Katt Williams is expanding his footprint beyond comedy, teaming up with Alabama-based HBCU Miles College to create a scholarship fund to train students in artificial intelligence and augmented reality—two fields rapidly reshaping the entertainment industry.
According to local NBC station WVTM 13, the initiative is tied to Williams’s larger plan to redevelop Fort McClellan in Anniston, Alabama, into a working production campus under his company, Kemet Movie Works.
The goal is to connect education directly to opportunity, giving students from Miles College access to hands-on experience in virtual production, CGI, and immersive storytelling.
Miles College, a private historically Black institution in Fairfield, Alabama, has been around since 1898 and currently serves roughly 1,500 students across programs in business, communications, education, sciences, and more.
Now, through this partnership, those students will have a direct pipeline into a growing tech-driven sector of filmmaking.
“We’ve signed an agreement… that our students will have the opportunity to participate in learning about AI and AR,” said college president Bobbie Knight when announcing the collaboration.
Williams’ approach focuses on keeping production—and the money tied to it—closer to home. “We had to go to another foreign country and give them millions of dollars,” he said. “Instead of that, we have the ability to create all of that using qualified people of color.”
The Fort McClellan site already includes two advanced sound stages designed for virtual production, allowing filmmakers to build entire digital environments without leaving the state.
Knight stressed that the scholarship program is about preparing students for what’s next—not what already exists. “There are a lot of jobs right now that in five years won’t be in existence because of AR and AI,” she said. “We want to make sure that our students are equipped with the tools they need to operate in that world.”
The partnership also builds on Miles College’s broader mission of expanding access and opportunity. The school, affiliated with the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and part of the United Negro College Fund network, has a long history of adapting to change—from surviving the Great Depression to expanding its campus footprint in recent years.
For Williams, the focus is on creating a new entry point into the industry. “It just gives us an opportunity to deal with the best and the brightest,” he said, “and to make sure that people that look like us are able to get these opportunities.”
Source: Complex
