Hollywood is a district in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., situated west-northwest of Downtown. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical centre of movie studios and stars, the word "Hollywood" is often used as a metonym for the American film and television industry. Today much of the movie industry has dispersed into surrounding areas such as Burbank and the Westside, but significant auxillary industries (such as editing, effects, props, post-production, and lighting companies) remain in Hollywood.Many historic Hollywood theaters are used as venues and concert stages to premiere major theatrical releases, and host the Academy Awards. It is a popular destination for nightlife and tourism, and home to the Walk of Fame.

Although it is not the typical practice of the City of Los Angeles to establish specific boundaries for districts or neighborhoods, Hollywood is a recent exception. On February 16, 2005, Assembly Members Goldberg and Koretz introduced a bill to require the State to keep specific records on Hollywood as though it were independent. For this to be done, the boundaries were defined. This bill was unanimously supported by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the LA City Council. Assembly Bill 588 was approved by the Governor on August 28, 2006, and now the district of Hollywood has official borders. The border is shown at the right, and can be loosely described as the area east of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, south of Mulholland Drive, Laurel Canyon, Cahuenga Blvd. and Barham Blvd., and the cities of Burbank and Glendale, north of Melrose Avenue, and west of the Golden State Freeway and Hyperion Avenue. Note that this includes all of Griffith Park and Los Feliz—two areas that were hitherto generally considered separate from Hollywood by most Angelenos. The population of the district (including Los Feliz) as of the 2000 census was 167,664 and the median household income was $33,409 in 1999 ^[1].

As a portion of the City of Los Angeles, Hollywood does not have its own municipal government, but does have an appointed official that serves as "honorary mayor" for ceremonial purposes only. Currently, the "mayor" is Johnny Grant. Since this is a non-elected, honorary position, Grant has held this position for decades.^[2] locally popular etymology is that the name Hollywood traces to the ample stands of native Toyon, or "California Holly," that cover the hillsides with clusters of bright red berries each winter. But this, and accounts of the name coming from imported English holly then growing in the area, is not confirmed. The name Hollywood was coined by H. J. Whitley,^[3] the Father of Hollywood. He and his wife Gigi came up with the name while on their honeymoon (from Margaret Virginia Whitley's memoir).^[3] Another story refer the name to Harvey Wilcox who bought land in the area for development of homes. His wife Daeida met a women on a train who mentioned that she had named her Ohio summer home to Hollywood. Daeide who liked the name gave it to their new development. The name first appear on the Wilcox's map of the subdivision, filed to the county recorder on February 1, 1887