Jessica Yu ( zh, c=虞琳敏, p=Yú Línmǐn) is an
American director, writer, producer, and film editor. She has directed
documentary films,
dramatic films, and television shows.
Yu won the
Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject
This is a list of films by year that have received an Academy Award together with the other nominations for best documentary short film. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are announ ...
in 1997 for ''
Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien'' (1996).
Yu's film ''Last Call at the Oasis'' (2012) is based upon
Alex Prud'homme's ''Ripple Effect''. Her more recent films have been: ''
Misconception'' (2014), ''ForEveryone.Net'' (2016), a documentary film about the inventor of the
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables Content (media), content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond Information technology, IT specialists and hobbyis ...
, Sir
Tim Berners-Lee
Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee (born 8 June 1955), also known as TimBL, is an English computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web, the HTML markup language, the URL system, and HTTP. He is a professorial research fellow a ...
, and a Netflix comedy ''Maria Bamford: Old Baby'' (2017). In 2019, Yu was nominated for an
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
for "Outstanding Direction for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special" for the ''
Fosse/Verdon'' episode "Glory".
Early life and education
Yu grew up in
Los Altos Hills,
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. Her father, Dr. John Kou-ping Yu, an
oncologist, was born in
Shanghai
Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...
. Her mother,
Connie Young Yu, writer and historian, is a third-generation
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
n.
Yu graduated from
Gunn High School in
Palo Alto
Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.
Th ...
. She was a reporter for the school newspaper, ''The Oracle''.
She went on to attend
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
, where she was a two-time
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
All-American and three-time
All-Ivy in
fencing
Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...
.
As a world-class
foilist, she was a member of the Junior World Team and the United States national team at the World Championships and
World University Games. Yu graduated from Yale University in 1987
summa cum laude,
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...
,
with a bachelor's degree in English.
Career
After graduation, Yu thought of pursuing law school like her peers. However, her father discouraged her from doing so.
She discovered film production while searching for a job that allowed flexible hours to allow her to compete in fencing. She started as a
production assistant
A production assistant, also known as a PA, is a member of the film crew and is a job title used in filmmaking and television for a person responsible for various aspects of a production. The job of a PA can vary greatly depending on the budget ...
in 1989
on a few commercials, where she got to arrange frozen noodles on forks and re-park cars. When she started working in documentary, she became further intrigued by the process.
Yu refused to attend film school and gained her film education on the job. She focuses on making documentaries but says that one day she'd love to make a fully animated comedy feature.
The opportunity to make film is a random occurrence for Yu. Her documentary films present worldwide issues that people face every day and allow the subjects to speak for themselves as much as possible. She is adamant that story should come before politics.
Her films intend to inform the general public to incite people to become active in everyday issues such as
water conservation
Water conservation aims to sustainably manage the natural resource of fresh water, protect the hydrosphere, and meet current and future human demand. Water conservation makes it possible to avoid water scarcity. It covers all the policies, strateg ...
and regulation. When not making documentaries and feature films, Yu spends time directing television shows.
1990s
Yu began her career in 1993 with her short ''Sour Death Balls'', a silent black-and-white montage of assorted subjects' reactions to blindingly bitter candy, which was shot on an old school
Bell & Howell wind-up camera.
She got her inspirations from daily interactions in her life, i.e. when a child offered local people sour candy. Yu sent the short film to film festivals, and it became her first feature at the
Telluride Film Festival
The Telluride Film Festival (TFF) is a film festival held annually in Telluride, Colorado, during Labor Day, Labor Day weekend (the first Monday in September). The 51st Telluride Film Festival, 51st edition took place on August 30–September ...
in 1993. Yu made her first documentary, ''Men of Reenaction'' (1994), which explores the extremes of people searching for authenticity through Civil War reenacting.
Her most famous work was her Academy Award-winning ''Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien''. The
documentary short features Berkeley writer
Mark O'Brien, a disabled poet with an
iron lung. His editor at the ''
Pacific News Service,''
Sandy Close, introduced the pair and suggested that a film be made.
It debuted at the
1996 Sundance Film Festival and won several honors, including the International Documentary Association Achievement Award for Best Documentary, before the Academy Awards.
Yu's 1998
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
documentary ''The Living Museum'', which follows
Creedmoor Psychiatric Center patient
Issa Ibrahim, was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1999
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023.
The festival has acted ...
.
2000s
In the 2000s, Yu's chance to work in episodic TV came when she received an invitation to apprentice at
John Wells Productions as the first participant of their director diversity program. Shadowing directors, Yu sensed she was a guinea pig. “If you screw this up,” she told herself, “they’ll never let another woman of color from documentaries do this again.”
