Andrea's combination of a challenging class, and a great sense of humor are unique, intelligent, and always leave me feeling better when I leave than when I arrived. She is an amazing teacher and I love her class. --Heather Graham--actress A native of California, Andrea Marcum grew up in Santa Cruz, moved south to attend USC, and stumbled into her first yoga class in the early 90's at the local gym. There was something intriguing and somewhat daunting to Marcum when she experienced that first down dog. While she was sure her back ground as a competitive gymnast would carry her effortlessly through the sun salutations, she was unprepared for what she got out of that first class on a borrowed mat.

She went back the next day and the next ultimately studying with some of the best, including Annie Carpenter, Tim Miller and Vinnie Marino. Now she enjoys many styles of yoga, but it is the sweaty and steady rigors of vinyasa that she finds most challenging. Marcum began teaching in 1999, and proudly opened U Studio Yoga in April, 2006. It is the commUnity of those who helped build it, that inspired the name. U Studio is an inclusive and ever expanding community where people move and breathe together on the 5th floor of an extraordinary art deco building on Wilshire, where their view spans from the Hollywood sign to the downtown skyline, inspiring, no matter how you spin it. Marcum's class is a rigorous but intelligent flow, with an emphasis on alignment and equal parts sweat and playful laughter. Andrea relishes watching the transformation in her students that yoga has brought them in their lives, minds, and bodies just as it has done for her.

Creativity and a sense of adventure seem to run in the Marcum family. Andrea is the sister of Art Marcum, screenwriter of Iron Man, who regularly attends her classes. "My sister didn't really pick on me as a kid, but she's making up for it now. Her class whips you into shape and leads you to that yoga euphoria. I'm actually proud to say that my sister can kick my ass"