Asian Pacific American Filmmakers
by mariojacobs | created - 18 Jul 2021 | updated - 11 May 2022 | PublicWho is your favorite Asian Pacific American Filmmaker?
Source and full list: imdb.com
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1. Bruce Lee
Actor | Jing wu men
Bruce Lee remains the greatest icon of martial arts cinema and a key figure of modern popular media. Had it not been for Bruce Lee and his movies in the early 1970s, it's arguable whether or not the martial arts film genre would have ever penetrated and influenced mainstream North American and ...
2. Ang Lee
Director | Wo hu cang long
Born in 1954 in Pingtung, Taiwan, Ang Lee has become one of today's greatest contemporary filmmakers. Ang graduated from the National Taiwan College of Arts in 1975 and then came to the U.S. to receive a B.F.A. Degree in Theatre/Theater Direction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ...
3. Joan Chen
Actress | Judge Dredd
Born into a family of doctors and educated in China at the Shanghai Film Academy and the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Languages, Joan Chen was discovered by veteran Chinese director Jin Xie while observing a filming with a school group. Her performance in Xiao hua (1979) (A.K.A. "The Little Flower...
4. Tony Bui
Writer | Ba mùa
Arrived in US at age 2, and raised in Sunnyvale, California. His father ran a video store and he soon was inspired to make his own Super8 movies. Studied film at LA's Loyola Marymount University. Visited Vietnamese several times before making first short film, Yellow Lotus (1995). His 2nd film, ...
5. Arthur Dong
Producer | Hollywood Chinese
Arthur Dong is an Oscar®-nominated and triple Sundance award-winning filmmaker, author and curator whose work centers on Asian American and LGBTQ stories. A common theme that underscores his films is personal stories of survival and resistance set against backdrops of social and cultural ...
6. Jessica Yu
Director | Fosse/Verdon
Jessica Yu was born in 1966. She is a director and producer, known for Fosse/Verdon (2019), Billions (2016) and Maria Bamford: Old Baby (2017). She is married to Mark Salzman.
7. Jennifer Phang
Director | Advantageous
A Berkeley-born daughter of Chinese-Malaysian and Vietnamese heritage, Jennifer Phang is a graduate of the MFA Directing program at the American Film Institute.
Her sophomore feature Advantageous won a Jury Prize at Sundance 2015 and was based on her award winning Futurestates short Advantageous (...
8. Wayne Wang
Director | Smoke
Wayne Wang is a key figure in the development of independent filmmaking, alternating major Hollywood studio films such as »The Joy Luck Club« with smaller, independent work like »Smoke«. Continuing to work in the two different worlds, Wang directed an independent digital film, »The Center of the ...
9. Mira Nair
Director | Salaam Bombay!
Accomplished Film Director/Writer/Producer Mira Nair was born in India and educated at Delhi University and at Harvard. She began her film career as an actor and then turned to directing award-winning documentaries, including So Far From India and India Cabaret. Her debut feature film, Salaam ...
10. Tze Chun
Writer | Children of Invention
Tze Chun was born in 1980 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Children of Invention (2009), Cold Comes the Night (2013) and Gotham (2014). He has been married to Cara McKenney since June 11, 2011.
11. So Yong Kim
Director | Na-moo-eobs-neun san
So Yong Kim was born in 1968 in Pusan, South Korea. So Yong is a director and producer, known for Treeless Mountain (2008), In Between Days (2006) and For Ellen (2012).
12. Gregg Araki
Writer | Mysterious Skin
Gregg Araki was born on December 17, 1959 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is a writer and director, known for Mysterious Skin (2004), White Bird in a Blizzard (2014) and Kaboom (2010).
13. M. Night Shyamalan
Producer | Lady in the Water
Born in Puducherry, India, and raised in the posh suburban Penn Valley area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, M. Night Shyamalan is a film director, screenwriter, producer, and occasional actor, known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots.
He is the son of Jayalakshmi, a Tamil ...
14. Justin Lin
Producer | Better Luck Tomorrow
Justin Lin is a Taiwanese-American film director whose films have grossed $2 billion worldwide. He is best known for his work on Better Luck Tomorrow, The Fast and the Furious 3-6 and Star Trek Beyond. He is also known for his work on television shows like Community and the second season of True ...
15. Evan Jackson Leong
Director | Snakehead
Evan Jackson Leong is known for Snakehead (2021), Linsanity (2013) and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006).
16. Benson Lee
Producer | Seoul Searching
Benson Lee is known for Seoul Searching (2015), Planet B-Boy (2007) and Miss Monday (1998).
