PEOPLE Celebrates 23 Years Hosting the SAG Awards® Post-Awards Gala to Honor Actors' Charitable Endeavors

LOS ANGELES – Meredith Corporation’s PEOPLE will once again host the official SAG Awards® Post-Awards Gala, to be held immediately following the 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards on Sunday, January 27, 2019, in Los Angeles on a transformed Shrine Auditorium stage. This is the 23rd year that PEOPLE has hosted the Gala, which honors the charitable efforts of actors in their communities.

The 25th Annual SAG Awards will be simulcast live on TNT and TBS on Jan. 27 at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. Tony Schubert of Event Eleven, a world-class, end-to-end production company, will design and produce the Gala for the 11th consecutive year. The theme for the Gala is Havana Plaza, which features original artwork by Cuban-based artist, Kadir Lopez, including a mural and other art that will populate areas within the event, such as 1920s-style arches, beautiful Oxblood banquettes, sisal carpeting, and dark wood tables. Dim amber lighting, candles and lanterns, along with 20-foot-tall palm trees, add to the ambience for this year’s design.

Awkwafina and Laverne Cox, introduced by SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris, will announce the nominees for the 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® on Wednesday, Dec. 12. The announcement will be carried live on TNT, TBS, truTV, tntdrama.com/sag-awards, truTV.com, sagawards.org and social media platforms at 10 a.m. (ET) / 7 a.m. (PT).

In gratitude for the countless hours that actors and the entertainment community have volunteered to help with its work, Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C), a division of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), will make a $125,000 grant to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s Catastrophic Health Fund, which provides financial grants to eligible SAG-AFTRA members who suffer from catastrophic illness or injury, including cancer. PEOPLE and EIF partnered with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation for more than two decades, and in honor of SU2C’s 10 years of impact, EIF’s Stand Up To Cancer division is pleased to support the SAG-AFTRA Foundation and its Catastrophic Health Fund in this way.

“We are honored to once again support the SAG-AFTRA Foundation and Stand Up To Cancer’s important initiatives in the entertainment community,” said Bruce Gersh, EVP/President of PEOPLE, Entertainment Weekly and PEOPLE en Español and Head of Four M Studios. “PEOPLE has a long history of celebrating the philanthropic efforts of Hollywood and supporting those charitable initiatives on all our platforms."

“From the very start ten years ago, actors’ participation has been a linchpin in Stand Up To Cancer’s successful efforts to generate awareness about progress in the fight against cancer and raise funds for our distinctive, effective model of research. Our celebrity ambassadors’ involvement has literally helped save lives. Our team can think of no better way to thank the 800+ actors who have dedicated time to Stand Up To Cancer than by providing support to SAG-AFTRA members who may face cancer diagnoses or other catastrophic illnesses,” said Sherry Lansing, a co-founder and member of the Council of Founders and Advisors of Stand Up To Cancer and a member and former chair of the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s Board of Directors.

“PEOPLE and EIF have been such incredible supporters of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation programming for performing artists. Their support has aided our catastrophic health fund for artists, as well as our scholarship program, which are two significant assistance programs of the Foundation that have helped so many families in need,” said Cyd Wilson, SAG-AFTRA Foundation Executive Director. “We are so grateful for EIF’S Stand Up To Cancer division’s support of our catastrophic health fund this year. And our children’s literacy program, Storyline Online, reaches millions of children every month due in great part to the support we have received from People and EIF over the years. Storyline Online impacts children all over the world, and we couldn’t have built this incredible, free resource without the support of EIF and People.”

For more than 32 years, the non-profit SAG-AFTRA Foundation has granted more than $19 million in financial and medical assistance to SAG-AFTRA members and families. Additionally, the nonprofit has offered over 7,600 free educational workshops, panels and classes to SAG-AFTRA artists nationwide.

• Storyline Online 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 6 million views a month in 228 countries and territories, having read to more than 200 million children worldwide. 
• The Catastrophic Health Fund provides financial grants to eligible SAG-AFTRA members who suffer from catastrophic illness or injury and, no longer able to work, need assistance with insurance premiums and/or significant medical costs. 
• The Foundation’s Scholarship Program awards $400,000 in scholarships annually to eligible SAG-AFTRA members and their dependents to pursue higher education. In addition, PEOPLE and EIF 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.

About SAG-AFTRA

SAG-AFTRA represents approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists and other entertainment and media professionals. SAG-AFTRA members are the faces and voices that entertain and inform America and the world. A proud affiliate of the AFL-CIO, SAG-AFTRA has national offices in Los Angeles and New York and local offices nationwide representing members working together to secure the strongest protections for entertainment and media artists into the 21st century and beyond. Visit SAG-AFTRA online at SAGAFTRA.org.