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Alan Yang

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Alan Yang
Yang at the 75th Annual Peabody Awards in 2016
Born
Alan Michael Yang

(1983-08-22) August 22, 1983 (age 41)
Riverside, California, US
EducationHarvard University
Occupations
  • Screenwriter
  • producer
  • director
  • actor
Known forParks and Recreation, Master of None, Tigertail
Alan Yang
Traditional Chinese楊維榕
Simplified Chinese杨维榕
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinYáng Wéiróng

Alan Michael Yang (Chinese: 楊維榕; born August 22, 1983) is an American screenwriter, producer and director. He was a writer and producer for the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, for which he received his first Emmy nomination. With Aziz Ansari, Yang co-created the Netflix series Master of None, which premiered in 2015 to critical acclaim. The series was awarded a Peabody Award, and at the 68th Emmy Awards in 2016, Yang and Ansari won for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for Master of None and became the first writers of Asian descent to win in the category, which was also nominated in the Outstanding Comedy Series category. Yang also was the screenwriter of the 2014 comedy Date and Switch. In 2018, Yang co-created the Amazon Video series Forever.

Early life

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Yang was raised in Riverside, California.[1] His parents were originally from Taiwan. His father is a retired OB-GYN from Huwei and his mother is a high school math teacher.[2] Yang attended high school at Riverside Poly High School in Riverside, California.[3] He studied biology at Harvard University, graduating at age 20. While at Harvard, Yang wrote for the college's humor magazine, the Harvard Lampoon,[1] where he first began doing comedy.[4] Yang said in an interview that he chose to study Biology when his parents told him math and science were a "safe zone" for people of color.[5] While at Harvard, Yang began following the Boston Red Sox in college and developed an interest in baseball.[3] This led to writing for "Fire Joe Morgan", a sports journalism blog, under the pseudonym "Junior."[6][7] He wrote the blog alongside Michael Schur, who was a producer and writer for The Office at the time. The two would later work together on Parks and Recreation and The Good Place.

Career

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Writing

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After graduating from Harvard, Yang tried to break into a career in comedy writing—with law school as a fall back. Yang was named "10 Screenwriters to Watch" by Variety magazine in 2009.[8] He wrote for Last Call with Carson Daly and contributed to South Park before he landed a job in 2008 as a staff writer for the then-upcoming NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. He was hired six months before the job began, so he wrote two screenplays, White Dad and Gay Dude.[8] White Dad was sold to Sony in 2008[9] and Gay Dude was on the Hollywood blacklist before being sold to Lionsgate Films in 2011 and was released in 2014 as Date and Switch.[10] Yang wrote the Funny or Die short, Parks and Recreation is the Wu Tang of Comedy (2010) directed by Dean Holland and Michael Schur, starring Aziz Ansari, Rashida Jones, Amy Poehler, as well as RZA and Questlove.

In 2012, Yang started writing a sitcom about a father-son relationship; when Parks and Rec producer Greg Daniels suggested he make the characters Asian, Yang declined as he assumed it would not be successful.[11] On Parks and Recreation, however, he became friends with actor/comedian Aziz Ansari, and the two later co-created Master of None, which debuted November 6, 2015 on Netflix. The series was well received—especially for its diverse cast and subject matter—and earned four Emmy nominations,[12] and Yang and Ansari shared the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for their Master of None episode, "Parents." Yang said in an interview that Brian's character in the episode, played by Kelvin Yu, was largely based on himself and his family. "It's based on my dad, Aziz's dad, and our families in general. A lot of that stuff was written as conversations that Aziz and I would have."[3] Yang and Ansari were also awarded a Peabody Award in May 2016.[13][14]

According to Yang, while topics on the show include racial diversity and racism, the main goal is to be authentic to their life experiences. "We try to do a blend in our show of what we talk about in our real lives", he told Variety in June 2016. "There's an episode or two about being Indian or Asian on TV, about dealing with your parents who are immigrants — but we fall in love, we have work trouble, we have all these other stories that make the characters more well rounded."[15] The second season was released in 2017.

In 2016, Yang began writing for The Good Place, and was credited for the second episode. He also directed an episode in the show's second season.[16]

In 2018, he reunited with Matt Hubbard, who worked on Parks and Recreation with Yang, to create Amazon's Forever, a comedy-drama series starring Fred Armisen and Maya Rudolph.[17] Yang is also currently working on producing Little America, a show he describes as "like Black Mirror, but instead of being super-dark sci-fi stories, it is immigrant stories."[5]

Directing and producing

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For Parks and Recreation, he has directed two episodes: "New Beginnings" (2014) (Season 6, Episode 11) and "Swing Vote" (2013) (Season 5, Episode 21). In addition to being a writer on the show and writing 16 episodes, Yang served as a story editor for 24 episodes and an executive story editor for 6 episodes. He also occasionally appears as a member of Andy's band, Mouse Rat. Yang also directed the Jay-Z music video "Moonlight", revised by Zong Yu. The music video was supposed to be a depiction of the American show Friends with an all African-American cast.[5]

He also served as an executive producer for Master of None,[5] as a co-executive producer, supervising producer, producer and co-producer on Parks and Recreation, an executive producer on Date and Switch (2014), a consulting producer on South Park (the episode "Miss Teacher Bangs A Boy" (2006)), a producer on the Funny or Die short Parks and Recreation is the Wu Tang of Comedy (2010), and as an associate producer on Last Call with Carson Daly. He served as a consultant for the 2007 MTV Movie Awards.

