Steve Nguyen (born December 30, 1985) is a

Vietnamese-American Vietnamese Americans ( vi, Người Mỹ gốc Việt, lit=Viet-origin American people) are Americans of Vietnamese ancestry. They make up about half of all overseas Vietnamese and are the fourth-largest Asian American ethnic group after Chinese ...

director, writer, artist and film producer. Nguyen and fellow director Choz Belen formed Studio APA, a multimedia collective that specializes in the production of animated films, children's books and music videos.

Career

Films

From 2001 to 2005, Nguyen has made appearances as a young actor on films and network television programs such as ''

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

'', '' Scrubs'', ''

Freaks and Geeks ''Freaks and Geeks'' is an American teen drama, teen comedy-drama television series created by Paul Feig and executive producer, executive-produced by Judd Apatow that aired on NBC during the 1999–2000 United States network television schedul ...

'', ''

Are You Afraid of the Dark? ''Are You Afraid of the Dark?'' is a horror anthology television series. The original series aired on Nickelodeon from 1992 to 1996; the pilot episode aired respectively on YTV and Nickelodeon in 1990 and 1991. It led to two revival series, wi ...

'' and ''

The Man Show ''The Man Show'' is an American comedy television show on Comedy Central that aired from 1999 to 2004. It was created in 1999 by its two original co-hosts, Adam Carolla and Jimmy Kimmel, and their executive producer Daniel Kellison. The pilot ...

.'' He worked as a production assistant at

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

on Jarhead and '' The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift''. In 2009, Nguyen directed and produced a short documentary film titled "The Making of a Memoir" in collaboration with Vietnamese author Lac Su to promote his

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...

published memoir, ''I Love Yous Are For White People.'' The documentary helped Su gain national exposure and has been featured on

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

, the

Saigon Broadcasting Television Network Saigon Broadcasting Television Network, abbreviated SBTN, is a 24-hour Vietnamese language television channel targeted at overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese audiences living outside of Vietnam. Its headquarters are in Garden Grove, California, Gard ...

, and

KSCI KSCI (channel 18) is a television station licensed to Long Beach, California, United States, serving the Los Angeles area. Owned by WRNN-TV Associates, the station airs programming from ShopHQ. KSCI's studios are located on South Bundy Drive ...

. Nguyen directed and produced an animated film, ''

Hibakusha ''Hibakusha'' ( or ; ja, 被爆者 or ; "person affected by a bomb" or "person affected by exposure o radioactivity) is a word of Japanese origin generally designating the people affected by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at th ...

'', which chronicles the early life of Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor, Kaz Suyeishi. The film stars Karin Anna Cheung, Connie Lim, Daisuke Suzuki, Jane Lui and William Frederick Knight as the lead voice actors. The film was dedicated to the American Society of Hiroshima-Nagasaki A-Bomb Survivors in an effort to spread awareness for nuclear disarmament and was completed on the 67th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing, August 6, 2012. Nguyen and the Studio APA crew have toured with

throughout the United States since October 2012, and the film has been screened at the

Japanese American National Museum The is located in Los Angeles, California, and dedicated to preserving the history and culture of Japanese Americans. Founded in 1992, it is located in the Little Tokyo area near downtown. The museum is an affiliate within the Smithsonian Affil ...

Vietnamese International Film Festival First started in 2003, the Vietnamese International Film Festival (also known as ViFF) is a biennial film festival organized by the non-profits Vietnamese-American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) and UCLAs VietNamese Language and Culture (VNLC). ...

Wing Luke Museum The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience is a history museum in Seattle, Washington, United States, which focuses on the culture, art and history of Asian Pacific Americans. It is located in the city's Chinatown-Internationa ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, Dragon Con in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

UC Irvine UC may refer to: Arts and entertainment * '' University Challenge'', a popular British quiz programme airing on BBC Two ** ''University Challenge (New Zealand)'', the New Zealand version of the British programme * Universal Century, one of the t ...

UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

UC Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. Th ...

DisOrient Film Festival The DisOrient Film Festival or the DisOrient Asian and Pacific Islander American Film Festival of Oregon (also known as the DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon), is a film festival that was started in 2006 and is based in Eugene, Oreg ...

University of Wisconsin–La Crosse The University of Wisconsin–La Crosse (UWL or UW Lax) is a public university in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Established in 1909, it is part of the University of Wisconsin System and offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. With 9,600 un ...

, and

California State University, Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...

. ''Hibakusha'' received the Special Achievement Award and Best Animated Short in 2013 at the

International Uranium Film Festival The International Uranium Film Festival was founded in 2010 in Rio de Janeiro, and has traveled to Germany, Portugal, India and the United States. This educational event merges art, ecology, environmentalism and environmental justice, to inform the ...

held in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

. In association with the nuclear disarmament campaign,

Global Zero Global Zero is a term in the literature of arms control that refers to the worldwide elimination of a weapons system, especially nuclear weapons or a particular class of nuclear weapons. In negotiations over the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces ...

, Nguyen hosted a travel documentary segment titled "Hiroshima Revisited" as a follow-up effort to commemorate the 68th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing.

