Celebrating Asian-American Stories Through Food

From time studios, SIMU LIU and THE executive producer of ‘jiro dreams of sushi’

Sizzle Reel

As a kid, my favorite dinner by far was my father’s braised pork, or hong shao rou. I remember impatiently following him around our tiny kitchen, inhaling deeply as he gently placed gleaming chunks of pork belly into an amber caramel with soy sauce and star anise. When served over a hot bowl of rice, with the sweet, savory, molasses-y sauce coating each grain, each bite felt like the physical manifestation of a hug.

But when I would bring the meal to school the following day, my friends would scrunch up their noses as they munched on their Lunchables and Dunkaroos. Their reactions instilled into me that my culture wasn’t worth as much as theirs. Like many immigrant kids, my relationship with the food of ‘my people’ was complicated—and soon morphed into a hurricane of self-hatred.

One day in college, however, during a bout of homesickness, I tried to make braised pork on my own. It turned out awful—and I was suddenly struck by all I had taken for granted. My parents had learned a recipe passed down the generations, tweaking it every time with new layers of flavor. The dish nourished my present while transporting me back to my early childhood in China, where my grandparents would playfully bicker over whether the lean or the fatty parts of the pork were more delicious.

The journey of learning to love our culture’s food is also the story of learning to love our culture—and ourselves. The dish connected me to decades of love, dedication, family and ingenuity. It represented how far we had come.

Now, Asian food reigns supreme in the global food scene, and for good reason. If you venture into Little Tokyo in L.A. or Koreatown in New York on a Friday night, it will be packed with excited diners who can’t wait to wolf down Korean barbecue, hot pot, dosas or omakase. They will soon share an unrivaled moment of sharing, warmth and laughter as the steam rises from each dish.

Sweet & Sour,​ a new docuseries from TIME Studios that I’m hosting, will take us from the lunchbox to the Michelin star restaurant —to show how Asian dishes have evolved from humble beginnings to pillars of food culture. Around the country and the world, brilliant chefs are taking dishes that have long been dismissed by the mainstream as too smelly, too exotic, and making them into culinary works of art. Through California rolls, pho, pad thai and more, we will tell the story of the Asian-American experience: of immigrant laborers and innovators; of grandmothers cooking at home and cutting-edge chefs.

This is a story about food. It’s also a story of transformation and stubborn perseverance; of fierce, tight-knit community; of sorrow and uplift in America. I can’t wait for you to join my table.

— Simu Liu, Host and EP of Sweet & Sour

Logline

Sweet & Sour​ is a hosted docuseries about American immigrants, and their stories told through iconic fusion dishes.

Each episode, celebrity host Simu Liu traces the transformation of a beloved Asian-American food through multiple global cities, embracing their unique local flavors, cultures, and histories with friends.

This is a food, travel, and history show, it is also, more importantly, a celebration of the ingenuity and resilience of the Asian-American diaspora.

Synopsis

What can a plate of Sweet and Sour Pork tell us about migration, discrimination, assimilation, community, and creativity?

A whole lot, in fact.​ In each episode, Marvel superhero and Asian-American icon Simu Liu takes the audience on an immersive journey through the past and present of one dish, from pad thai to pho to spam musubi, to explore where we come from and where we are headed.

Sweet & Sour is a collection of Asian-American memories told through food. It is the lessons elders passed on from generation to generation as they fought for better lives in a new country. At the same time, it is a testament to youthful agency: showcasing younger AAPI chefs, activists, and entrepreneurs in their mission to uplift their communities while celebrating their cultural heritage.

Sweet & Sour​ includes cross-generational dining table conversations, droolinducing food shots, charming vérité, world-building sound, rich archival footage and b-roll capturing the vibrancy of immigrant food cultures.

Host

Simu, as host of Sweet & Sour, is equal parts charismatic, introspective, earnest and curious.

First and foremost , he is an undeniable leading man who has proven the ability to carry a $430 million movie. He is also an immigrant and third culture individual who can easily empathize with the variety of migration stories portrayed in each episode.

An Asian-Canadian foodie, Simu blends into local environments and thinks about food as much greater than the sum of its ingredients. He is the perfect guiding voice to entertain viewers and educate them on the historical and cultural themes at play in each episode.

The show is a co-viewing experience suitable for both young and old. Simu, in his youthfulness and gravitas, thrives in front of wide-ranging audiences. He is up for adventure: willing to try new foods, join a dance party, or chase farm animals spontaneously. He is also in tune to internet trends and new media formats, comfortable with sharing everyday aspects of his life and travels in ways young viewers can appreciate.

