Abhijay Prakash is President of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group (UFEG). In this role, he is responsible for driving the Studio’s strategic and long-range planning, while also overseeing the business operations of UFEG including finance, business development and administrative functions. Prakash acts as point to manage day-to-day operations working closely with all functional leads and corporate partners.

He previously served as Chief Operating Officer for DreamWorks Animation. Abhijay oversaw the animation studio’s strategic planning and primary business operations including finance, business development, technology, and administrative functions. In addition to his responsibilities as COO, he also worked closely with other Universal leaders on release planning, franchise management, and brand development.

Prior to DreamWorks Animation, Abhijaywas Chief Operating Officer for Focus Features as part of its reset management team where he oversaw all aspects of finance, strategy, business affairs, physical production, distribution and operations. Prior to that role he served as Executive Vice President, Film Strategy and Operations for Universal Pictures. In his time at Universal, Focus and Dreamworks he has made key contributions in the development of the studio’s strategic slate, use of analytics and negotiated a range of deals including production, financing and distribution arrangements.

Prior to his tenure at Universal, Abhijay served as a Consultant at the Boston Consulting Group in its Media and Entertainment division. He has also held positions at IGN Entertainment and Artisan Entertainment, the precursor company to Lionsgate; and previously worked as a public policy researcher.

Abhijay is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He received his MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Princeton University in addition to holding a Master’s Degree in Film from Northwestern University. Abhijay lives in Los Angeles with his wife Jennifer and their three children.

Albert Cheng has led the traditional entertainment industry’s evolution into the digital age with several industry firsts, including streaming TV shows before Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. As Chief Digital and Product Officer at ABC (and the highest ranking person of color in executive management at the time), Albert was the first to onboard broadcast TV shows for download on iTunes in 2005; led ABC to become the first network to stream full ad-supported episodes online in 2006; was the first to offer mobile on demand with Sprint in 2007; launched the first ad-supported video app on the inaugural launch of the Apple iPad in 2010; and was the first to offer live streaming of local TV stations in 2013. Today, he has expanded his role as Chief Operating Officer of Amazon Studios to co-leading its Television Studios, where he’s made it a formal business priority to hire diverse voices both in front of and behind the camera. Known for being a powerfully collaborative, insightful, and well-respected partner, Albert continues to shepherd entertainment’s evolution into new formats and models.

With a 15 year break between her two films, Alice Wu knows life isn’t lived linearly.

 

A former computer scientist, she designed software for Microsoft until her late twenties, when she left the tech world to become a filmmaker. Her debut feature SAVING FACE (2005) made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival where it was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics. The critically-acclaimed film played in theaters worldwide and garnered several festival accolades.

 

Alice’s second film, THE HALF OF IT, won the Founder’s Award at the Tribeca Film Festival before it was released on Netflix in 2020. The script was a 2018 selection for the prestigious Black List and has been nominated for Best Screenplay for the Independent Spirit Awards.

 

Between these two films, Alice has just been living her life: spending time with her family, perfecting her scone recipe, teaching and studying long-form improv. This is perhaps why she is known for humanistic comedies that feature Asian, immigrant, and queer characters caught in unexpected circumstances.

Aneesh Chaganty is a Indian-American writer/director whose 2 minute short film, a Google Glass spot called “Seeds”, became an internet sensation after garnering more than 1 million YouTube views in 24 hours. Following its success, Aneesh was invited to join the Google Creative Lab in New York City, where he spent 2 years developing, writing and directing Google commercials. His work has been aired during the Superbowl, Summer Olympics and viewed more than 45 million times online. His directorial debut, SEARCHING, premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, and was acquired by Sony Pictures for distribution, during which it grossed more than 75 million dollars worldwide. His second film, RUN, starring Sarah Paulson, was released on Hulu this past November and became the streaming service’s most watched movie ever during its opening weekend. He’s currently in post-production on SEARCHING 2, which he produced.

