“Unique Academy USA,” a six-part limited series, debuts July 17 on Roku. From one angle, it’s another celeb car show. You could say there’s little limit to how often one should show how to truly care for cars, particularly if somebody talking happens also to be famous.
But “Unique Academy USA” combines the recognizable entertainers with a recognized need for more technicians in collision repair, while driving an “each one, teach one” ethos at boots-on-the-ground sites in New York and, coming soon, Florida.
Custom car guy Will Castro sees it helping culminate four decades of involvement in the industries — collision and entertainment — while helping kids turn star-gazing and Spotify playlists into real work, probably also careers, in custom cars.
“We are here to help these kids,” Castro said of the academy and show.
The show chronicles a season in the life of a gaggle of Long Island teens. Fifteen of them joined Castro on 12 Saturdays last year at a Dix Hills location; the second cohort of kids, including two young women, starts at the end of August.
A Hollywood, FL, location on Pembroke Road is planned for early next year.
‘We’re Gonna Teach Them … They’re Getting Jobs’
Leonard Cohen said a well-lived life, including the toughest stuff, rendered natural and necessary results: “poetry is just the ash.” In that sense, the reality show is really just the last step in these high schoolers’ three hours of weekly work those three months. But not the last stop.
Will Castro.
Five of 15 kids finished all four Unique Academy areas — automotive detailing, window tinting, paint protection, vinyl wraps — earning their UA diploma. Others got certificates in one or more individual curricula, with returns expected this year as part of the new Saturday “semesters.”
Consider the academy a finishing school of sorts for local 10th through 12th graders, largely students from the Wilson Tech Center vehicle programs. Also in Dix Hills, the school offers career training, working with a state group, Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), which pools resources to collaborate with several school districts.
“We get a lot of these students from Wilson Tech,” Castro said. Students in the main program learn the technical side of body shops — “101 stuff in auto body, auto repair” — then UA steps in with “detailing, paint correction, windows, wet sanding, refinishing,” he said.
“We help these kids learn,” and not just the final elements of a custom job’s finishing touch. “We’re gonna teach them about business, being responsible, accountable. They’re getting jobs.”
‘I Want to Open My Own Business’
Castro said UA has placed two students: one in a stereo shop and one in a Maaco location in Massapequa, NY.
“This is what they want to do as a career. Not chef or electrician; these are car enthusiasts. We don’t want to waste their time or mine.”
Eddie Chavez went through coursework last year. Castro came to talk at Wilson Tech, passionate about making cars shine, where Chavez had been learning the trade “polishing my teachers’ cars” while seeking a next challenge.
He’s now been working at the Maaco some seven months, following high school and Unique Academy. Eddie, 20, “learned a lot” under Castro’s care: “polishing, wet sanding, light paint jobs, business skills and time management. Eventually I want to open my own business.”
“They’re young kids, nervous, and doing a phenomenal job,” Castro said.
Castro, far left, with students at Unique Academy.
Students last summer saw visits from regional and national news, sports and entertainment names Victor Cruz, Tony Yayo, Darlene Rodriguez and Adrienne Bailon Houghton. Castro’s worked with and customized the cars of celebrities, with some emphasis on sports and music, including LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, LL Cool J and Busta Rhymes.
“Getting to know [students] has been fun, and the students are learning from the best in the business. The kids are excellent,” said Cruz, a retired New York Giants wide receiver, in a press release.
The show is from Castro’s WillPower Films and sponsored by XPEL Inc., a publicly traded provider of paint protection and window tinting products, with $420 million in 2024 revenue. Unique Radio is the podcast.
Students this year will work on an SUV owned by apparel entrepreneur and "Shark Tank" investor Daymond John.
‘Customizing Cars in My Mom’s Driveway’
Castro’s “Unique Rides with Will Castro” was on the air in the 2010s; Castro has been in the business 40 years. “Back in the ’80s, I was out there, customizing cars in my mom’s driveway,” he says in a video trailer for the show.
“In 1984, I started with car detailing and shaping, getting them ready for auctions,” he told Autobody News. “That’s how I started in this business and it’s how I’m ending.”
Celebrity is sexy and flashy — that’s why they call it famous, and sometimes infamous — but deep down, it’s not so different from body shops overall. It’s decades of work that grows into next-gen, carry-on opportunities.
“I know everyone on Long Island, and I’m not doing any build shows,” Castro said. “My job is to help these kids. That is the beauty of this.”
He said he’d been thinking about a teaching iteration of his industry involvement since about 2009. As it launched, students’ families asked if there’d be a show.
This year’s teaching will also be filmed. The SEMA Show could come into play too as Castro’s son, Will Castro Jr., 10, will demonstrate tinting at XPEL's booth in November.
“We’re sponsoring the kids, feeding them, transportation,” he said of his and XPEL’s commitment, “doing anything we can to help them, and mentor them in the right way.”
Paul Hughes