Sample Episode 1

Pad thai

Can one dish change a nation, in the eyes of the world?

Invented in the 1930s, pad thai has become one of the most ubiquitous dishes in Western society, thanks to the Thai government’s effort to use cuisine as the tool to international diplomacy and identity. But entwining identity and food so closely together risks erasing the individuality of a nation's people. This episode explores this fraught history: of how Thai immigrants were both lifted and restrained by their close relationship with pad thai.

COLD OPEN

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THAI TOWN, LOS ANGELES

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BANGKOK, THAILAND

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PORTLAND, OREGON

COLD OPEN:​ LISA

The pilot opens on a screaming crowd of thousands, who ecstatically greet the arrival of four women onstage: the K-pop supergroup BLACKPINK. “Hello Coachella, good to be back!” Lisa calls into the mic, which incites deafening screams that reverberate through the tightly packed crowd. A siren wail signals the arrival of the monster hit “LALISA” as Lisa takes centerstage, showing off both her dancing and rapping abilities. The camera cuts to Simu, who is singing along in the front of the crowd. After the show, Simu goes backstage, bringing along with him Lisa’s favorite post-show meal: vegan pad thai from Night + Market, a rendition of a dish she can’t find elsewhere.

LOCATION: COACHELLA, LOS ANGELES

PART I: THE STANDARD

In the morning, Simu picks up Lisa and they head to Thai Town, where they meet celebrity chef Jet Tila for a walking tour. Lisa wades through the crowd effortlessly, conversing in Thai with vendors and English with Simu and Jet. In the 1970s, Tila’s father founded the first Thai grocery store in America, Bangkok Market, in East Hollywood—and the largest Thai community outside of Thailand itself flourished around it. Between treasure hunts for the best Thai snacks and stops for Thai iced tea, Tila explains how pad thai was created by Thailand’s prime minister in the 1930’s to help foster a sense of patriotism in the face of communist China.

In the ‘00s, the Thai government implemented a series of policies to standardize and disseminate Thai cuisine worldwide. Tila was tapped to be the country’s first culinary ambassador, helping to usher in a new wave of Thai restaurants in cities across the world, including the trio’s final destination, Ruen Pair. Tila takes Simu and Lisa to the back of the kitchen and whips up his father’s recipe of standard pad thai. ​ It tastes delicious, but not quite familiar to Lisa—so it’s time to fly to Thailand to taste the real thing.

PART II: BANGKOK BOATING

Lisa and Simu travel to Bangkok, where Lisa is mobbed, upon arrival, by adoring BLINKs. There, they meet Akkapong “Earl” Ninsom, a Bangkok native and now-Portland restaurateur who is searching for fresh ingredients for his new restaurant.

The trio boards a boat at the Bang Kachao floating market. Ninsom haggles with fruit vendors on the water, Lisa looks effortlessly regal, and Simu desperately tries to avoid collisions at the helm. They pull up to a floating mini kitchen, where a woman makes them rolled noodles in five spice broth, coconut pancakes and pad thai, which is expertly mixed in a giant wok with tamarind sauce, dried shrimp and small fried cubes of tofu. “This is what I grew up with!” Lisa tells Simu. Ninsom explains that while pad thai was standardized in America with more accessible ingredients like ketchup and Chinese vegetables, vendors in Thailand have added more familiar and umami-packed ingredients like dried shrimp to their family recipes. The few moments of serenity on the water gives Lisa time to reflect on her childhood in Buriram—a small town a five hour drive from Bangkok—and what Thai culture and heritage meant to her as she navigated her way toward K-pop stardom in Seoul.

As night falls, Lisa takes Simu to try his hand at Muay Thai at the famous Jitmuangnon Gym. The pair then take in Bangkok’s famous nightlife, going dancing on Ekkamai Road.

PART III: THENEW GUARD

Simu flies back to the U.S., this time landing in Portland to attend Ninsom’s family gathering. Simu is determined not to show up empty-handed. So in true Portlander fashion, he hops on a bike to the nearest Voodoo Donuts. On the way, he rides past beautiful street murals, punk rock street bands and many other bikers dressed in rainbow tutus and feathered helmets.

