Quyên Nguyen-Le (they/them) is a queer vietnamese american filmmaker and writer. Born to refugee parents in the place where Chumash and Tongva lands meet (San Fernando Valley, Los Ángeles), Quyên's work focuses on the ways histories are deeply felt in the quotidian everyday. Their short films Nước (Water/Homeland) (2016) and Hoài (Ongoing, Memory) (2018) have screened in film festivals, museums, art galleries, universities, libraries, and community spaces worldwide. Recently, Quyên's documentary The Morning Passing on El Cajón Boulevard, a segment of a 4-part anthology, premiered as the Opening for the 20th San Diego Asian Film Festival.

They are currently an Associate Producer for the film Free Chol Soo Lee (Sundance 2022), and in post-production for In Living Memory, a documentary about their mother's nail salon, which closed at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

In the past, Quyên was a recipient of the Emma L. Bowen Foundation's Fellowship at Focus Features/NBCUniversal (2011-2013), Visual Communications’ Armed with a Camera Fellowship (2016), the National Multicultural Alliance's documentary fellowship with the Center for Asian American Media (2018), and Points North Institute's North Star Fellowship (2019). Quyên holds B.A. in Comparative Literature and Philosophy, Politics & Law from the University of Southern California.

You can reach them  @smellydurianface on instagram.

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"DON’T UNDERESTIMATE DIRECTOR AND WRITER QUYÊN NGUYEN-LE’S ABILITY TO PACK AN EMOTIONAL PUNCH WITHIN SECONDS OF THE FILM’S START..." - THE LONG BEACH POST

ELSEWHERE

​PRESS
Los Angeles Times
San Diego Union Tribune
Diacritics
Teen Vogue
​Buzzfeed
Sahtu Press
Long Beach Post
Visual Communications
The Advocate
Dread Central

PODCASTS
Queering the Air, 3CR, Melbourne Australia
LGBT & Viet Identities In Cinema, My Vietnam Podcast

WRITING & PUBLICATIONS
HelloGiggles, Yahoo!, "Growing up in my mother's nail salon"