I’m Kyle Rohrbach, a Thousand Oaks kid who came back, and proud to be one of four generations of my family who call this city home.

I grew up here in the fullest sense: CYBA basketball, AYSO soccer, karate through the Conejo Rec and Park District, summers at resident camp with the Conejo Y, and a public school education I’m still proud of. Wildwood Tiger, University Star, Redwood Viking, Thousand Oaks Lancer. Even in high school I was drawn to civic life, serving on the City of Thousand Oaks Youth Commission for three years. My first job was right here in town, as a studio assistant to the late composer Don Grady.

Family is everything to me. Born to Mexican birthparents and adopted at birth by my mom and dad, Laura and Jay, I was raised alongside my sister with a deep belief in family, volunteerism, and hard work. When my dad took a job with a scrappy startup called Amgen as one of its first 300 employees, our family chose Thousand Oaks because they wanted somewhere to truly put down roots. That turned out to be a pretty good call. Today I own a home in the same neighborhood I grew up in, and I love watching my son Aiden participate in some of the same programs that shaped me as a kid.

I’m a proud graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where I earned a BFA in Film & Television Production. After several years in New York, I came back to California and built a career in production, starting on the globally renowned kids’ show Reading Rainbow, traveling the world producing education-focused stories for the next generation of readers. From there I worked across independent film, television, and digital media, including as Head of Production at Dropout. As a national member of the Television Academy, I’ve been proud to be part of an industry that, at its best, tells stories that matter. The skills that make a great producer—building teams, managing resources, making hard calls, delivering results—are exactly the skills our city needs at the council table.

Remembering the lessons of volunteerism I grew up with, I’ve spent over a decade as an advisor to the Y’s Youth & Government program. I’ve seen firsthand what it means for a kid to have a community that invests in them. I also serve as the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for TOArts, the nonprofit presenting arm of the Bank of America Performing Arts Center, and as host of the National Geographic Live series at the Civic Arts Plaza. The arts in Thousand Oaks aren’t a luxury; they’re an economic engine and a reflection of who we are. As Chair of the City’s Community Funding Review Committee, I’ve already done what most candidates only promise: sat at the table where real decisions get made, weighed competing needs against limited resources, and been accountable for the outcomes.

I didn’t have to come back to Thousand Oaks, I chose to. Running for City Council is the next step in a lifetime of my commitment to this incredible city—bringing the same focus and follow-through I’ve applied throughout my career to the work of making Thousand Oaks a place every generation can call home.

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