Once Upon A Time

Ernest Dillihay

Ernest heads Arts Culture Entertainment, LLC a program development and production company. He is the Project Manager and Program Developer for the Cultural Legacy Project for the Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center C. Bernard Jackson Memorial Library.
Ernest served 20 years as the Performing Arts Director for the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Performing Arts Division where he supervised theater operations, productions, marketing, and promotions for the Vision, Madrid and Warner Grand Theatres, the Nate Holden Performing Arts and Los Angeles Theatre Centers and supervised the Citywide Festivals, Folk and Traditional Arts programs as well as it theater, dance, music, variety arts, special events video production and literary arts programs. As the department’s Cultural Facilities Director Ernest was responsible for the property management of 350,00 square feet of a (33) cultural facility portfolio that included, the (5) theaters, (23) art centers, (2) museums, and (2) galleries overseeing renovations, upgrades, maintenance, security, and custodial services. He was the department’s property and project manager and liaison to city departments, council, and mayor’s offices for property acquisitions, and capital construction projects. Ernest also worked with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, the late August Wilson’s national black theater advocacy organization, the African Grove Institute for the Arts (AGIA) Inc., establishing the first state chapter of AGIA in California and serving as its chair. Upon the recommendation of the AGIA Board of Directors, Ernest was selected to attend Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck School of Business Executive Minority Beginning and Intermediate Business Programs. Ernest is a Cable ACE Award Winner; EMMY and NAACP Image Award Nominee; and an OVATION Award winner for Best Production of Roger Guenveur Smith’s “A Huey P. Newton Story”. Working with Reel Entertainment, Ernest produced at the Palais de Festival in Cannes, France home of the Cannes Film Festival the first-ever California Pavilion at Midem the world’s largest music marketplace. Ernest is a UCLA Ethnic Arts (B.A.) and Theatre Management (M.F.A.) graduate and was awarded Fellowships to the National Endowment for the Arts and CORO Public Affairs and the Arts Program. Ernest is a dad, grand, and a new great dad. He is a Marine Corps veteran.