Studio City is a historic neighborhood within the city of Los Angeles, California, in the San Fernando Valley, known for the number of celebrities who have been seen or who reside there. Its low-density residential district includes an older-aged, 78% white, well-educated, high-income population with a relatively high percentage of military veterans. Within its borders are six private and five public schools.

Originally known as Laurelwood, the area Studio City occupies was formerly part of Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando. This land changed hands several times during the late 19th Century and was eventually owned by J. B. Lankershim and eight other developers who organized the Lankershim Ranch Land and Water Company. In 1899, however, the area lost most water rights to Los Angeles and was no longer viable for farming.^{[clarification needed]}

Construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct began in 1908 and water reached the San Fernando Valley in November, 1913. Real estate boomed, and a syndicate led by Harry Chandler, business manager of the Los Angeles Times, with Hobart Johnstone Whitley, Isaac Van Nuys, and James Boon Lankershim acquired the remaining 47,500 acres (192 km²) of the southern half of the former Mission lands—everything west of the Lankershim town limits and south of present day Roscoe Boulevard excepting the Rancho Encino. Whitley platted the area of present day Studio City from portions of the existing town of Lankershim as well as the eastern part of the new acquisition.^[4]

In 1927, Mack Sennett began building a new studio on 20 acres donated by the land developer.^[5] The area around the studio was named Studio City.^[6]

Schools within the Studio City boundaries are:^[73]

 

• Harvard-Westlake School, private, grades 10-12, 3700 Coldwater Canyon.^[74]
• Campbell Hall School, private K-12, 4533 Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Founded in 1944 by Alexander Campbell, the school is home to approximately a thousand students from kindergarten through high school.
• Walter Reed Middle School, LAUSD, 4525 Irvine Avenue
• Bridges Academy, private, 3921 Laurel Canyon Boulevard. It is a grade 5-12 middle and college preparatory high school dedicated to educating students who are twice exceptional, or “2e,” (gifted and highly gifted with learning disabilities).
• ABC Little School, private elementary, 11728 Moorpark Street
• Oakwood Elementary School, private, 11230 Moorpark Street
• St. Charles Borromeo, private elementary, 10850 Moorpark Street
• Berenece Carlson Home Hospital, LAUSD special education, 10952 Whipple Street
• Rio Vista Elementary School, LAUSD, 4243 Satsuma Avenue
• Carpenter Community Charter, 3909 Carpenter Avenue
• Morning Star Christian Academy, private, 11000 Ventura Boulevard