Lonely Island pose next to the utility box painted with their portrait outside Berkeley High School on xxx. Photo: Mark Coplan/BUSD
Lonely Island (l to r: Jorma Taccone, Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer) pose next to the utility box painted with their portrait outside Berkeley High School, on Nov. 9, 2014.  Photo: Mark Coplan/BUSD
Lonely Island (l to r: Jorma Taccone, Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer) pose next to the utility box painted with their portrait outside Berkeley High School, on Nov. 9, 2014.  Photo: Mark Coplan/BUSD

Berkeley High alumni Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer (aka, comedy group The Lonely Island) returned to Berkeley High School a week ago Sunday to shoot footage for a project that aims to chronicle their lives in Berkeley.

The three TV personalities, who met at Willard Middle School and moved on to Berkeley High in the 1990s, worked together on Saturday Night Live for eight years.

After they left SNL, Samberg made several movies and is currently starring in the award-winning show Brooklyn Nine-Nine, now in its second season.

The Lonely Island trio and friend shooting a new project in the corridors of Berkeley High School, their alma mater. Photo: Mark Coplan/BUSD
The Lonely Island trio shooting a new project in the corridors of Berkeley High School, their alma mater. Photo: Mark Coplan/BUSD

Jorma Taccone is the son of Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Artistic Director Tony Taccone.

Despite their fame, the three friends have not forgotten their roots. In the past few years they have facilitated a donation of $250,000 that went towards BUSD theater programs, and contributed $10,000 towards the signs at the two-year old Tim Moellering Field.

Samberg donated $15,000 to John Muir Elementary where, before her retirement, his mother worked as an instructional aid, working with students with hearing disabilities. And, two months ago, Samberg collaborated on a new burger, sales of which helped the Berkeley-based Center for Early Intervention on Deafness (CEID), a cause close to his mother’s heart.

While in Berkeley, the trio like to visit old haunts. They have been known to drop by Gordo’s for a burrito, and have made at least one appearance at Amoeba on Telegraph Avenue. A utility box outside Berkeley High bears a “class of 1996″ portrait of the three men — a result of a collaboration between Berkeley High’s Arts and Humanities School and a City of Berkeley-Earth Island Institute project. The friends posed next to it for their new project on Nov. 9 and roamed the halls of their alma mater trailed by a camera crew.

See more photos of their visit, taken by BUSD’s Mark Coplan.

Related:
Andy Samberg gives back with a burger (09.25.14)
BUSD to spend Lonely Island $250K on theater programs (06.02.12)
$250,000 for Berkeley schools thanks to Lonely Island (01.30.12)
What happened when the Lonely Island trio visited Amoeba (06.29.11)
The boys are back in town: Lonely Island trio hit Berkeley (04.14.11)

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Tracey Taylor is co-founder of Berkeleyside and co-founder and editorial director of Cityside, the nonprofit parent to Berkeleyside and The Oaklandside. Before launching Berkeleyside, Tracey wrote for...