266 - Steven Nguyen - Using the Power of Music and Animation To Build Experiences

Steve Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American director, writer, artist and producer. Nguyen and fellow director Choz Belen formed Studio APA, a multimedia collective that specializes in the production of animated films and music videos.

Nguyen has worked as a production assistant at Universal Pictures (Jarhead, Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift). Since 2006, Nguyen has written, directed and produced over fifty feature length and short independent films ranging from a wide variety of genres.

In 2012, Nguyen co-directed and produced an animated film, Hibakusha, which chronicled the early life of a Hiroshima bombing survivor, Kaz Suyeishi. The animated film stars Karin Anna Cheung, Connie Lim, Daisuke Suzuki, Jane Lui and William Knight. 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 Hibakusha throughout the United States since October 2012, and the film has been screened at the Japanese American National Museum, Vietnamese International Film Festival, Wing Luke Museum in Seattle, Dragon Con in Atlanta, University of Michigan, UCLA, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, San Diego State University, UC Davis, UC Riverside, DisOrient Film Festival, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, and California State University, Fullerton.

Hibakusha has gone on to receive nominations and awards, including the Special Achievement Award and Best Animated Short at the 2013 International Uranium Film Festival held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

Nguyen released his first children's book on June 2020 with Sky Pony Press and Simon & Schuster titled To Baby From Daddy, which feature his own illustrations and personal composition of paternal love and advice to his daughter.

https://www.instagram.com/stevenguyen/

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