Nic Cha Kim (born September 19, 1974) is a

Korean-American Korean Americans are Americans of Korean ancestry (mostly from South Korea). In 2015, the Korean-American community constituted about 0.56% of the United States population, or about 1.82 million people, and was the fifth-largest Asian Americans ...

television

reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

maker,

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

, and cultural activist, also known as the Founder of

Gallery Row Gallery Row is a neighborhood in Downtown Los Angeles designated by the City Council in 2003 to promote the concentration of art galleries along Main Street and Spring Street. Geography Gallery Row spans north–south along Main and Spring Stre ...

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Kim is a reporter for the weekly news series SoCal Connected, a weekly news series on

KCET KCET (channel 28) is a secondary PBS member television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the Public Media Group of Southern California alongside the market's primary PBS member, Huntington Beach–licensed KOCE-TV ...

. In 2017, Nic won two Los Angeles Emmys for Information Segment and Informational Series (More Than 50% Remote).

Early life

Kim was born in Lakewood, California but was raised in

Arcadia Arcadia may refer to: Places Australia * Arcadia, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * Arcadia, Queensland * Arcadia, Victoria Greece * Arcadia (region), a region in the central Peloponnese * Arcadia (regional unit), a modern administrative un ...

, California. After graduating from Arcadia High School in 1992, Kim studied English at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

but dropped out in 1998 and moved to

Career

Gallery Row

In 2003, Nic Cha Kim presented a proposal with friend Kjell Hagen to create an arts and culture district called

through parts of

Civic Center A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...

Historic Core The Historic Core is a district within Downtown Los Angeles includes the world's largest concentration of movie palaces, former large department stores, and office towers, all built chiefly between 1907 and 1931. Within it lie the Broadway Theate ...

, and Fashion District in

. Co-sponsored by

Jan Perry Jan C. Perry (born June 8, 1955) is an American politician from California. A member of the Democratic Party, she served on the Los Angeles City Council. Career Perry was a member of the ninth district of the Los Angeles City Council from 2001 t ...

and

Antonio Villaraigosa Antonio Ramón Villaraigosa (; né Villar Jr.; born January 23, 1953) is an American politician who served as the 41st Mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Villaraigosa was a national co-chairman of Hillary ...

Los Angeles City Council The Los Angeles City Council is the legislative body of the Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles in California. The council is composed of 15 members elected from single-member districts for four-year terms. The President of the Los Angeles City Counc ...

voted unanimously to designate

on July 23, 2003 (Council File Indes: 03-1571). Once the City of L.A. approved the district, Kim started Gallery Row Organization with a mission to create a thriving, pedestrian-friendly, culturally abundant, urban neighborhood.

spans north–south along Main Street and Spring Street from 2nd Street in the north to 9th Street in the south. There are now over 40

art galleries An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...

and the monthly Downtown Art Walk attracts over 30,000 visitors. Gallery Row Organization brought new art galleries into

through economic development programs, introduced new signage to promote the

district, produced cultural events with local community leaders, and curated the first TAP Card design competition for the

Los Angeles Department of Transportation The Los Angeles Department of Transportation, commonly referred to as LADOT, is a municipal agency that oversees transportation planning, design, construction, maintenance and operations within the city of Los Angeles. LADOT was created by city or ...

Niche.LA Video Art

In 2005, Kim opened the first art gallery in

dedicated to video art. Based in

, Niche.LA Video Art exhibited over 50 art shows curating

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...

digital art Digital art refers to any artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process, or more specifically computational art that uses and engages with digital media. Since the 1960s, various names ...

, 3D mapping,

glitch A glitch is a short-lived fault in a system, such as a transient fault that corrects itself, making it difficult to troubleshoot. The term is particularly common in the computing and electronics industries, in circuit bending, as well as among ...

, dadamoshing,

cyberart Cyberarts or cyberart refers to the class of art produced with the help of computer software and hardware, often with an interactive or multimedia aspect. Overview The term "cyberarts" is vague and relatively new; nevertheless much of the work d ...