17. Patricio Ginelsa
Director | Lumpia with a Vengeance
Patricio is originally from Daly City, California, where he started making video movies with his neighborhood at the age of 13. After graduating with a BA in cinema production at the University of Southern California, Patricio became the Associate Producer of the award-winning film The Debut" and ...
18. Kevin Tancharoen
Director | Fame
Kevin Tancharoen is a filmmaker, writer, producer and choreographer whose Mortal Kombat series revived the live action format for the franchise.
Kevin came to the attention of Warner Bros. with the stealth release of his viral video Mortal Kombat : Rebirth that re-imagined the video game franchise ...
19. Jon M. Chu
Director | G.I. Joe: Retaliation
Jon is an alumni of the USC School of Cinema-Television. There, he won the Princess Grace Award, the Dore Schary Award presented by the Anti-Defamation league, the Jack Nicholson directing award, and recognized as an honoree for the IFP/West program Project: Involve.
After making his student short, ...
20. Joseph Kahn
Director | Bodied
Joseph Kahn was born on October 12, 1972. He is a director and cinematographer, known for Bodied (2017), Detention (2011) and Torque (2004).
21. Adam Bhala Lough
Director | Telemarketers
Adam Bhala Lough is a Spirit Award nominated film director, screenwriter, and documentary filmmaker. He holds the distinction of being the only filmmaker to have a feature film and a documentary in the Sundance film festival, as well as a screenplay selected for the annual Sundance Screenwriter's ...
22. Justin Chon
Actor | Twilight
Justin Chon was born in Garden Grove, Orange County, California, and was raised in Irvine, California. He is the son of Kyung, a pianist, and Sang Chon, a former child actor. Justin is of Korean descent.
Justin Chon is a writer, director, and actor known for his '90s LA Riots drama Gook (2017), ...
23. Chloé Zhao
Director | Nomadland
Chloé Zhao or Zhao Ting (born March 31, 1982) is a Chinese film director, screenwriter, and producer. Her debut feature film, Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015), premiered at Sundance Film Festival. Her second feature film, The Rider (2017), was critically acclaimed and received several accolades ...
24. Diane Paragas
Director | Yellow Rose
Diane Paragas is a narrative, documentary and commercial director and writer. She is best known for writing, directing and producing Yellow Rose which follows the journey of an undocumented Filipino teenager who longs to be a country singer while facing deportation. The film won 14 Grand Jury and ...
25. Cary Joji Fukunaga
Producer | Beasts of No Nation
Cary Joji Fukunaga is a Japanese-American film director, screenwriter, cinematographer and producer from Oakland, California who is known for directing the James Bond film No Time to Die, Kofi, Beasts of No Nation, Jane Eyre and Sin Nombre. He co-wrote the 2017 film adaptation of the Stephen King ...
26. Destin Daniel Cretton
Director | Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Destin Daniel Cretton is an American filmmaker, writer and producer from Haiku, Hawaii. He is known for directing The Glass Castle, I Am Not a Hipster, Short Term 12, Just Mercy and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. He is the second Asian-American filmmaker to direct a Marvel film ...
27. Alice Wu
Director | The Half of It
Studied computer science at MIT and Stanford University, where she received her bachelors and masters degrees. Left a job designing software at Microsoft to write and direct her first film, Saving Face, which premiered at the Toronto and Sundance Film Festivals, where it was acquired and released ...
28. Karyn Kusama
Director | The Invitation
Karyn Kusama was born on March 21, 1968 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She is a director and producer, known for The Invitation (2015), Destroyer (2018) and Girlfight (2000). She has been married to Phil Hay since October 2006. They have one child.
29. Dean Devlin
Producer | Independence Day
Dean Devlin has produced and co-written some of the most successful feature films of all time -- Independence Day, Stargate, and Godzilla -- which collectively grossed more than 1.4 billion dollars worldwide. In May of 2001, he founded Electric Entertainment, where he serves as chairman and CEO. ...
30. Cathy Yan
Director | Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn
Cathy Yan is known for Birds of Prey (2020), Dead Pigs (2018) and According to My Mother (2016).
31. Emily Ting
Writer | Sealed with a List
Emily Ting is known for Sealed with a List (2023), Christmas at the Golden Dragon (2022) and Tall Girl 2 (2022).
32. James Wong Howe
Cinematographer | The Thin Man
Master cinematographer James Wong Howe, whose career stretched from silent pictures through the mid-'70s, was born Wong Tung Jim in Canton (now Guangzhou), China, on August 28, 1899, the son of Wong How. His father emigrated to America the year James was born, settling in Pasco, Washington, where ...
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