Why One Mormon Man Left Hollywood to Be a High School Teacher

Every now and then it still happens. Someone will stare at Scott Ditty, a local high school coach and teacher, and ask, “Do I know you? You look familiar.” In another lifetime, Ditty was a professional actor. He made a brief career with small movie and TV roles and commercials until he decided he could better live his Mormon faith and do more good by teaching and coaching youth. These days you can find him at Alta High School, where he plays many roles: defensive coordinator of the football team, head track coach, powerlifting instructor and film studies teacher. The latter is one of the most popular classes at Alta. Students get to watch movies in class and then discuss them with a guy who was in them.

For 15 years Ditty was in showbiz. A decade ago he gave it all up and moved to Utah, trading a footloose and sometimes-glamorous lifestyle to teach teenagers in a portable on the back lot at Alta.

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