Illustration and books

In June 2020, Nguyen released his first children's book with

Skyhorse Publishing Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. is an American independent book publishing company founded in 2006 and headquartered in New York City, with a satellite office in Brattleboro, Vermont. History The current president and publisher is founder Tony Ly ...

and

Simon and Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pub ...

titled ''To Baby From Daddy'', which features his own illustrations and personal composition of paternal love and advice to his baby daughter.

Online Media

Along with Kevin Hsieh, Nguyen was the co-founder of ChannelAPA.com, a defunct online news source that started in 2008 that posted current news updates and video interviews about Asian Americans in mainstream/independent media. According to KoreAm Magazine and

Myx TV Myx (pronounced "mix") is an American pay TV channel based in Daly City, California with an office also in Redwood City, California targeting a multicultural audience. As a sister network to Myx (Philippines), it launched in the United States ...

, it was featured as one of the top Asian American news sources to follow. In November 2012, Nguyen and Belen launched a multi-media creative collective called Studio APA that serves as both a film production and dedicated YouTube channel. In 2010, Nguyen directed YouTube singer-songwriter

Megan Lee Megan Lee (born September 18, 1995) is a Korean-American singer-songwriter and actress best known for her role as Sun Hi Song on ''Make It Pop'' and her singing talents on YouTube. From February 2013, Megan Lee was signed to Kim Tae-woo's (lead ...

's music video for her first official single, "Love, Laugh, & Live". On February 4, 2013, Nguyen produced and released a short film with The Jubilee Project and Jeremy Lin titled "The Last Pick," which can be viewed on Lin's personal YouTube channel. In November 2013, it was announced on Allkpop that Nguyen and Korean hip-hop artists,

Tiger JK Seo Jung-kwon, Hangul: 서정권, Hanja: 徐廷權, also known as Tiger JK (born July 29, 1974) is a Korean-American rapper, record producer and entrepreneur best known as a founding member of Korean hip hop group Drunken Tiger. He has also foun ...

and

Yoon Mi-rae Natasha Shanta Reid (born May 31, 1981), better known by her Korean name Yoon Mi-rae (), often stylized as ''Yoonmirae'', is an American-born South Korean-based solo rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer, who is also a member of Korean hip ho ...

, have collaborated on an animated music video for their single, "Turn It Up", which is featured on

CHOPS CHOPS is the stage name of Scott Jung, also known as Scott Chops Jung, an Asian American hip hop producer, rapper and former member of the Asian American Hip-Hop group, the Mountain Brothers. Jung grew up in Philadelphia and has Chinese ancestry ...

' upcoming album, ''

Strength in Numbers Strength may refer to: Physical strength *Physical strength, as in people or animals *Hysterical strength, extreme strength occurring when people are in life-and-death situations *Superhuman strength, great physical strength far above human ca ...

''. The full version of the music video was released on January 15, 2014. On April 18, 2014, Nguyen, Belen, and

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

-based rapper

Awkwafina Nora Lum (born June 2, 1988), known professionally as Awkwafina, is an American actress, rapper, and comedian who rose to prominence in 2012 when her rap song "My Vag" became popular on YouTube. She then released her debut album, ''Yellow Ra ...

released an animated lyric video for her single, 'Flu Shot', off of her Yellow Ranger debut album. On September 28, 2015, Nguyen premiered a collaboration project with the global campaign, A World at School, titled, ''R I S E'', at The Town Hall in New York City. In association with Christian hip hop artist

Lecrae Lecrae Devaughn Moore (born October 9, 1979), mononymously known as Lecrae, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record and film producer, record executive, actor, and entrepreneur. He is the president, co-owner and co-founder of the i ...

and the help of Theirworld founder Sarah Brown, the project was created to raise awareness and to pressure governments to act on providing universal education across the globe. Since early 2015, he has served as a Global Ambassador to the nonprofit, Theirworld, to help bring awareness to the cause and share global youth stories through graphic novelization. Nguyen and Belen collaborated with Los Angeles electro-pop band,

Mansions on the Moon Mansions on the Moon was an American band from Los Angeles, California. History The group was formed by Ted Wendler on guitar and vocals, Ben Hazlegrove on keyboards, and Lane Shaw on drums. Both Shaw and Hazlegrove were also members of Pnuma Tr ...

, to produce a music video for their upcoming single, "Heart of the Moment". The project was released in October 2015. In January 2017, Studio APA released the animated visuals for K-pop star

Ailee Amy Lee (born May 30, 1989), known professionally as Ailee, is an American singer and songwriter based in South Korea. Amassing digital sales success in South Korea, she has released four studio albums, six extended plays, and twenty one singles ...

's US debut, "Fall Back", via

Vevo Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, ...

in conjunction with Westside Entertainment. On January 23, 2020, Nguyen released a personal short animated documentary on his Facebook account titled ''Blast Burn'' that deals with the miscarriage of his son.

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Filmography

Film

Music Videos

Publications

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nguyen, Steve 1985 births Living people American film producers American male screenwriters American television writers American film directors of Vietnamese descent American Internet celebrities Businesspeople of Vietnamese descent Television producers from California Screenwriters from California People from Torrance, California