective, Meow Wolf. In the Meow Wolf workshop, students presented to senior creatives, and a select group traveled to Santa Fe to Meow Wolf headquarters for a private tour of the exhibition and production facilities. Our collaborations expanded with a themed experience for Nemours Children’s Hospital and a themed event for the high-end car racing venue, P1 Motor Club.
The expansion of the depth and breadth of our course offerings has enabled Themed Experience to add an outstanding new faculty member. Chaz Moneypenny has had a dynamic career leading teams at the world’s greatest entertainment companies. He began his career at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he contributed as a show writer to globally recognized attractions such as Star Tours, The Iron Man Experience, and Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. His talents flourished under the mentorship of the legendary Stan Lee, serving as assistant writer and ghostwriter, mastering storytelling directly from one of the industry’s top icons of all time. At Universal Studios Japan as a creative director, he worked on over 20 seasonal and permanent attractions, collaborating with Japan’s top animation houses and enhancing the legacies of Japan’s most celebrated IPs.
We are thrilled with the advances the program has made in the past year and excited about upcoming opportunities for our students and alumni.
— Peter Weishar, director
