CULTURE&DIVERSITY
Blasting Southern Stereotypes Meet Georgia Native, Producer and Writer Hieu Gray By Den i s e K. Jame s
I realized there was a Vietnamese community in Paris. My mind was absolutely blown; I was amazed at going off the beaten path and seeing these other immigrant communities that called Paris home, too. And I really wanted to tell their stories—if they’re not going to tell the stories themselves, you have to tell it for them. And it has been amazing, having that extra connection—I think it brings a lot to the documentary. IS IT GOING TO STREAM? HOW WILL AUDIENCES VIEW THE DOCUMENTARY? Right now it’s still doing the film festival circuit. After that, I’m hoping to turn it into an educational film to be distributed to schools around the country as a resource to assist teachers talking about immigration and the refugee diaspora. That’s what I see as the long-term goal of the documentary. I am also working on turning it into a TV series, where I travel around the world highlighting other diasporas through the lens of food. CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE ADULT ANIMATED SERIES YOU’RE WORKING ON? I don’t want to say too much, since it’s in development, but I’m developing an adult animated series about a Vietnamese American family moving to the South—trying to turn the idea of what it means to be “Southern” on its head. I’m from the Okefenokee Swamp, but just looking at me, you wouldn’t think I’m Southern or that I came from a really small town. Right now, we’re in development for it; I’ve written the pilot script. And we’re pitching it to different animation studios. HOW DO YOU LIKE WRITING FOR TELEVISION? IS IT DIFFERENT? I spent the pandemic in Georgia with my parents, and I ended up taking a TV writing course online through this amazing organization called East West players, based in L.A. They’re the oldest Asian American theater company in America, and they hold a special place in my heart. Because of the pandemic, they moved their classes online, and that allowed me to take the course in Georgia. That was the impetus for another direction in my career—TV writing. I always had the idea for my adult animated series in my head, so that was
“ Being Southern as an Asian American
has many layers that I am still unraveling, but it has been how I have found my unique voice. ”
remember my dad telling me he’d bike 10 miles just to pick pecans and my mother walking with us to the Salvation Army. My older sister and I went to lower- income schools, where we were the only Asians in our classrooms. As a child, I wanted to be an artist. I excelled at drawing, and all the kids would want me to draw their portraits. By high school, my drawings became words as I became more drawn to poetry. DESCRIBE YOUR COLLEGE EXPERIENCE. A high school teacher once told me “education is the great equalizer,” and I studied hard so I could go to the best college in the state. You could say I was the resident school nerd, voted “Most Intellectual” as my senior superlative. My hard work paid off with scholarships to Emory University, where I majored in creative writing and journalism and started an Asian-interest sorority on campus: Delta Phi Lambda. It’s ironic that for most of my life, I didn’t want people to know I was from a small Southern town, especially in college when everyone else seemed so worldly. It wasn’t until recently that I’ve embraced my roots as Southern. Being Southern as an Asian American has many layers that I am still unraveling, but it has been how I have found my unique voice. And it informs my work to this day. TELL US ABOUT YOUR CURRENT DOCUMENTARY, QUAN 13 . I got the travel bug late in life; I didn’t start traveling until my 30s because, up until that point, all I did was work. When I came to Paris for the first time,
Hieu Gray
P roducer and writer Hieu Gray grew up in South Georgia with Vietnamese immigrant parents, longing for the opportunity to creatively express herself. With a little bit of dreaming and a lot of hard work, this producer and writer, currently based in Los Angeles, fashioned a career of telling meaningful cultural stories while honoring her diverse roots. WHAT WAS YOUR CHILDHOOD LIKE? WHAT INSPIRED YOU INITIALLY? My parents were “boat people” who fled Vietnam in the 1980s in search of a better life. We bounced around various camps that included Indonesia and eventually landed in Hong Kong to fly to America. From there, my parents settled in an unlikely place—Waycross, Georgia. These early years greatly influenced my work as a poet, writer, and filmmaker. My parents were teachers in Vietnam but could only find minimal labor jobs here. I
the first TV pilot script I wrote. DO YOU STILL WRITE POETRY?
Yes! I’m working on a book of poetry now.
@lapetitebelle_eats | www.hieugray.com
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