The party is at Phuket Cafe, Ninsom’s new restaurant which undertakes daring culinary experiments that reject the limits of quaint Thai authenticity. While cooking, Ninsom reminisces over the initial hardship he faced trying to break through the mold. Early on, the only thing his Westernized patrons wanted from his cooking was an “authentic” pad thai. While the dish ensured the Western embrace of Thailand, it also came to define their entire culture abroad. Ninsom has combined his fresh ingredients from the Thai market with ingredients from other cuisines—like mezcal and coconut furikake—to create a wholly 21st century, Portland experience. Meanwhile at the party, Ninsom’s mom and aunts are completely enamored with Simu, feeding him all sorts of food by hand.

Party still ongoing, Simu breaks away from the crowd briefly to reflect on how Ninsom, Tila, and Lisa all prove in different ways how Thai identity and culture extend far beyond those sweet, sour and spicy noodles.

Sample Episode 2

SWEET AND SOUR PORK

Emerging out of the frozen depths of Northern China, the twisting journey of sweet and sour pork mirrors that of our host, Simu Liu, himself, and millions of other Chinese migrants. This is a story of parental sacrifices, cross-border pollination and fake-it-til-you-make-it cunning.

COLD OPEN

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CHINATOWN, LOS ANGELES

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TORONTO, CANADA

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HARBIN, CHINA

COLD OPEN:​ HAPPY MEAL

After another glamorous Hollywood press event in L.A., Simu escapes from the limelight to spend some quality time with his dad. They drive to a McDonald’s drive-thru, where Simu treats him to McNuggets with Sweet and Sour sauce. Simu says he’s returning the favor for the many Happy Meals of his childhood, when his parents would clip McDonald’s coupons just to make sure he was fed. “It was our responsibility as parents that you would have a good life here,” Simu’s dad says, “life is sweet and sour, and we made the best of it”.

As they munch away contentedly, Simu ponders: McDonalds is a pillar of American society. So how did sweet and sour sauce become one of its primary flavors?

LOCATION: MCDONALDS,LOS ANGELES

PART I: THE AMERICAN DREAM

The next day, Simu is joined by his friend and Cantonese stand-up comedian, Jimmy O. Yang, for a trip to Chinatown. There, Eugene Moy, a whimsical historian and Chinatown local, leads them to a hole-in-the-wall Chinese-American joint. They get takeout boxes containing fried pork morsels covered in a bright, sticky sauce, which looks like any other Chinese takeout meal found across the fifty states.

Eugene tells them that the iconic sweet and sour pork we know and love today is a Cantonese dish brought over by Southern Chinese migrants in the 1850’s. Eager for new opportunities and a better life, these travelers laid the foundation to American society: they built the railroads, worked the gold mines, and labored in the farmlands. But exclusionary laws soon relegated the Chinese to laundromats and restaurants, which kickstarted generations of creative ingenuity. Chinese cooks morphed their familiar recipes to cater to the American palate: battered, fried, coated in ketchup-like sauces, and garnished with nontraditional greens like bell peppers and broccoli. Like the iconic takeout boxes, the accompanying fortune cookies, or even the Chinatown architecture, American sweet and sour pork is unrecognizable in China today because it is wholly American.

What hasn’t changed though, is the Chinese community’s strong devotion to prayer. Eugene finishes the tour at Thien Hau Temple. There, the trio kneel before the holy temple, place their hands at their chests, and end their prayers in a deep bow, touching their heads to the floor. Then, they carefully light and plant three incense sticks each. Simu, who wants to give thanks to his ancestors, has brought fruits, tea and liquor as tributes.

Much like Simu’s parents, the Chinese immigrants who flourished around this Chinatown have worked hard to build community and identity in America.

PART II: THE ASIAN IDENTITY

The second stop of this homecoming tour is Toronto— the multicultural city where Simu grew up. Simu sneaks into his alma mater Western University, where he recreates his breakdance performance during freshmen orientation to an empty amphitheater. He walks through the dance studio space where his team prepared for the annual Ontario Universities’ Competition for Hip-Hop, and the classrooms where he took his calculus courses. And no one can stop him as he playfully shoots some hoops at his old gym.

Coming out of the trip down memory lane, he meets up with fellow Shang-Chi co star Awkwafina to grab drinks at Beijing Sung, a no frills Chinese-Korean restaurant on the outskirts of town. The duo is joined by Canadian-born, ethnically Chinese, Korean pop star Henry Lau. The starstruck owner fills the table with classics like black bean noodles, spicy seafood soup, and tangsuyuk— Korean sweet and sour pork! This dish was developed by ethnic Chinese cooks and chefs in Korea and was made extremely popular even before migrations to the American continent.

