Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Justin Tran is a filmmaker with a love for storytelling. He began pursuing a career in the film industry immediately after high school and found his start in the camera department. Justin founded No Friends Productions in 2015 as a creative outlet and as a return to his passion of creating narrative films. Along a team of lifelong collaborators, he's dedicated to bringing stories to life on the big screen for all to enjoy.

Jason Wu, also known as “Dragon of the West,” is a director, rapper and producer from San Francisco, California. Through his intricate rhymes and meticulously crafted videos and songs, he documents his experience as an Asian American immigrant growing up in the United States. He draws his inspiration from anime and video games, being that “Dragon of the West” is a reference to Uncle Iroh, a character from the very popular TV series “Avatar: the Last Airbender."

Mitch Truong is a Vietnamese-American filmmaker based out of San Francisco Bay Area. She hopes to create more films with female Vietnamese-American leads in hopes of validating their childhood experiences and adding a little style and humor to it. She is influenced by directors such as Agnès Varda, Greta Gerwig, Wong Kar-wai, Wes Anderson, and Robert Eggers. She is also an avid street and rollerdance rollerskater.

Trent Osaki is a Japanese-American storyboard artist from Pleasanton, California. He graduated from the San Jose State University Animation/Illustration program in 2023, and enjoys creating stories that share his culture as well as inspire others to explore their own creativity.

Born and raised in San Jose, California, Harsimran Sandhu is a recent graduate from SDSU. He believes in the power of stories to make us feel less alone, and hopes that his films are able to help people with the same struggles. He hopes to utilize his skills to bring diverse and fresh perspectives wherever he goes!

SHRUTI TEWARI has spent over two decades in the creative arts with acting projects ranging from a Bollywood blockbuster to numerous award winning independent films. After stints in investment banking and tech, she, an MBA from Mumbai and MIA from Columbia University, changed course to authentically represent minority voices in the arts.

Giovannie Espiritu's identity is inherently political: A bisexual, once-undocumented immigrant Filipina mom who spent time in a Biblical doomsday cult as a teen. Her first short film, “Ultra-Feminist,” got an Honorable Mention at Outfest:Fusion, and her second film, “ALLY 3000,” won over 12 awards at film festivals in scriptwriting, social justice, and women in film. Most of her work has taken aim at dismantling the patriarchy, healing generational trauma, and exposing systems of bias with humor. She is a member of the Alliance of Women Directors and the Producers Guild of America.

Yasmine Gomez is a Filipino American writer and director of multiple award-winning short films, including TERRA COTTA, ASIAN AMERICAN JESUS, CONSUMED, and LEA SALONGA: WHO I AM INSIDE. In feature films, she helped produce SPLIT AT THE ROOT, A PICTURE OF YOU, and ADVANTAGEOUS. Recently, she produced for Vox, THE ELLEN SHOW, and Beyonce's BLACK IS KING. Yasmine recently debuted her latest play FIRST FILIPINO for Bindlestiff Studio's Stories High.

ELLINA YIN is a first-gen Cambodian American multidisciplinary artist, civic participation activist, and entrepreneur. They work at the intersection of art, technology, and lawmaking to create and explore new forms of civic participation i.e. world building. As a producer and writer of various podcasts, Ellina threads together art and technology to reimagine the way we practice democracy at a local level. She co-authored and passed the Measure I Ballot in San José in 2022, elevating ethics and equity values. As an artist, Ellina creates in honor of their ancestors and the animate world they live in. Previously, they served as the Creative Director and Project/Research Manager for the Santa Clara County AAPI Oral Histories Project.