Bao Nguyen is an award-winning Vietnamese American filmmaker whose past work has been seen in the New York Times, HBO, NBC, ABC, Vice, ESPN, and PBS, among many others. He has. directed, produced, and shot a number of short films, which have played internationally in numerous festivals and museums including MoMA and the Smithsonian. Before he began his career in film, he was at AmeriCorps helping to revitalize New York City’s Chinatown neighborhood after September 11th and also worked as a campaign staffer for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. His feature doc directorial debut, LIVE FROM NEW YORK!, celebrating 40 years of Saturday Night Live opened the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. His latest directorial effort, BE WATER, was an official selection of the 2020 Sundance, SXSW, and Cannes Film Festival and broadcast on ESPN’s prestigious 30 for 30 series. He most recently directed TOGETHER starring Olivia Munn, Ken Jeong, Simu Liu, Lisa Ling, and Winston Duke. The short film was part of GoFundMe’s Stop Asian Hate campaign which has raised nearly $6 million dollars for grassroots Asian American organizations. He is a 2011 PBS/WGBH Producers Workshop Fellow, an alumnus of the 2012 and 2014 Berlinale Talent Campus, and a Firelight Media Fellow. He earned his BA in Politics/International Relations at NYU and his MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He is a founding partner of EAST FILMS, a production company aimed at creating high-quality content in Asia as well as changing the perception of Vietnamese cinema abroad.

Kahunahana is an award-winning Kanaka Maoli, Native Hawaiian Artist and Filmmaker, and a Sundance Institute Feature Film and Native Lab Alumni. As founder of 4th World Film, he directed LĀHAINĀ NOON, which is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel, as well as a pseudo-documentary for the Smithsonian Institute’s Asian Pacific American “”A Day in the Life”” project.

He is the writer, producer, director, and editor of WAIKIKI which premiered at the URBAN WORLD Film Festival in 2020. WAIKIKI has been recognized with numerous awards including A Grand Jury Award for Best US Narrative Feature and a Special Jury Award for Best Cinematography at The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Best Made in Hawaii Feature Film and Jury Award for Best Cinematography at the Hawaii International Film Festival, A Grand Prize Best Feature Award at the Flickers Rhode Island International Film Festival and Honorable Mention Jury Award from the Bentonville Film Festival. WAIKIKI has been praised as “stunning”, “powerful”, “nuanced” “a surrealistic journey” “of critical importance.”

His latest project PIKO, a 360-degree VR immersive installation is being shown at the Honolulu Museum of Artsʻ, and he is currently writing ʻAIMANʻ a near-future sci-fi episodic and LUMA a meditation on photography and image. In 2022 He is attached to direct two feature films.

Daniel Dae Kim has captivated global audiences with his transformative performances across film, television and theater. He continues to evolve his body of work in powerful roles and compelling narratives as an actor, director and producer.

 

This April, Kim will star in Joe Penna’s Stowaway, opposite Toni Collette, Anna Kendrick and Shamier Anderson. After a stowaway is discovered on a mission to Mars, the crew is faced with an existential decision that may jeopardize all their lives. An intensely personal human drama, Netflix will be releasing the film worldwide this April. Kim also recently lent his vocal talents to Disney +’s Raya and The Last Dragon, which also features the voices of Kelly Marie Tran, Awkwafina, Gemma Chan, Benedict Wong and Sandra Oh.

 

Next year, Kim can be seen in AMC’s Pantheon, the ambitious one-hour animated drama, based on a series of short stories by Ken Liu about Uploaded Intelligence. AMC has ordered two seasons of the timely drama, which also features the voices of Katie Chang, Paul Dano, Rosemarie DeWitt, Aaron Eckhart, Taylor Schilling and Ron Livingston. Pantheon will premiere in 2022. Kim is currently in production on the second installment of National Geographic’s scripted anthology series, The Hot Zone: Anthrax.  Based on the domestic terror attacks following 9/11, Kim stars as the federal agent on the case, opposite Tony Goldwyn.