, nanoart,

fractal art Fractal art is a form of algorithmic art created by calculating fractal objects and representing the calculation results as still digital images, animations, and media. Fractal art developed from the mid-1980s onwards. It is a genre of computer ...

, and

light art Light art or The Art of Light is generally referring to a visual art form in which (physical) light is the main, if not sole medium of creation. Uses of the term differ drastically in incongruence; definitions, if existing, vary in several aspec ...

. A regular participant of the monthly Downtown Art Walk, Kim often used his gallery to convince creative entrepreneurs to open art galleries in

to become part of the

L.A. Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

art scene. Kim closed the gallery in 2012 to pursue documentary filmmaking.

Art Battle L.A.

Produced by Nic Cha Kim, Art Battle L.A. is a 52 min. street art documentary that chronicles graffiti artists

Mear One Mear One (born 1971 as Kalen Ockerman) is an American artist based in Los Angeles, known for his often-political street graffiti art. Mear One is associated with CBS (Can't Be Stopped – City Bomb Squad) and WCA (West Coast Artist) crews. As a g ...

, Man One,

Inkie Inkie is a London-based painter and street artist, originally from Clifton, Bristol. He is cited as being part of Bristol's graffiti heritage, along with Banksy, 3D and Nick Walker. Career Inkie began working as part of ''Crime Incorporat ...

, and

Eine EINE and ZWEI are two discontinued Emacs-like text editors developed by Daniel Weinreb and Mike McMahon for Lisp machines in the 1970s and 1980s. History EINE was a text editor developed in the late 1970s. In terms of features, its goal was to ...

as they spend a week together painting murals all over Los Angeles under the direction of L.A. Freewalls to support Hollywood Arts, a nonprofit dedicated to helping emancipated foster children living in the streets by teaching them employable arts skills. Art Battle L.A. premiered on

's Open Call and is currently available on Snagfilms.

Songs in the Key of Los Angeles: The Bedrock Sessions

Songs in the Key of Los Angeles: The Bedrock Sessions is a multi-platform collaboration between

, Library Foundation of Los Angeles, the

Los Angeles Public Library The Los Angeles Public Library system (LAPL) is a public library system in Los Angeles, California. The system holds more than six million volumes, and with around 19 million residents in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area, it serves the large ...

, and USC professor

Josh Kun Josh Kun is an American author, academic and music critic. Kun is Professor of Communication and Journalism and chair in Cross-Cultural Communication in the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California. He also holds a joint appoint ...

that brings to life the Library's Southern California Sheet Music Collection. Consisting of sheet music pieces that range from the 1840s through the 1950s, the Collection offers a singular portrait of Los Angeles history and culture rendered in music and visual art. Produced by Nic Cha Kim,

presented a 5-part short documentary series featuring musicians

Aloe Blacc Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III (born January 7, 1979), known professionally by his stage name Aloe Blacc (), is an American singer, songwriter and rapper. He is best known for his singles "I Need a Dollar", " The Man", which topped the charts in th ...

, Petrojvic Blasting Company,

Julia Holter Julia Shammas Holter (born December 18, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, composer, artist and academic, based in Los Angeles. Following three independent album productions, Holter released ''Tragedy'' as her first official ...

, I See Hawks in L.A., and

La Santa Cecilia La Santa Cecilia is an American band based in Los Angeles, California that plays a blend of cumbia, bossa nova, and boleros, among other styles. Saint Cecilia, La Santa Cecilia is the patron saint of musicians. The band seeks to represent a US b ...

that aired together as a special on

's transmedia arts and culture series, Artbound.

Teatro Jornalero Sin Fronteras

Co-Directed and Co-Produced by Nic Cha Kim, Teatro Jornalero Sin Fronteras follows deported and displaced Guatemalans as they reintegrate back into their home country. Day Labor Theater Without Borders is a program of

Cornerstone Theater Company Cornerstone Theater Company is a theater company based in the United States that specializes in community-based collaboration. According to the mission statement published on the company's website, "Cornerstone Theater Company is a multi-ethnic, ...

where they perform plays based on stories from day labor communities. Teatro Jornalero Sin Fronteras was nominated for the 67th Los Angeles area Local Emmy in 2015 in the Feature Segment category.