Between bites, Simu reminisces about growing up in this city, and what it was like to play his breakout role as Korean-American Jung in Kim’s Convenience. Dishes like Korean sweet and sour pork seem to represent Toronto as a city, where cultures collide and coexist. The trio chat about their own struggles with cultural identity, the explosive ascendance of K-pop, and with it, Asian culture, ​ and the strange malleability of Asian-America as the fight for both broad representation and cultural specificity continues.

The night ends with karaoke, where Henry shows off his powerhouse vocals and Awkwafina and Simu drunkenly howl to classics like "Country Roads."

PART III: HOMECOMING

Simu and his father return to their original hometown— Harbin. They meet up with Olympic freestyle skier and Chinese-American icon Eileen Gu to try downhill skiing. At the Harbin Wanda Indoor Ski Resort, the largest indoor ski resort in the world, Simu tries comically to mimic Eileen’s X-game level tricks. After a series of bad tumbles, Simu finally calls it quits and invites Eileen to a feast at Lao Chu Jia, a century-old restaurant that has been passed down through three generations of one family. Chef Wu explains that Chinese sweet and sour pork was birthed here in this city with the help of some Russian diplomats—and that each generation of the restaurant has brought a slightly new approach to the dish that was always a product of cross-cultural pollination.

Simu’s trip culminates at grandparents' old apartment, which is a time capsule for Simu's childhood. Emotional, Simu imagines what his life would have been like had he stayed in Harbin, reflecting on the fact that while his family made immense sacrifices to emigrate to Canada, those who stayed made their own sacrifices, too.

Episodes

Asian-American cuisines are both wholly unique and inextricably bound together by larger forces. The eight episodes of Sweet & Sour weave together interconnected Asian-American experiences using common locations and characters, teasing the dish of the following episode at the end of the current.

For example, by the end of the sweet and sour pork episode, the audience is introduced to centuries-long Korean-Chinese fusion and the popularity of K-pop across the Asian continent. Those ideas would reappear at the start of the following episode—Korean tacos. The Korean tacos episode ends in a barbecue joint in Seoul, where Simu is introduced to other iconic dishes such as army stew, a kimchi soup that puts spam front and center, taking the audience directly into the Hawaiian adventure of the fourth episode— spam musubi.

Additionally, guests who Simu has palpable chemistry with will reappear in multiple episodes. These characters can be longtime friends like Ronny Chieng, or celebrities who straddle multiple Asian cultures like Lisa from BLACKPINK (Korean and Thai) and Awkwafina (Chinese and Korean).

This technique makes the series both binge-worthy and narratively coherent.

Click on each tile to learn more

E3 KOREAN TACOS

Theme: New-Age Fusion

The Korean taco could have only been created in a diverse city like Los Angeles, where Korean and Latino immigrants have co-existed in both tension and harmony over the last half century. On its face, the Korean taco is a social media phenomenon. But it also holds inside it much larger stories about zoning, gentrification, agriculture and rebellion against authenticity.

E4 SPAM MUSUBI

Theme: The Melting Pot

Spam musubi is nearly synonymous with the Hawaiian sunshine, but the quintessential lunchbox snack has its past and present entwined with war, imperialism and scarcity— a history that is shared in Korea, the Philippines and Japan.

E5 SUSHI ROLL

Theme: Innovation Across Continents

In the 1960s, Japanese-American sushi chefs in California broke from centuries of culinary tradition and flipped sushi inside out, creating the sushi roll. Subtle innovations like this is a common throughline in Japanese migration stories. Remnants of those ingenuities can be found today in the California rolls at your local supermarket, Peruvian ceviche, and New American haute cuisine.

E6 KEBAB

Theme: Remnants of Old Empires

This episode explores how a simple idea—meat on a stick—has been shaped by cultural forces arising out of the Middle East, Mediterranean and Central Asia—and why it became a defining dish in far-ranging cities from Xi’An to Istanbul.

E7 PHO

Theme: Nostalgia

The hearty bowl of noodle soup is a tactile time machine: influenced by the French, developed by the Chinese, and shaped by the Vietnam War refugees who brought their unique flavor palettes to America in the 70s.

E8 LANGAR

Theme: Service without Borders

The traditional Sikh meal of service has been part of the Sikh religion for centuries. In the United States, it is taking on new life and helping to sustain new struggles against oppression and inequality.