Yang produced the Amazon series Forever, which is a drama/comedy show about a married couple and their adventures in Riverside, California, Yang's hometown.[5]

Other work

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He is friends with chef David Chang and was featured in the Netflix non-fiction original series Ugly Delicious episode "Fried Rice" where he discussed Chinese cuisine. Yang has also done standup comedy in a small local stand-up comedy club.[5] On November 29, 2020, Yang supported Chang to help him become the first celebrity to win the $1,000,000 top prize for his charity, Southern Smoke Foundation, and the fourteenth overall million dollar winner on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, along with Mina Kimes via the phone-a-friend lifeline on the million-dollar question.[18]

Personal life

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Yang is engaged to actress Christine Ko. [19]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Credited as Notes
Director Writer Producer
2014 Date and Switch No Yes Yes Executive producer
2016 We Love You No Yes No
2020 Tigertail Yes Yes Yes
2025 Good Fortune No No Yes Post-production[20][21]

Television

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Year Title Credited as Notes
Director Writer Producer
2009 Last Call with Carson Daly No Yes Yes
2009–2015 Parks and Recreation Yes Yes Yes Writer (16 episodes), director (2 episodes)
2016 The Good Place Yes Yes Yes Writer (1 episode), director (1 episode)
2015–2021 Master of None Yes Yes Yes Co-creator; writer (10 episodes), director (2 episodes)
2018 Forever Yes Yes Yes Co-creator; writer (4 episodes), director (4 episodes)
2020–present Little America No No Yes Executive producer
2022–present Loot Yes Yes Yes Co-creator; writer (5 episodes), director (5 episodes)

Awards

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Year Award Award category Nominated work Result
2012 WGA Award Comedy Series Parks and Recreation Nominated
2013 Nominated
Episodic Comedy Nominated
2014 American Comedy Awards Best Comedy Writing - TV Nominated
2015 Primetime Emmy Outstanding Comedy Series Nominated
2016 Master of None Nominated
Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series Won
Gotham Independent Film Awards Breakthrough Series – Long Form Nominated
NAACP Image Awards Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series Nominated
2017 Gold Derby Awards Best Comedy Episode of the Year Won[22]
Primetime Emmy Outstanding Comedy Series Nominated
Producers Guild of America Best Episodic Comedy Nominated
2018 WGA Award Comedy Series Nominated
2019 Episodic Comedy Forever Nominated

References

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  1. ^ a b "Alan Yang's 4th Script to Be Produced by Lionsgate". Goldsea. Asian Media Group. March 30, 2011. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
  2. ^ Wright, Sara Lynne (November 1, 2015). "Alan Yang '02". Harvardwood. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
  3. ^ a b c "Master of None's Alan Yang". Giant Robot Media. 30 March 2017. Retrieved 2019-05-08.
  4. ^ Zhang, Phillip Y. (2016-11-15). "Alan Yang". Creative New York. Retrieved 2019-05-08.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Press, Joy (September 10, 2018). "Alan Yang Is Keeping It Weird with His New Amazon Series Forever". Vanity Fair's HWD. Retrieved 2019-05-08.
  6. ^ Fire Joe Morgan: About Us
  7. ^ Tracy, Marc (June 6, 2017). "Sure, He's Good at Basketball, but How Are His Twitter Skills?". The New York Times. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
  8. ^ a b Corcoran, Monica (2009-07-29). "Alan Yang". Variety. Retrieved 2019-05-08.
  9. ^ Simmo, Leslie; Kit, Borys (September 24, 2008). "Simonds, Sony parenting Yang's 'White Dad' pitch". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 9, 2017.
  10. ^ "LionsGate Picks Up "Gay Dude"". LOGO News. April 5, 2011. Retrieved June 9, 2017.
  11. ^ Ryan, Maureen (February 23, 2016). "Why TV Is Finally Embracing the Realities of Race". Variety. Retrieved June 9, 2017.
  12. ^ Ryan, Maureen (July 14, 2016). "'Master of None' Exec Producer Alan Yang on Emmy Nominations: 'We're Ecstatic'". Variety. Retrieved June 9, 2017.
  13. ^ Birnbaum, Debra (April 22, 2016). "'Black-ish,' 'Master of None,' 'Mr. Robot' Among 2015 Peabody Awards Winners". Variety. Retrieved June 9, 2017.
  14. ^ "Peabody Conversations: Master of None". Peabody Awards. May 31, 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2017.
  15. ^ Berkshire, Geoff (June 8, 2016). "Alan Yang, Kenya Barris on TV's Diversity Boom, the Upside of Awards". Variety. Retrieved June 9, 2017.
  16. ^ "Ch. 2: Allison Jones & Ben Harris, Casting Directors | Alan Yang, Writer The Good Place: The podcast". player.fm. 8 June 2018. Retrieved 2019-01-15.
  17. ^ Jung, E. Alex (September 26, 2018). "Alan Yang's Art-House Comedies". Vulture. Retrieved 2019-05-08.
  18. ^ Lowe, Lindsay (November 30, 2020). "David Chang is the 1st celebrity to win $1 million for charity on 'Millionaire'". TODAY.com. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  19. ^ "Alan Yang 楊維榕 on Instagram: "12.19.22"". Instagram. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
  20. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (April 18, 2023). "Aziz Ansari, Keanu Reeves & Seth Rogen Have 'Good Fortune' With Lionsgate". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 18, 2023.
  21. ^ Manno, Jackie (January 25, 2024). "Keke Palmer Had a Pool Party with Keanu Reeves for the Most Exciting Reason". NBC. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
  22. ^ "2017 Gold Derby TV Awards winners: 'Big Little Lies' and 'SNL' sweep, while 'Stranger Things' takes Best Drama". 7 September 2017.
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