SoCal Connected

Kim works at

as a television reporter for the weekly news series SoCal Connected and is the winner of 2 L.A. Emmys from the Television Academy, 3 Golden Mikes from the Radio & Television News Association, and the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award and a SoCal Journalism Award from the L.A. Press Club.

Theatre

Kim originally moved to Los Angeles to become a playwright before becoming a documentary filmmaker. He joined the

East West Players East West Players is an Asian American theatre organization in Los Angeles, founded in 1965. As the nation's first professional Asian American theatre organization, East West Players continues to produce works and educational programs that give v ...

where he participated in the David Henry Hwang Writers Institute and worked as Resident Producer for Lodestone Theatre Ensemble from 2005-2010. Kim joined

Company of Angels Company of Angels, now known simply as CoA is an American theatre company, based in Los Angeles and founded in 1959. The original company, incorporated by entertainment attorney Bertram Fields, included actors Richard Chamberlain, Leonard Nimoy, V ...

in 2012 when he participated in the annual L.A. Views series. His plays Trapezoid, Like Yesterday, RE:verse, and Rise Up have all been produced for the stage.

Filmography

Journalism

Season 8 * “California Condors” (2017) - Reporter * “Landfill Fight” (2017) - Reporter * “Loving Joshua Tree to Death” (2017) - Reporter Season 7 * “Simple Solution to Help the Homeless” (2017) - Reporter * “‘Feathers of Fire’: A Spectacular Shadow Play" (2017) - Reporter * “Hyperloop: Tube Travel at Near Supersonic Speed” (2017) - Reporter * “A Great Use for UC Irvine’s Garbage” (2017) - Reporter * “Urban Tree Canopy Benefits LA Communities, Some More Than Others” (2017) - Reporter * “A Tiny House is a Work of Art” (2017) - Reporter Season 6 * ''The Restoration and Revival of L.A.'s Hollyhock House'' (2015) - Reporter * ''Bringing CicLAvia to South Los Angeles'' (2015) - Reporter * ''Clare Graham's 'Warehouse of Wonders'' (2014) - Reporter * ''Radio Personality Art Laboe'' (2014) - Reporter * ''Grand Central Market: Past and Present'' (2014) - Reporter * ''A Labyrinth of Books, Art, and Records'' (2014) - Reporter * ''Art or Ad? L.A.'s Mural Law Written in Gray Ink'' (2014) - Reporter * ''The Bottle Tree Ranch'' (2014) - Reporter * ''The Future of Leimert Park'' (2014) - Reporter * ''A Moveable Feast at the Brewery Art Colony'' (2014) - Reporter

Short Documentaries

* ''The Spirit of North Shore'' (2015) - Director, Producer * ''Teatro Jornalero Sin Fronteras'' (2014) - Co-Director, Co-Producer * ''My Moby Dick'' (2013) - Producer, Story Editor * ''Songs in the Key of Los Angeles: The Bedrock Sessions'' (2013) - Producer, Story Editor * ''Thank You For Coming'' (2013) - Producer, Story Editor * ''Art Battle L.A.'' (2012) - Executive Producer, Producer, Writer

Feature films

* ''Art Battle L.A.'' (2012) - Executive Producer, Producer, Writer * ''Qwerty'' (2011) - Associate Producer * ''The Mikado Project'' (2010) - Associate Producer

Short films

* ''Vignette'' (2012) - Executive Producer, Director, Producer, Writer * ''Sketch'' (2012) - Executive Producer, Producer, Writer * ''Equal Opportunity'' (2007) - Associate Producer * ''Pollen'' (2006) - Executive Producer, Producer, Writer

Bibliography

Plays

* "a.l.a. (Asians in Los Angeles)" * "Hyperbola" * "Like Yesterday" * "Point" * "RE:verse" * "Rise Up" * "Taste of Home, A" * "Trapezoid" * "Tuba Player, The"

References

External links

Gallery Row OrganizationNiche.LA Video Art
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Nic Cha 1970 births American dramatists and playwrights of Korean descent Living people American documentary film directors American people of Korean descent Writers from Los Angeles Film directors from Los Angeles