[6] The Stella Adler Studio and the Juilliard School currently boast the lowest program acceptance rates in the professional acting world.

[7] Concurrent with her work as an actor and director, Stella Adler began to teach in the early 1940s at the Erwin Piscator Workshop at the New School for Social Research in New York.

Among her early students were Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Warren Beatty, Elaine Stritch, Mario Van Peebles, Harvey Keitel, and Candice Bergen.

The mission of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting is to create an environment with the purpose of nurturing theatre artists who value humanity, their own and others, as their first and most precious priority while providing art and education to the greater community.

Adler's long history with Hollywood meant she had close ties and strong connections in the Los Angeles area.

She taught for many years at various locations in Los Angeles, and eventually, with her longtime friend and protégé Joanne Linville, opened the doors to the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Argyle.

Some of the notable people who have passed through the Hollywood conservatory include Nick Nolte, Salma Hayek,[11] Eric Stoltz, Deidre Hall, Sean Astin, John Charles Jopson, John Ritter, Herschel Savage, Cybill Shepherd, Michael Richards, Benicio del Toro,[11] and Mark Ruffalo.