 

The prolific actor is a longtime champion of increased diversity and Asian American representation in Hollywood, and has served as an important voice throughout the current surge of violence towards people of Asian descent. His work as an advocate has been documented in the New York Times, Washington Post, ABC News Nightline and a ground-breaking five-part PBS documentary.

 

In 2015, Kim forged a new path in his career by creating his own production company, 3AD. With a first look deal with Amazon Studios, 3AD strives to feature those traditionally underrepresented in front of, and behind the camera. 3AD has had four successful seasons producing the ABC hit The Good Doctor, which Kim adapted from a Korean format about a doctor with autism and serves as Executive Producer, and has several more projects in development, including a highly anticipated heist movie with Randall Park.

 

Prior to his seven-season portrayal of Chin Ho Kelly on the juggernaut series Hawaii Five-0, Kim was perhaps best known for his role as Jin Soo Kwon on the hit TV series Lost, for which he shared a 2006 Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Ensemble and was individually honored with an AZN Asian Excellence Award, a Multicultural Prism Award and a Vanguard Award from the Korean American Coalition, all for Outstanding Performance by an Actor. He has been repeatedly recognized with the prestigious KoreAm Driven Award in the field of Arts and Entertainment.

 

In 2016, Kim received a Broadway Beacon Award for his role as the King of Siam in Lincoln Center’s Tony Award-winning production of The King and I, as well as the Theater Legacy Award from New York’s Pan Asian Repertory Theater.

 

Previous credits include the films: Hellboy, Insurgent, Allegiant, The Jackal, For The Love of The Game, The Hulk, Spider-Man 2, as well as the Academy Award® winning film Crash.  Previous television credits include: The Legend of Kora, Flack, New Amsterdam, Crusade, and 24.

 

Kim has also lent his voice talents to animated series and films, such as the award-winning Studio Ghibli film,The Tale of Princess Kaguya, as well as the PBS nature documentary series, Big Pacific, and Asian Americans.  Kim has also voiced characters for several video games, most notably, Johnny Gat in the bestselling series,Saints Row.

 

Born in Busan, South Korea, and raised in New York and Pennsylvania, Kim discovered acting while a student at Haverford College. After graduation, he moved to New York City, where he began his career on stage, performing in classics such as Romeo and Juliet, Ivanov and A Doll’s House. Despite early success, he chose to further his knowledge of the craft by enrolling in New York University’s Graduate Acting Program, where he earned his Master’s Degree.

 

When not working, Kim and his family make their home in Hawaii.

Maui-born Destin Cretton just wrapped production on Marvel Studios’ next film, Shang Chi. It stars Simu Liu, Michelle Yeoh, Awkwafina, and Tony Leung. This will mark the first film in the Marvel MCU that will be led by an Asian Actor. Prior to this, Destin directed Just Mercy for Warner Bros, which was the adaptation of the NY-Times best-selling memoir written by and based on the life of American lawyer, social justice activist, and founder/executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, Bryan Stevenson. It starred Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, and Brie Larson. Destin’s feature film debut, “I Am Not a Hipster”, premiered at Sundance in 2012. This was followed by the feature-length adaptation of his award-winning short film, Short Term 12, which won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the SXSW Film Festival in 2013. It features early performances by Brie Larson (Room, Captain Marvel), Lakeith Stanfield (Get Out, Atlanta), Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody, Mr. Robot), Kaitlyn Dever (Detroit), and John Gallagher Jr. (The Newsroom). His third feature, an adaptation of the NY Times best-selling memoir, The Glass Castle, starred Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, and Naomi Watts and was released in 2017 by Lionsgate.

A Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning Hollywood producer with deep roots in China, Janet Yang is current President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Yang came to prominence through her collaboration with Steven Spielberg on Empire of the Sun. That was followed by a long partnership with multiple Academy Award-winner Oliver Stone—where she served as Executive Producer on the iconic The Joy Luck Club, and as a Producer on the Golden Globe- winning The People vs. Larry Flynt. Among her many other credits are: the Sundance award- winning Dark Matter with Meryl Streep; The Weight of Water directed by Academy Award winner Kathryn Bigelow; Fox’s High Crimes with Morgan Freeman; a Chinese adaptation of the Disney franchise High School Musical; cult favorites Zero Effect by Jake Kasdan and Shanghai Calling with China Film Group, and most recently, the animated feature Over the Moon for Netflix.

