Academy Award-winning actor and author Jane Fonda will deliver USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism commencement speech as its 2025 keynote speaker on May 16, the school announced on Thursday, April 3.
Fonda has received two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award. She has also received nominations for a Grammy Award and two Tony Awards.
Fonda “reminds us that communication — whether through story, advocacy or dialogue — is an essential catalyst for positive change, and inspires our class of 2025 to use their voices with purpose,” Annenberg Dean Willow Bay said in a statement.
A feminist, environmentalist and activist, Fonda is known for her role in the counterculture movement during the Vietnam War and later for protesting the Iraq War.
In what she calls her “third act,” 87-year-old Fonda is dedicating her voice to climate activism. In 2021, she published “What Can I Do?: The Path from Climate Despair to Action,” which discussed her journey in advocacy and outlined actions to combat climate change. Fonda spent her 82nd birthday in jail after being arrested at a climate protest in Washington, D.C.
Her many movies include “Barbarella” (1968), “Klute” (1971), “Coming Home” (1978), “On Golden Pond” (1981) and most recently, “Our Souls at Night” (2017), alongside Robert Redford.
Fonda will take the stage at the Shrine Auditorium for the Annenberg School’s commencement ceremony.