2021 U.S.-Asia Entertainment Summit Speakers
Gloria Fan
Head of Current Series, Disney Branded Television
Gloria Fan is the head of Current Series for Disney Branded Television, where she oversees original series for both Disney Channel and Disney+.
At Disney Channel, Gloria’s slate includes Sulphur Springs, Emmy-nominated Raven’s Home, and upcoming Ultraviolet & Black Scorpion; and for Disney+, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and the upcoming National Treasure, the Beauty & The Beast prequel, and American Born Chinese.
Previously, Fan was at 20th Television, where she oversaw National Geographic’s scripted series Genius (Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, and Aretha Franklin) and The Hot Zone, FX’s Mayans M.C., NBC’s Ordinary Joe, and Showtime’s Homeland.
She also worked to develop Amazon Studios’ The Promised Neverland, based on the popular Japanese manga/anime; Freeform’s Aznbbygrl with Natalie Chaidez and Dinh Thai; and the series adaptation of ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary Blackfeet Boxing: Not Invisible. She also shepherded Hulu’s House of Broken Angels, based on the novel about a Mexican-American family in East Los Angeles.
Fan began as a feature producer at Mosaic Productions and Atlas Entertainment, where she produced films such as Tom Tykwer’s The International with Clive Owen and Naomi Watts, as well as several genre movies including Shutter, Season of the Witch and Stephen King and Joe Hill’s In the Tall Grass.
Having traveled the world in search of stories, artists, and cultural experiences, Fan brings a unique, global perspective to storytelling. She seeks to incorporate these findings into her daily work. She is thrilled that her career path has taken her from film producer to television executive and is grateful to work on fostering such inspiring projects.
Emily Furutani
Director, Comedy Development, Universal Television
Emily Furutani is Director, Comedy Development, Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group. In this role, she is responsible for developing half-hour comedy series for both broadcast and streaming platforms. She reports to Jim Donnelly, Executive Vice President, Comedy Development, Universal Television.
Furutani has been instrumental in developing some of the studio’s popular series including NBC’s Kenan and Mr. Mayor, and Peacock’s Girls5eva and Saved By The Bell. Furutani’s upcoming series include Netflix’s Q-Force and Peacock’s Bust Down.
Prior to her current role, Furutani was Manager, Current Programming, UTV where she oversaw series such as Magnum, P.I. (CBS), Sunnyside (NBC) and Never Have I Ever (Netflix).
She began her career at NBCUniversal International Studios in 2015 as a development coordinator. Before her studio roles, Furutani served as a talent assistant at Don Buchwald and Associates.
Furutani is a graduate of San Francisco State University where she received a bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Electronic Communications Arts. She is a fifth-generation Japanese American and resides in Los Angeles.
Jeniffer Kim
Senior Vice President, International Originals, HBO Max
Jeniffer Kim is Senior Vice President, International Originals for HBO Max, responsible for leading International content for the streaming platform. In this role, Jeniffer is responsible for commissioning original series and co-productions for the platform in international markets targeted for U.S. and global audiences.
In collaboration with some of the biggest names in international television, Jeniffer and her team have secured top programming for HBO Max. Her International Originals slate is comprised of series across genres, formats, and languages.
Among her HBO Max titles include the critically acclaimed original It’s a Sin from screenwriter Russell T. Davies, Spanish limited series Veneno, Israeli series Valley of Tears, the upcoming romantic comedy Starstruck, drama series The Tourist starring Jamie Dornan and limited series The Girl Before starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw and David Oyelowo.
Prior to joining HBO Max, Jeniffer served as SVP of Original Programming for TBS and played an integral role in the evolution of the network. Earning the reputation as a trailblazer, Jeniffer worked on such culturally resonant and critically acclaimed series as Search Party, now on HBO Max, Angie Tribeca, American Dad, and the Emmy®- award winning Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.
Jeniffer began her career as a comedy coordinator at Touchstone Television (now ABC Studios). A California Bay Area native now living in Los Angeles, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Visual Arts from University of California, San Diego.
Philip Wang
Co-Founder, Wong Fu Productions
Philip Wang is the co-founder of Wong Fu Productions, an independent production company founded in 2003. Wong Fu has amassed over 3M subscribers around the world with over 500M views for their dramatic shorts and comedy sketches on YouTube. Wong Fu's creative work has been recognized by CNN, NPR, and the White House for its striking quality and emotional depth as well as its authentic representation of Asian Americans. As a pioneer and leader in the ever-growing media space and Asian community, Wang took on Rise as his first book project ever, but continues to write/produce/direct films and even co-founded a restaurant, Bopomofo Cafe.
