2022-2023 Disneyland Ambassador Team Announced
The 2022-2023 Disneyland Ambassador team was announced today!
The Disneyland cast members selected for this prestigious role are: Nataly Guzman and Mark Everett King, Jr.!
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Meet Nataly and Mark up close!
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Reactions from Mark and Nataly
History of the program
Ambassadors have been representing the cast of Disneyland since 1965, when Julie Reihm was selected by Walt Disney to represent the cast in the busy 10th anniversary celebration of Disneyland.
In 1995, the program was expanded to a team format, with multiple cast members selected as Ambassador, including the first male Ambassador.
Now, every park across the globe is represented by a Disney Ambassador or team, including Aulani.
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The 2022-2023 Disneyland Ambassadors will represent the Disneyland cast, acting as official hosts, spokespersons and emissaries of goodwill to the world.
This includes cross-training with the Disneyland cast, going on TV or the radio for press promotion of Disneyland and visiting local children’s hospitals on a regular basis.
Ambassador finalists have some fun
Yesterday, the Ambassador finalists spent some time together in Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure.
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The current Disneyland Ambassadors, Rafa Barron and Justin Rapp, were selected in late 2018 to represent Disneyland for 2019-2020. Their tenure was extended through 2021 due to the shutdown of the parks.
What does it take to be a Disneyland Ambassador?
Disneyland Ambassadors must have been employed by the Disneyland Resort for at least one year, and they are expected to have a deep knowledge of the Resort as well as the Walt Disney Company.
In addition, Ambassadors must be able to present themselves well as they’ll be doing a lot of television and radio interviews, not to mention speaking at oodles of public events!
Disneyland Ambassadors also take part in many VoluntEars events with Disneyland cast. Every month they visit sick kids in the local children’s hospital, Children’s Hospital of Orange County.
Throughout their term the Ambassadors get to cross-train with cast members across the Disneyland Resort.
When the Disneyland Ambassador program began in 1965, Walt Disney himself hand-selected the first few Ambassadors. He needed someone to help with the large number of Disneyland press requests while he worked on things like the Florida project and new movies.
Today the selection process is a little bit different.
Those who would like to apply are invited to attend Ambassador 101 sessions, where the current team presents the expectations and realities of the role.
A selection committee will then whittle the applications down to begin interviewing applicants. In general, there are several rounds of interviews. These conclude with a semi-finalist pool and then a final pool of candidates.
Like other Disney casting, when you interview for this role you should expect multiple rounds of group interviews.
The Disneyland Ambassador or team is usually selected in October or November, giving the new Ambassadors time to go through extensive training in advance of a January 1, 2022 start date.
In the past, this training has included media training, plus time spent at the Walt Disney Archives, Walt Disney Animation Studios and Walt Disney Imagineering. Often there is an opportunity for new Ambassadors from the Disney parks around the world to come together for some of this training.
I was proud to represent the Disneyland cast in 1995 as part of the first-ever Disneyland Ambassador team. Along with my fellow Ambassadors Michelle Tryon and Gerry Aquino, we represented the then 13,000-member cast as we celebrated 40 years of adventures at Disneyland. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and truly a dream job.
Welcome to the family, Nataly and Mark, 2022 Disneyland Ambassadors!
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