Katt Williams is officially expanding his footprint beyond the comedy stage. In a groundbreaking new partnership, the legendary comedian and actor has teamed up with Miles College, a HBCU in Alabama, to launch a scholarship fund designed to train students in the rapidly evolving fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) filmmaking.
The initiative is directly tied to Williams’s larger, ambitious plan to redevelop Fort McClellan in Anniston, Alabama, into a state-of-the-art production campus under his company, Kemet Movie Works. By connecting education directly to opportunity, the partnership aims to give Miles College students hands-on, real-world experience in virtual production, CGI, and immersive storytelling.
For Williams, the motivation behind the initiative is to keep the jobs, the money, and the opportunities closer to home, specifically within communities of color.
“We had to go to another foreign country and give them millions of dollars,” Williams explained, reflecting on the current landscape of high-tech film production. “Instead of that, we have the ability to create all of that using qualified people of color.”
The Fort McClellan site is already equipped to make this a reality. The campus features two advanced sound stages specifically designed for virtual production, giving filmmakers the ability to build massive, intricate digital environments without ever having to leave the state of Alabama.
Miles College, a private HBCU in Fairfield that has been open since 1898, currently serves roughly 1,500 students. Through this new agreement, those students will have a direct pipeline into one of the most tech-driven and rapidly expanding sectors of the entertainment industry.
“We’ve signed an agreement… that our students will have the opportunity to participate in learning about AI and AR,” said Miles College President Bobbie Knight when announcing the collaboration.
Knight emphasized that the scholarship program is less about preparing students for the jobs that exist right now and more about future-proofing their careers against an industry that is changing by the minute.
“There are a lot of jobs right now that in five years won’t be in existence because of AR and AI,” she noted. “We want to make sure that our students are equipped with the tools they need to operate in that world.”
As AI and AR continue to dramatically reshape how movies and television shows are made, ensuring that diverse voices are at the table is more important than ever. For Williams, the Miles College partnership is all about opening doors that have historically been closed.
“It just gives us an opportunity to deal with the best and the brightest,” Williams said, “and to make sure that people that look like us are able to get these opportunities.”
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