While working for Wells' production company, she began directing in television for shows like ''
Grey's Anatomy
''Grey's Anatomy'' is an American medical drama television series focusing on the personal and professional lives of surgical internship (medicine), interns, residency (medicine), residents, and attending physician, attendings at the fictional ...
'' and ''
The West Wing
''The West Wing'' is an American political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the West Wing of the White House, where t ...
.''
On her first directorial assignment, an episode of ''The West Wing'', Yu was heartened that Wells encouraged her stylistic input. “He made a point of saying, ‘You should bring your own ideas to the table,’ rather than just follow prescribed formula.” So she decided to open with a series of mood-establishing low, wide-angle shots to signal the calm before the gathering storm.
She directed a sport comedy film, ''
Ping Pong Playa'' (2007), that explored Asian family culture through a Chinese
ping pong playing son that is trying to prove himself to his family. Her producer friends Joan Huang and Jeff Guo approached her with the idea of working on a comedy together. They felt the time was right to have an obnoxious Asian American character on the screen. Yu and her comrades felt that Asian American cinema had plenty of good dramas and wanted to fill the void of superficial comedy.
She tried to bring the same loose hand and adaptability she used for documentaries to scripted material. Her approach to ''Ping Pong Playa'' was to “have a lighter touch, especially with actors” to give them a sense of freedom.
2010s
In her later documentaries such as ''Last Call at The Oasis'' (2011) and ''Misconception'' (2014), Yu focused on capturing the big picture and understanding how these issues intertwined with other aspects of life such as climate, population, and the environment. ''Last Call at The Oasis'' addresses the water crisis in the United States, and working on the film made her consider the impact of the crisis on her children and their children. This project became more personal to Yu and compelled her to complete it. It took six months of research prior to filming, as Yu wanted to create the big picture of the facts and threats of the water crisis in the domestic United States.
''Last Call at the Oasis'' inspired Yu to direct her 2014 documentary ''Misconception'', which paints the population issues from a person-to-person point of view. While filming ''Last Call at the Oasis'' people questioned the purpose of acting on water conservation because they cannot control the population growth affecting it. Her main goal is to take this topic and tie with emotionally, entertaining, and interesting stories.
The majority of her work after 2015 has been focused on television production and directing. For
Netflix
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
, she directed episodes of the dramas ''
13 Reasons Why
''13 Reasons Why'' (also stylized as ''TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY'') is an American teen drama television series based on the 2007 novel '' Thirteen Reasons Why'' by author Jay Asher. Developed for Netflix by Brian Yorkey and with Selena Gomez ser ...
'' and
''Hollywood'' and did
Maria Bamford's comedy special ''Old Baby''.
2020s
Jessica's work in the 2020s includes directing a number of television drama series. ''
This Is Us'' (''Don't Let Me Keep You'', 2021), ''
The Morning Show'' (''Kill the Fatted Calf'', 2021), ''
In Treatment'' (''Brooke'', ''Laila'', ''Colins'', ''Eladio'', 2021).
Personal life
Yu is married to author
Mark Salzman. They and their daughters, Ava and Esme, live in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
.
Jessica has an older sister, Jennifer Yu, a technical publications manager, and a younger brother, Martin Yu, an actor.
Filmography
Short films
Film
TV Series
Awards and nominations
Further reading
* Fry, Nathan
"2002 Alumni Spotlight: Jessica Yu" ''Ivy League Sports'', Council of Ivy Group presidents
"Pizarro: Documentary filmmaker shows us her comedic side" ''The Mercury News''. 2008-09-02. Retrieved 2018-11-13.
*Klady, Leonard (1997-05-22)
"Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien" ''Variety''. Retrieved 2018-11-13.
''www.metroactive.com''. Retrieved 2018-11-13.
*https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0950506/
References
External links
*
*
Foreveryone.netWe the EconomySocial Action and Filmmakingwith Jessica You
Ping Pong Playa official film website Protagonist official film websiteIn The Realms Of The Unreal official film websiteby Diorama Films, LLC
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yu, Jessica
1960s births
Living people
21st-century American screenwriters
21st-century American women writers
American documentary filmmakers
American film directors of Chinese descent
American film producers
American television directors
Television writers from California
Directors of Best Documentary Short Subject Academy Award winners
American women television directors
Writers from Palo Alto, California
American women screenwriters
Yale University alumni
Film directors from California
People from Los Altos Hills, California
American women documentary filmmakers
American women television writers
Gunn High School alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)