Gerry O. recently had the opportunity to interview Cynthia Hsiung with an audience of our KIDS FIRST! reporters who were able to ask her questions afterwards. With the new constraints of the Coronavirus, KIDS FIRST! has taken the opportunity to convert online interviews into learning experiences for our youth reporters. This is the first webinar we’ve conducted, so take a look and feel free to share with your network.
Cynthia Hsiung is an award winning Director, Writer, Producer and Development Executive who has developed and produced TV shows, documentaries, films and online content for MTV, VH1, Fox Kids Network, HBO and Warner Bros. She was part of the original programming development team that developed MTV’s The Real World and Road Rules; HBO’s Breasts, the documentary; and VH1’s channel-defining Behind the Music series. Still in her 20s, she was Carson Daly’s first MTV producer/director for his television VJ debut. Moving from New York to LA, she became the Director of Development for Spygaze Pictures developing feature film movies of the week. She was then brought on by Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert to be the series Producer for the highly-rated 50 episode live-action series “Young Hercules” starring Ryan Gosling for Fox Kids Network. “Young Hercules” was nominated for two Emmy Awards and a Writers Guild award.
In 2010, Ms. Hsiung wrote, directed, and executive produced the feature film, “Shades of Love”. The modern love story was based on a true story. The film won five awards including Best Director of a Feature Film and Best Narrative Writing for Cynthia Hsiung. Ms. Hsiung has continued to write for film and television. Additionally in 2015 she worked on a music documentary series for Edward Norton regarding the affordable housing crisis.
In 2019, Ms. Hsiung returned to the Writers Room as one of the Executive Producers for a series for China’s Alibaba. The scripted one-hour dramatic series will be announced in 2020. She is also an Instructor for UCLA Extension Writers Program teaching courses in Writing and Showrunning. She is currently writing a mini-series on the 2019 Coronavirus.
By Gerry O., KIDS FIRST! Film Critic, age 17
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