Cathy Yan

Cathy Yan is a filmmaker known for her distinct aesthetic, darkly humorous tone and love for subverting typical genre rules and telling unconventional stories. Her debut film, Dead Pigs, which she wrote and directed, won the Special Jury Prize for ensemble acting at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, among several other accolades. Her latest film is Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, which is now in theaters through Warner Bros.; she is the first Asian woman to direct a superhero genre film. Next, she is slated to direct and produce a film adaptation of Sour Hearts, a collection of short stories by Jenny Zhang, which she will co-write with Zhang. Yan studied at Princeton, where she earned her BA, and NYU, where she received a dual MFA and MBA in film. Previously, she was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in New York, Hong Kong and China, and brings her sharp, journalistic instincts to her filmmaking. Yan was born in China and is currently based in New York. (Picture by Tim P. Whitby, courtesy of Warner Bros.)