LULU WANG
Lulu Wang’s 2019 sophomore feature The Farewell, which she wrote and directed, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. Wang went on to amass critical acclaim and awards for the A24 box office hit. The film won Best Feature at the 2020 Film Independent Spirit Awards, and received many accolades and nominations, including AFI’s Top Ten Films of 2019, a Golden Globe Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language nomination, as well as Best Feature and Best Screenplay nods from the Gotham Independent Film Awards. In addition, The Farewell‘s lead actress Awkwafina was the recipient of the Golden Globe for Best Actress, while Zhao Shuzhen received a Best Supporting Actress nomination from the Independent Spirit Awards.
Wang’s production company, Local Time, has several features, television series, and podcasts in development. Wang’s latest limited series, Expats, starring Nicole Kidman, Sarayu Blue, Ji-Young Yoo, Jack Huston, and Brian Tee launched on Prime Video on January 26. The penultimate episode, Central, premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and played at subsequent fall festivals. Wang served as the showrunner and writer and directed all six episodes.
SARAYU BLUE
Sarayu Blue is a stage, film, and television actress who can be seen in the Amazon limited series Expats starring opposite Nicole Kidman and directed by Lulu Wang. The six-part limited series is based on the internationally best-selling novel, The Expatriates, by Janice Y. K. Lee and centers on three American women—Margaret (Nicole Kidman), Hilary (Sarayu Blue), and Mercy (Ji-young Yoo)—whose lives intersect after a sudden family tragedy.
Blue began her career stealing scenes in shows such as Grey’s Anatomy and David E. Kelley’s medical drama Monday Mornings. She continued to work as a series regular, playing Kareema on The CW’s No Tomorrow and co-starred in the highly anticipated Children’s Hospital spinoff, Medical Police. Her breakout moment came when she starred as Emet in the female-driven NBC comedy, I Feel Bad, produced by Amy Poehler. Since then, she has been seen in Hulu’s Happiest Season, the second and third installments of the popular Netflix film series To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, the Apple TV+ series The Shrink Next Door, the Universal feature Blockers, and the Amazon feature A Million Miles Away.
Blue has accumulated numerous guest roles on shows such as The Real O’Neals (ABC), Station 19 (ABC), The Big Bang Theory (CBS), The Unicorn (CBS) and Veep (HBO).
A classically trained theater actor, some of Blue’s stage credits include Varya in The Cherry Orchard (Yale Repertory Theatre), Belle in A Christmas Carol (American Conservatory Theater), and Livia in The Tamer Tamed (Shakespeare Santa Cruz).
Blue received her B.A. in Theater Arts from The University of Iowa and her M.F.A. from The American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.
JI-YOUNG YOO
Ji-young Yoo is having a breakout year with three much anticipated performances on the horizon. Variety named her one of the 10 Actors to Watch for 2023. Yoo can currently be seen as a co-lead in the Amazon Prime Video six-part limited series Expats opposite Nicole Kidman and Sarayu Blue. Based on Janice Y.K. Lee’s international best-selling novel, The Expatriates, the series from writer and director Lulu Wang (The Farewell) is set against the tapestry of 2014 Hong Kong and centers on three American women – Margaret (Kidman), Mercy (Yoo) and Hilary (Blue) – whose lives intersect after a sudden tragedy.
In 2023, Yoo starred in the poignant coming-of-age drama Smoking Tigers, which had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. The winner of an AT&T Presents: Untold Stories grant, So Young Shelly Yo’s directorial debut tells the story of Hayoung, a lonely 16-year-old Korean American girl staggered by the separation of her parents. Yoo won the Best Performance in a U.S. Narrative Feature for her role, and the film won Best Screenplay in a U.S. Narrative Feature (Yo) and the Nora Ephron Award Special Jury Mention.
She will next be seen in the immersive film Freaky Tales alongside Pedro Pascal and Jay Ellis. From Captain Marvel helmers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, the film is set in Oakland in 1987 and is comprised of four interconnected stories, each featuring distinct characters, real life locations, and noteworthy historical events (some real, some imagined). The film premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.