Production strategy

Sweet & Sour is a globe-trotting show, and it will be filmed efficiently. Production management will work backwards to plan travel schedules, so the film crew can film scenes for multiple episodes while on the ground at each location. A few days of shooting in Seoul will produce significant sections of episodes about Korean tacos, spam musubi and sweet and sour pork. Major Asian-American cities like Los Angeles and New York will also serve as major filming hubs. For international locations, the team will travel a skeleton team consisting of host, producer, director and DP while hiring the rest of the support crew locally.

This approach allows for cost-saving on travel and crew while also providing thematic throughlines and familiar visual cues for audiences. Embedding with local crews will also give the show opportunities to portray cultures authentically.

Guests

Throughout the series, Simu will be accompanied by friends who provide context to the larger stories. They are everyday chefs, restaurant owners, and children of immigrants. They are also boundary-breaking AAPI icons. The names below all have personal relationships with the Sweet & Sour​ team. Those underlined​ have already voiced interest in joining the show.

ASIAN-AMERICAN CELEBRITIES

88rising, Ali Wong, Anderson.Paak, Awkwafina, BLACKPINK, Bowen Yang, Steven Lim, Eileen Gu, George Takei, Jeremy Lin, Jimmy O Yang, Jo Koy, Joel Kim Booster, John Cho, Jon M. Chu,​ Kal Penn, Kelly Marie Tran, Ken Jeong, Kumail Nanjiani, Lilly Singh, Lucy Liu, Margaret Cho, Michelle Yeoh, Michelle Zauner, Mindy Kaling, Ming Na Wen, Naomi Osaka, Olivia Rodrigo,​ Randall Park, Ronny Chieng, Roy Choi, Sandra Oh, Stephanie Hsu, Steve Aoki, Steven Yeun

ASIAN-AMERICAN THINKERS

Amanda Ngyuen, Cathy Park Hong, George Takei, Janet Yang, Jia Tolentino, Maxine Hong Kingston, Mina Fedor, Nobuko “JoAnne” Miyamoto, Ocean Vuong

ASIAN-AMERICAN IN THE CULINARY WORLD

Brandon Jew, David Chang, Eddie Huang, Grace Young, Helen Nguyen, J. Kenji Lopez Alt, Jennifer 8 Lee, Kristen Kish, Lucas Sin, Martin Yan, Melissa King, Ming Tsai, Moonlynn Tsai and Yin Chang, Roy Choi, Sheldon Simeon, Sohla El-Waylly

Creative Vision

Sweet & Sour​ is a show that celebrates the ingenuity and resilience of the Asian-American diaspora. Each episode illuminates the centrality of food to Asian-American culture, community and entrepreneurship, and how their concoctions continue to shape the nation as a whole. Sweet & Sour has the production value of​ Chef’s Table, the cinematic caliber of Street Food: Asia, the intimacy of Bourdain’s Parts Unknown​ and the educational value of High on the Hog.

With the help of rich archival images, and intimate conversations at the dining table, Sweet & Sour​ provides an immersive deep dive into the experiences that make up the Asian-American identity and the endurance and sacrifices by Asian-American immigrants.

As opposed to other documentaries, Sweet & Sour​ avoids talking head interviews, instead relying on more candid, organic conversations during walk and talks or at the dining table. In most cases, the camera is a fly on the wall, allowing chefs, grandmothers who cook for their families, historians, and the host alike to share their personal and cultural stories in an intimate setting.

In addition to stunning cinematography, each episode is attentive to capturing the sounds of food— from craft to consumption. Vivid audio design and intricate folly work contributes to a pleasurable and comprehensive viewing experience.

Through these techniques, the series threads the stories of migration, adaptation, preservation, innovation and identity-building, showing how Asian-American cuisines are both wholly unique and inextricably bound together by larger forces.

Animation

In order to bring the past to life , Sweet & Sour​ relies on gorgeous Japanese influenced animation. These animations will vividly portray formative migration stories: a Vietnam war refugee embarking on an arduous odyssey across the Pacific Ocean; a smitten Korean teenager following an American GI to a strange new land; a Punjabi Sikh man proposing to a Mexican woman in the dusty border town of El Centro.

The retellings begin on a family photo and morph into vibrant animation sequences. The art style takes inspiration from the iconic Studio Ghibli, which catapulted Japanese art and storytelling to the center of global pop culture. Ghibli-style animations capture environments and facial expressions in stunning detail, evoking nostalgia and deep wonder. These animations thrust the audience into immersive personal journeys, bringing to life stories that had previously been trapped in black and white images.