Jeff Yang
Author, Screenwriter, and Critic
Jeff Yang is an author, screenwriter and cultural critic who regularly contributes to CNN, NPR, the New York Times and other major media platforms. He’s managing partner of the production company HUJE, which currently has shows in development with Disney, Audible and Insight Media, and is cowriter of the forthcoming film A Promised Land. He has written three bestselling books—Jackie Chan's New York Times-chart-topping memoir I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action; Once Upon a Time in China, a history of the cinemas of Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Mainland; and the Asian pop culture compendium Eastern Standard Time: A Guide to Asian Influence on American Culture — and three graphic novels — Secret Identities, Shattered and New Frontiers. His next book, RISE: A Pop History of Asian America, from the Nineties to Now, cowritten with Phil Yu and Philip Wang, will be a lead title for Harper Collins in Spring 2022.
Yang has been a creative and development consultant for Pearl Studios, Disney, Fox Studios, Baobab Animation, DreamWorks, Electronic Arts and Hasbro. Most recently, he was a key strategic and creative consultant working with Marvel’s development and creative team on Shang-Chi: Legend of the Ten Rings, which has become the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful movie since the beginning of the pandemic, and has been lauded as opening a brand new direction for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He is currently working with LegionM and Powerhouse Animation to develop an animated series based on Dale Bery’s cult classic wuxia graphic novels Tales of the Moonlight Cutter.
Phil Yu
Writer, Speaker, and Host
Phil Yu is an award-winning writer, speaker and host best known as the creator of Angry Asian Man, one of the most widely read and longest-running independent websites covering news, culture, and perspectives from the Asian American community. He also hosts the podcasts They Call Us Bruce (with Jeff Yang) and All The Asians On Star Trek. The Washington Post calls Angry Asian Man "a daily must-read for the media-savvy, socially conscious, pop-cultured Asian American." Mixing humor with criticism, Yu's commentary has been featured and quoted in the New York Times, National Public Radio, CNN, MSNBC, Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed and more. He is co-author of the forthcoming book RISE: A Pop History of Asian America From the Nineties to Now, to be published by Harper Books in 2022.
Michelle Sugihara
Executive Director, CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment)
Moderator
Michelle K. Sugihara is the Executive Director of CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment). She is also an entertainment attorney, film producer, and adjunct professor for the Claremont Colleges’ Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies. She co-leads #GoldOpen, is on the leadership team of Time's Up Entertainment Women of Color, and is a founding member of the Asian Pacific American Friends of the Theater. She is also an associate member of Cold Tofu, the nation's premier Asian American comedy improv and sketch group. An avid public speaker, Sugihara speaks and teaches across the country on various topics including Representation in Media, Women in Entertainment, Diversity and Inclusion, Leadership, and Improv for Non-Actors.
Shannon Lee
CEO and Owner, Bruce Lee Family Companies
President, Bruce Lee Foundation
Shannon Lee is the CEO and Owner of the Bruce Lee Family Companies and President of the Bruce Lee Foundation, as well as the daughter of the legendary martial artist and cultural icon, Bruce Lee. Lee’s mission is to provide access to her father’s philosophy and life through education and entertainment and be a cause of healing and unity in the world. She is the creator of Camp Bruce Lee and the One Family Initiative through the Bruce Lee Foundation, and has spoken at TED, TEDx, and Creative Mornings, to name a few. Lee lives in California with her daughter, Wren, where she hosts the Bruce Lee Podcast (entering its fourth season) and executive produces HBOMax’s Warrior. Her first book, Be Water, My Friend, was released in October 2020 and offers insight on how to use her father’s philosophies toward a more fluid, peaceful, and fulfilling life.
Bao Nguyen
Director and Producer
Bao Nguyen is an Emmy Award-nominated filmmaker based in both LA and Saigon, Vietnam. His first short Julian won a CINE Golden Eagle Award, the Best Student Documentary Short at the Palm Springs, Special Jury Prize at DOC NYC, and was nominated for an IDA Award. He produced the documentary feature Once in a Lullaby which premiered at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival, won the Audience Award at the Woodstock Film Festival, and was nominated for a Gotham Independent Film Award. Live From New York!, about Saturday Night Live, would be his feature documentary directorial debut. It opened the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival and was broadcast nationally on NBC, preceding the 41st season premiere of SNL. His latest film, Be Water, a documentary about Bruce Lee, premiered in competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was invited to SXSW, Cannes, Telluride, and Hot Docs.
In addition to his directing work, he has produced two feature films—Nuoc 2030 which opened the Panorama section of the 2014 Berlinale and Rom which won the top prize at the 2019 Busan International Film Festival. He is an alum of the PBS/WGBH Producers Workshop, Berlinale Talents, and Firelight Media Doc Lab. He is also one of the founding partners of EAST Films, a production company based in Vietnam looking to elevate Vietnamese cinema domestically and abroad. He earned his BA at NYU and his MFA at the School of Visual Arts. He is currently represented by CAA and managed by Mosaic.
