Wayfarer Theaters is a new collective space for films, live events, and conversation, designed to strengthen the bonds of friendship in our community.

Wayfarer Theaters is a sister company of Wayfarer Studios, a film and TV studio founded in 2019 by Paylocity founder Steve Sarowitz and Jane the Virgin star Justin Baldoni. Baldoni, actor turned filmmaker, uses his stardom as a platform to address social issues through impactful content creation and direct action. He gave a TED talk called “Why I’m Done Trying to Be ‘Man Enough,’” which inspired a web series and he founded a non-profit focused on addressing homelessness in Los Angeles. He has directed Clouds, which was named one of the best films on Disney+, and Five Feet Apart.

Sarowitz, an entrepreneur and philanthropist, uses his time and resources to fight to eradicate the negative ‘isms’ of the world through non-profit work and now impactful content creation alongside Baldoni. Baldoni and Sarowitz launched the Wayfarer Foundation in 2021 as a Baha’i-inspired organization with the mission to “advance humankind spiritually towards a future peaceful world civilization.” The Wayfarer Foundation funds and supports spiritually rooted and justice-oriented nonprofits, centering on the power of universal participation to create a more hopeful, joyful, and just world.

Beyond just creating impactful content with a message, Baldoni and Sarowitz want to upend the traditional Hollywood studio model by building a company that puts equity and social justice at the forefront. This means hiring executives, creators, and behind-the-scenes filmmakers who reflect the diverse world we live in—i.e., more women and people of color than is typical at most Hollywood companies—and establishing a creator-friendly environment where writers and directors share in the success of the studio. They also want to open up opportunities for people for whom Hollywood is not an obvious career path through internship and scholarship programs.

“Together we have a vision to disrupt for good,” Baldoni says. “In the sense that everything we do has to fall in line with what we believe at Wayfarer could be, essentially, good for humanity.”