 

Yang has been named one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Hollywood” by the Hollywood Reporter. Yang began her career by running the first distribution company to market Chinese films into North America. She also brokered the reintroduction of American studio films to the Chinese marketplace after a decades-long hiatus. Yang is a co-founder of Gold House, the most prominent organization of Asian-Americans; a member of the prestigious Committee of 100, an organization of prominent Chinese- Americans; and an advisory board member of Asia Society Southern California where she also chairs its highly regarded US-ASIA ENTERTAINMENT SUMMIT. Yang has been featured on numerous national and global media outlets. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Yang holds a B.A. from Brown University and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.

 

For more information, please see: www.janetyang.com

Director Jon M. Chu’s latest film, Warner Bros.’ Crazy Rich Asians, is the first all-Asian cast Hollywood studio film in 25 years (since The Joy Luck Club). His other movies, including G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Now You See Me 2, The Step Up series, and Justin Bieber’s documentary-defining Never Say Never, have grossed more than a billion dollars worldwide. Jon is also the founder of a dance company called the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers (The LXD) which has performed at the Oscars, TED, and many prestigious venues around the world. His other work like the inventive and beloved Virgin America In-Flight Safety Video, Microsoft Surface commercials, and Justin Bieber music videos have more than a billion views all together. Chu is widely adored and respected for being a fun, inventive, and accessible creative.

Maurissa Tancharoen is the co-creator, show runner and Executive Producer of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC. The series recently aired its seventh and final season.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Maurissa Tancharoen has taken an unusual path to her work in television. With a background in music and dance, she’s performed with the likes of Michael Jackson and Chaka Khan, and toured the country as a member of a pop group with Motown Records.  At Occidental College, she became heavily involved in theater and wrote several award-winning plays. She then went on to write on Oliver Beene for FOX, and co-created and executive-produced the MTV series Dancelife with Jennifer Lopez.

With her husband and writing partner, Jed Whedon, she created and appeared in the Emmy-award winning musical, Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. Together, their credits also include such shows as Dollhouse, Drop Dead Diva, and Spartacus.

As an Asian-American female showrunner, her advocacy for diversity and representation is reflected in her work.  Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is not only touted as one of the most diverse shows on television, but as a show that celebrates layered, intelligent, powerful women.

Maurissa is no stranger to adversity as she has been living with Lupus since she was fifteen years old. She is heavily involved in raising awareness and funds for those also suffering from this devastating illness.

Maurissa still takes the occasional hip-hop class, makes music with Jed, and constantly marvels at their little superhero – their daughter, Benny Sue.

With two decades of experience in the motion picture industry, Nina has gained a positive reputation for having an in-depth knowledge of film financing, creative and physical producing, and a knack for discovering talent, like that of Ryan Coogler (Marvel’s Black Panther), whose first film, Fruitvale Station (2013) was produced by Nina and her producing partner, Forest Whitaker.

 

Together under their banner, Significant Productions, Nina and Forest have produced a number of critically-acclaimed films by auteur filmmakers of color, including Dope (2015) by Rick Famuyiwa, Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015) by Chloe Zhao, Roxanne Roxanne (2018) by Michael Larnell and Sorry To Bother You (2018) by Boots Riley. Most recently, they produced Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut, Passing, adapted from Nella Larsen’s novella of the same name, and executive produced Epix’s premium hit series, Godfather of Harlem.

 

Nina is a board member of Film Independent, The Oscar Grant Foundation, Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE), The Producers Guild of America (PGA), as well as a member of The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences’ (AMPAS) Producers Branch. She is fluent in Mandarin, Chinese, and received her graduate degree in Entertainment Management from the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California.