So Yun Um is a Korean American filmmaker from Los Angeles, California. She tells us about growing up in L.A. as a child in the ‘90s, a dynamic city full of fashion, enterprise, and of course, a large Korean community.

Daniel K. Isaac was born in 1988 in Los Angeles, California, to Korean immigrant parents who separated when he was a toddler. He grew up performing in church plays and participating in the Boy Scouts, later discovering his passion for theater through his high school’s productions. While in high school, he entered conversion therapy, influenced by his religious upbringing, but found in theater the family and community he longed for. Determined to pursue acting, he studied theater at UC San Diego, where he performed in a production every single quarter of his enrollment.

Kymber Lim, raised in Georgia, grew up fighting for her ambitions despite her immigrant parents’ expectations of a simple life. Her drive led her to college, where she thrived in production classes, impressing professors and diving into video production.

Will Yun Lee was born in 1971 in Arlington, Virginia, though he tells us that he spent much of his childhood moving around. After his parents’ divorce, he was cared for by family and friends for a while before moving back in with his father, who operated a Taekwondo studio in Hawaii.

Jeanne Yang was born in Los Angeles in 1968 as the second child of immigrant parents. She recalls how the last thing her parents expected was another child—her mother worked three jobs, the family lived in a converted garage, and her “crib” was a drawer filled with blankets—but family circumstances improved after moving to Monterey Park.

Jeanne’s first career was in law, following her parents’ wishes, but she soon became disillusioned with the legal system and pivoted towards the world of entertainment, where her career as a stylist flourished. Today, she works alongside A-list talent, magazines, and brands, moved by the question: “What will be your legacy?”

Animator and film director Peter Sohn was born in the Bronx, New York, to parents who immigrated to the United States from South Korea during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. His father opened and operated several small businesses, from grocers to art supply stores, and his mother arrived in America to work as a nurse.

Peter’s love for drawing and animation emerged at a young age, though it wasn’t always encouraged by his parents, who had navigated the hardships of the Korean War and of emigrating to the U.S. Their experiences have shaped and informed the stories Peter animates, directs, and creates today, speaking to the valences of immigrant life which he masterfully captures through film.