PEOPLE celebrates 24 years hosting SAG Awards

Post-awards gala to honor actors' philanthropic efforts

Meredith Corporation’s PEOPLE will once again host the official SAG Awards Post-Awards Gala, to be held immediately following the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, Jan. 19, in Los Angeles. This is the 24th year PEOPLE has hosted the event, which takes place on a transformed Shrine Auditorium stage and honors the charitable endeavors of actors in their communities.

The 26th Annual SAG Awards will be simulcast live on TNT and TBS on Jan. 19 (8 p.m. ET). Tony Schubert of Event Eleven, a world-class, end-to-end production company, will design and produce the gala for the 12th consecutive year. The theme for this year’s event is cherry blossom forest, which takes guests into nature with a forest of cherry blossom trees featuring various shades of pink blossoms. Plush furniture, walnut, and pops of pink accents bring this fall forest to life.

In gratitude to the actors and the entertainment community for their countless hours of volunteer work, Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C), a division of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), will make a grant to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s emergency assistance programs, which helps performing artists in urgent need, including those suffering with cancer diagnoses. PEOPLE and EIF have partnered with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation for more than two decades.

“We are honored once again to support the SAG-AFTRA Foundation and Stand Up To Cancer’s important initiatives in the entertainment community,” said Dan Wakeford, editor in chief, PEOPLE. “PEOPLE has a long history of celebrating the philanthropic efforts of Hollywood and supporting charitable initiatives on all our platforms."

“Stand Up To Cancer is dedicated to collaboration, and it’s such an incredible honor to be able to stand up and support the essential, often life-saving work of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation,” said Sherry Lansing, a SU2C co-founder and a member and former chair of the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s board of directors. “This is a wonderful opportunity for us to show our heartfelt appreciation for the invaluable participation and dedication of so many actors and celebrity ambassadors who, from the very start, have been an integral part of Stand Up To Cancer’s ability to raise awareness and funds to fight cancer. When we all stand together, we are stronger.”

“PEOPLE and Stand Up To Cancer have been steadfast supporters of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation. Their generous support has aided our assistance programs, which have helped thousands of families in need,” said Cyd Wilson, SAG-AFTRA Foundation executive director. “We could not serve performing artists with a vital safety net of programs and services without the help of invaluable partners like PEOPLE and Stand Up To Cancer.”

For more than 34 years, the SAG-AFTRA Foundation has granted more than $20 million in financial and medical assistance to SAG-AFTRA members and families. Additionally, the nonprofit has offered over 9,400 free educational workshops, panels and classes to SAG-AFTRA artists nationwide.

The Foundation’s Storyline Online program is an award-winning children’s literacy resource featuring beloved actors reading children’s literature alongside creatively produced and enhanced original illustrations. Storyline Online currently receives nearly 10 million views a month in more than 220 countries and territories, having read to more than 575 million children worldwide.

The foundation’s emergency assistance programs provide financial grants to eligible SAG-AFTRA members who suffer from catastrophic illness or injury and need assistance with insurance premiums and/or significant medical costs, as well as financial assistance in times of crises.

The foundation’s scholarship program awards $400,000 in scholarships annually to eligible SAG-AFTRA members and their dependents to pursue higher education.

The foundation’s performers programs offer over 1,000 free educational classes, panels and workshops to 45,000 SAG-AFTRA members nationwide every year. From casting classes with top casting directors to voiceover workshops with trained VO professionals, from panels on the business to career retrospectives with acting legends, the performers programs offer valuable career-enhancing resources and training to SAG-AFTRA members throughout their careers.

In addition, PEOPLE and Stand Up to Cancer are donors to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s state-of-the-art voiceover lab in New York, named the EIF Voiceover Lab, which provides free voiceover workshops and recording time in professionally equipped sound booths to thousands of union voice actors.

For more information, visit sagaftra.foundation.

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