Announcing the 2024 AAPI Media Creatives Fellow
Congratulations to Yeonhee Choi, BCNM's 2024 AAPI Media Creatives Fellow!
Through our AAPI Media Creatives Fellowship, BCNM aims to transform both how entertainment careers are viewed by students, and how AAPI are viewed within the entertainment industry. Yeonhee will receive a summer stipend of $1,500 plus mentorship from industry professionals. The funding will help her pursue her creative passions in media and entertainment over the summer. She will also receive valuable mentorship from industry leaders Jason Lin (Producer, Story Arch Pictures), Lacy Lew Nguyen Wright (Manager, Social Innovation at Endeavor), and Laura Reddy (Manager, Range Media Partners). The fellowship seeks to build a network of Cal alumni in leadership positions in media who, by developing narratives that feature AAPI and encouraging greater diversity at all levels within studios and agencies, will fundamentally change the ecosystem of cultural production to be more reflective of the AAPI community at large.
Yeonhee Choi is a graduating senior of Film & Media at UC Berkeley. She first moved to America as a foreign exchange student to a suburban town in Missouri in 3rd grade all by herself. As a person who experienced both Korean and American cultures, she tutored Korean to non-Korean speakers and worked as a translator and interpreter in non-governmental organizations, and served as a translator for K-pop artists and their management teams at KCON. Yeonhee has been active in the film community on campus such as being in Delta Kappa Alpha and Cinematic Arts Production Club ever since she came to Berkeley. By being part of both film organizations, she worked as an assistant director, screenwriter, gaffer, and production assistant on various student short films. In Fall 2023, she directed her first short film, Ganadara, which is currently in post-production. She hopes to work to promote Korean culture and better AAPI representation in the entertainment industry after graduation.