FILM/TV
BAO NGUYEN
Director | Producer | EAST Films
"I’m honored to return as a mentor for Unlock Her Potential, a program that continues to address one of the most overlooked and urgent gaps in our industry: the lack of mentorship for women of color.
This will be my fourth year mentoring with UHP, and each time I’m reminded of how powerful it is to build relationships rooted in guidance, solidarity, and belief.
I’ve been fortunate in my career to have people open doors for me and I see it as both a responsibility and a privilege to hold that door open for others. As someone who works across cultures and continents, I know firsthand how essential it is to support voices that haven’t always been heard or valued.
UHP creates space for those voices to thrive, and I’m proud to play a small part in that. I’m grateful to Sophia Chang and the entire UHP community for continuing this necessary work."
Bao Nguyen is an Emmy and Grammy-nominated Vietnamese American filmmaker and founding partner of EAST Films, a transpacific media company developing content that bridges the Asia-Pacific and global markets. His work has been invited to screen at prestigious festivals including Sundance, Cannes, SXSW, Telluride, Tribeca, and Berlinale.
He directed Be Water, a documentary on Bruce Lee that premiered in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and became the most-watched ESPN 30 for 30 film on the platform. His Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, about the recording of “We Are the World,” premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, launched globally as the #1 film on the platform, and received three Primetime Emmy nominations, four Critics Choice Documentary Award nominations, a Grammy nomination, and won both the PGA and Critics Choice Awards. His most recent film, The Stringer, premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
He is a 2011 PBS/WGBH Producers Workshop Fellow, a Firelight Media Fellow, an alumnus of the 2012 and 2014 Berlinale Talent Campus, a 2022 BAFTA US Breakthrough recipient, and was recently invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
He holds a BA from NYU and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts.
TWITTER HOLLYWOOD REPORTER - Who Really Took the Iconic “Napalm Girl” Photo? Director of New Doc Addresses the Controversy
NY TIMES - How 'The Greatest Night in Pop' Got the '80s Right GQ - Bruce Lee Be Water Interview