Loyola Marymount University, also referred to as LMU, is a private, co-educational Roman Catholic university in the United States. Located in Los Angeles, California, the university is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. LMU was created in 1973 by the merger of two Catholic colleges in Los Angeles.

The first predecessor to LMU was founded in 1911 as Los Angeles College by the Society of Jesus, and changed its name to Loyola College of California in 1918. Loyola opened a law school in 1920, moved to its present campus in the Westchester district of Los Angeles in 1929, and became Loyola University in 1930. The law school did not move with the rest of the university, but remains to this day in a location just west of downtown Los Angeles. The current law school campus was designed by Frank Gehry and is a pleasant exception to its dreary surroundings in the Pico-Union neighborhood.

In 1933, the religious order of The Sacred Heart of Mary opened Marymount Junior College, an all-women's school in the Westwood district of Los Angeles. The school became Marymount College when it started awarding bachelor's degrees in 1948, and moved to the Palos Verdes Peninsula in 1960. In 1968, Marymount College moved its operations to Loyola's campus. At the same time, a third Catholic order, the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Orange, joined the consortium that operated the two schools. The two colleges merged in 1973, creating today's Loyola Marymount University.

During the summer, the LMU campus plays host to a large number of precocious children. It is the primary West Coast site for the Center for Talented Youth summer program operated by Johns Hopkins University.