Too often, personal stories fade into a series of empirical numbers in history books as generations pass. These animations both provide historical context while centering the visceral feelings and thoughts of those who paved the way for us as they underwent terrifying, uplifting journeys.

Why NOw?

For years, TV and movie executives kept Asian-American stories on the sidelines, convinced that they would not sell or resonate widely. But the success of Crazy Rich Asians, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Minari, Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Indian Matchmaking, Love Hard, Pachinko​ and many other Asian-American-centric projects over the last few years has proved that not only is the AAPI community rabid for representation, general audiences are more than happy to spend time with Asian stories if they are emotionally resonant and created with care. America is a nation of immigrants, after all—and themes of family and perseverance are universal.

Especially now, in the wake of an onslaught of anti-Asian hate wrought by the pandemic, it is more important than ever for people to be shown the richness and diversity of Asian life. Representation matters because it directly informs how people see and treat others. There are thousands of real-life Asian-American stories that have been buried away by the media for decades, and many of them intersect with food. It is time to start bringing them to life.

POTENTIAL EXPANSION

Sweet & Sour has infinite expansion potential. Eight episodes of the first season simply does not begin to cover the culinary diversity from the Asian-American community. There are fascinating stories to be told in a plate of curry, chop suey, sisig, or hainanese chicken.

More importantly, at its core, the series tells the stories of immigrants in a nation defined by them. The United States is brimming with culinary stories outside of Asian-America, from Black to Latino to Native American to Arab to European. Each season offers the potential to open a new door to cultural learning and exploration.

Strategic partners

While Sweet & Sour​ appeals to all foodies and history buffs, it also hopes to rally the support of the AAPI community.

Sweet & Sour​ will partner with GOLDHOUSE​ for targeted marketing and distribution campaigns.

Sweet & Sour​ will mobilize popular TIKTOK​ chefs like Lynja (14.6M), newt (10M), The Korean Vegan (3M), Chris Cho (2.1M), Jasmine and Tea (1.4M), Jonathan Kung (1.6M), and Seema Pankhania (1.2M) for weekly cooking challenges that accompany the release schedule of each episode.

For a limited time, filmgoers can visit their local ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE CINEMAS​ to view the first episode of Sweet & Sour​ on the big screens, and be served, seat-side, a special dinner menu with items from the cuisine of topic.

Sweet & Sour​ will partner with WEEE! to bring specially designed meal kits to fans who want to recreate their favorite Asian- American dishes at home. Care packages may include recipes and personal notes from chefs featured on the show.

The Team

SIMU LIU

Liu is an actor, producer and New York Times best-selling author best known for his work on Marvel Studios’ Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, and in five seasons of the beloved family sitcom Kim’s Convenience.

VICKY LIU

Liu is a documentary filmmaker at TIME Studios with an instinct for global socio-political stories. Her work has been featured on HBO, Netflix, MSNBC, Nickelodeon, Showtime, and more.

ANDREW CHOW

Chow is a TIME correspondent who has written extensively about Asian-American culture and history. His work has been featured on the New York Times, Pitchfork and NBC News.

MATT WEAVER

Weaver is a Tony, Emmy, and Grammy nominated documentary producer who helped make Jiro Dreams of Sushi , I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead​ and most recently, Home.

LOREN HAMMONDS

Hammonds is the Co-Head of Documentary at TIME Studios overseeing the expansion of nonfiction feature, episodic, and immersive programming.

From one of the most globally iconic brands, TIME STUDIOS is an Emmy Award®-winning television, film and immersive studio focusing on the development , production and distribution of truth-based premium unscripted and scripted storytelling that moves the world. With technical innovation and a brand defining visual language that dates back 100 years, TIME Studios aims to impact communities and the world at large with ideas that forge true progress.

Combining the industry’s leading creators with TIME, one of the most trusted brands that reaches an audience of over 100 million people globally, TIME Studios is uniquely positioned to bring massive audiences to the world ’s most impactful stories.

Recent projects include: jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy​ (Netflix), Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space​ (Netflix), Katrina Babies (HBO),​ Black Gold​ (Paramount+), Big Vape​ (Netflix), John Lewis: Good Trouble​ (CNN Films), Amazing Grace​ (Neon), Right to Offend​ (A&E), Ricky Powell : The Individualist (Showtime),​ Mass Effect : The Story of YouTube, Kid of the Year​ (Nickelodeon/CBS), TIME100​ (ABC) and the first scripted project for TIME Studios, Women of the Year (Amazon).