Ellen Eliasoph
Film Executive and Producer
Ellen R. Eliasoph is a veteran film executive and producer who has spent the last 30 years building bridges among China’s film industry, Hollywood, and the global film market. After setting up Warner Bros.’ Beijing office in 1994 she imported The Fugitive to China as the first Hollywood revenue-sharing film. During her long tenure at WB China, she supervised the China releases of the Matrix and Harry Potter series and other WB blockbusters, and served as production executive on its Chinese films and co-productions, including Johnnie To’s Turn Left, Turn Right; The Painted Veil, which starred Edward Norton and Naomi Watts; Peter Chan’s The Warlords, and then-upstart director Ning Hao’s Crazy Stone and Crazy Racer.
In recent years, Eliasoph has focused primarily on production, serving as CEO of Village Roadshow Pictures Asia and its successor entity Perfect Village. Films she has produced include Stephen Chow's blockbuster Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (2013); Larry Yang’s award-winning Mountain Cry (2015); the Jackie Chan sci-fi comedy Bleeding Steel (2017); Zhang Yimou’s globally celebrated Shadow (2018); Ms. Teng Congcong’s award-winning directorial debut Send Me to the Clouds (2019) and rising new director Wen Shipei’s sci-fi short Killing Time (releasing in 2022). The directors she works with include long-established talents as well as young talents who are just embarking on their careers and can benefit from mentoring.
Eliasoph is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Producers Guild of America, and the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts. A summa cum laude graduate of Yale College and a graduate of Yale Law School, she is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Japanese. Eliasoph first came to China as a member of the initial group of American exchange students selected to study in China following normalization of U.S.-China relations. Long committed to the cause of furthering U.S.-China relations, Eliasoph was the co-founder and producer of the USA National Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.
Sum Huang
CEO, Endeavor China
Co-Founder, XG Entertainment
Sum Huang serves as the chief operating officer of Endeavor China—a subsidiary of the global entertainment, sports and content company, Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. The content studio—Endeavor Content, owned by Endeavor, specializes in financing, sales and advisory services for television series, documentaries, and feature films. Endeavor Content is responsible for the financing, packing and sales of over 100 films and television series annually and it has $200M+ in annual film sales and $500M+ in annual television series production.
Before joining Endeavor China, Sum Huang was the co-founder and the most recent partner of XG Entertainment, a leading premium content provider in Asia. Under his leadership, XG successfully built a business developing and producing premium shows for streaming platforms, underwrote and produced live concerts for top music artists and established a branded content team.
Being involved in the entertainment industry for more than ten years, Mr. Huang is now helping to enhance Endeavor’s strong offering across entertainment, sports and fashion in China and APAC more broadly as well as expanding Endeavor’s footprint across the region with his entrepreneurial background and deep understanding of media.
Andre Morgan
Film Producer
From 1972 to 1984, Andre Morgan built the international operations of Golden Harvest group, responsible for launching careers of Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and numerous film franchises including Cannonball. In 1984, he co-founded the Ruddy Morgan Organization producing more than 80 films, garnering numerous awards with Million Dollar Baby; hundreds of hours of television, including Walker, Texas Ranger and Martial Law. Subsequently, Morgan went on to advise many media groups including Bakrie Brothers, Media Asia, BAFTA (LA) and many of the American studios formulating a China strategy. His advisory work moved into large scale transnational projects in many non-media related fields. Morgan has been co-chairman of the Chinese American Film Festival for many years. He produced or co-produced Million Dollar Baby, The Longest Yard, and The White Countess, which have won countless awards, including Golden Globe® and David di Donatello Awards, Japanese academic prizes and Academy Awards® including Best Picture, Directing and Adapted Screenplay for Million Dollar Baby. His Chinese films (Perhaps Love, The Warlords and Protege) also won his directors, actors and crews countless awards including best film, best director and the best leading actor in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and across Asia.
Jun Oh
President, Global Business & Legal Affairs, Skydance
As President of Global & Business Legal Affairs, Jun Oh is responsible for running all business and legal affairs on a global basis related to the development, production and distribution of all of Skydance’s core content divisions including feature film, television, interactive and animation. Oh joined Skydance in 2018 as Head of Theatrical and Interactive Business & Legal Affairs. During his tenure at Skydance, he has been a key player in executing all deals for Skydance’s film slate including for above-the-line talent; he was also a vital part of the company’s 2020 $275 million equity partnership deal between Skydance, RedBird Capital and CJ ENM.
Prior to Skydance, Oh served as President of Business & Legal Affairs for Global Road Entertainment. He had an extensive career at Warner Bros. Entertainment where he rose to Senior Vice President, Business Affairs, Warner Bros. Pictures. In that role, he was responsible for negotiating development, production, co-financing, distribution and other deals for such titles as Dunkirk, Ocean’s 8, Crazy Rich Asians, and Aquaman. Oh was previously Head of Business & Legal Affairs for Warner Independent Pictures where he worked on deals for Slumdog Millionaire, among others.
He began his entertainment career at The Walt Disney Company in the business and legal affairs group. Oh holds a BA from Cornell University and a JD from UCLA School of Law, and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.