Good evening, my name is Sandra Oh
Hello to all
And thank you HJ and Julie
And the whole Korean American Story community
I am honored to introduce to you
This evening recipient of the trailblazer award
My dear friend, Diana Son
I first met Diana
A budding playwright in the fall of 1995 in Los Angeles
During the Mark Taper workshop of her play "Fishes"
Little did I know that we'd end up here
Well me in LA and Diana in New York City
Bi-coastal friends and collaborators
Who introduce each other for awards
But it's fitting because I've
Read everything and seen everything
And been in much of what this woman has created the past 20 years
Her body of work includes her award winning plays
"Stop Kiss" and Satellites
The awarding winning show "American Crime"
"Law and Order: Criminal Intent"
Her NBC pilot "Love Is a Four Letter Word"
The Netflix hit "13 Reasons Why"
And her current projects
"Dirty John"
And her HBO title "Slanted"
The first television show to feature four leading Asian-American female character
And also thrown into this amazing body
Being a wife to a wonderful man
A mother to three, count them three
Fantastic boys
I've how Diana's grown
From driven playwright
To experience TV writer producer
To ambitious television creator
I'm excited that Korean American Story is honoring
This Korean American woman
Who brings her story to everything she writes and creates
This is what makes a trailblazer
You're born in Philadelphia
You're raised in Dover. Delaware to Korean-American parents
You see a FAME production of Hamlet at the public theatre in the early 80's and
That ignites a love for writing in the theatre
You see the purple banners of NYU and you say
I wanna go there
Prince and "Purple Rain" save your life
You write a hit play
You come out to LA for the first season of the hit show "The West Wing"
Learned how to value your own work
Come to hate LA traffic
And return to your heart, New York City
You create a family
You support other writers
You're a member of New Dramatists
Chair the Fellows Program you mentor young writers
Your calling to serve your community grows
Your talent is met
With accolades and great opportunities
As you give to your community
It gives back to you
This is what a Korean-American trailblazer is
This is Diana Son
Congratulation Diana on this well deserved
Recognition I celebrate you
I love you and please join me in welcoming Diana to the stage
I love you
That was very nice of my friend to do that
But I now have no speech
Thank you HJ, Julie and Korean American Story
For inviting me to be here
Some of you may recognize me
As I've attended this event a few times
Introducing other guests
But my involvement with Korean American Story
Goes back to a time before
KAS was even formed
I met HJ and Teresa when we all attended
A small grass roots english language church
For Korean-Americans back in
We don't have to say the date
Suffice to say after service one day
When one of our members asked me
If I had an email address
I was like, "Email, ha like thats a thing!"
But my first intersection with KAS was in 2011
When Julie Young contacted me
And asked if she could interview me for her column, "Heart and Seoul"
It was at the end of our interview when Julie mentioned
She had twin toddlers
Who were around the same age as my twins
And that her husband is African-American and that they sometimes played at a park
Near my house at which point I realized
I had met them
I was leaving the park
As Jamal was entering with Jade and Jaserie
And we both noticed right away we were both pushing twins
Now Jade and Jaseria as well as my twins
Nate and Dash are at the same school
And tomorrow will make a presentation to their grade about the joys of mandoo
They're here tonight with my older son Wilder
And my husband Michael who I might say
Is a single dad to our three sons while
I spend many months in LA doing a job
So I think, he should probably get this award too
And a table full of my most beloved friends
It's such an honor for me to be here
And I'm grateful to you all for coming
It's a wonderful feature of the gala
That instead of making a speech we tell a story
Or Sandra tells my story
Because I had felt for many years
That someone is writing the story of my life
So many things have come full circle
When I was a senior in highschool I grew up in Dover Delaware
We went on this field trip to the city
To see a production of Hamlet at the public theatre
It was a revelatory experience for me
But when the play was over, I realized
I was no longer going to be in this magical space
Where everyone agreed we were gonna be in another world
For a couple hours
And I knew I had to get back there
But I didn't know how
In three hours I was gonna be back in Dover Delaware
Where there was no theatre
No museums, no nothing really
I was bereft as our bus pulled away
From the public theatre but then I noticed
These purple flags that had three letters on them
N.Y.U
And I went home and I applied
And months later I received a letter saying I got in
And two of my friends here tonight
Are people I met on the first day freshmen year
And some years after that
My play "Stop Kiss" premiered at the public theatre
Which also my play "Satellites"
And which I consider my artistic home
So you know what I mean
When I say that I feel like someone is writing my life
Something else is coming full circle
As I stand here
And tell you my story
Because I feel that this is the year
That I'm coming out as a Korean-American
The play that launched my
My career "Stop Kiss"
A story of two young straight women who fall in love
And are the victims of a gay bashing
And even Sandra played one of the lead characters
Nothing about her characters and any of the other characters
Was race specific
I made a point to cast actors
That would reflect the ethnic diversity of New York City
But it was a conscious choice
Not to define them by their race
Maybe 'cause I was a passionate advocate of color blind casting
Or maybe I didn't know how to write a character
That expressed what was important to me
Who was also Korean American
I started working in television are "Stop Kiss"
Which was extend three times
And was and possibly still is
The longest running straight play to be performed at the Public since the 70's
I went from being a starving playwright
Whose day job was writing Star Trek trivia questions
For the sci-fi channel website
To being the staff writer on
The first season of a brand new show called "The West Wing"
So "The West Wing" was a great show
But as you know if you watched it
There weren't any Asian-American characters
In fact in the pilote there weren't
Any characters of color
On "The West Wing" or any of the new shows
On any of the four big networks that season
I was the only woman and the only person of color
Of the writing staff of "The West Wing"
On the one hand this felt validating
I knew I was hired because I was a good writer
Not because I was needed to bring a specific cultural perspective
I think we've all had experiences
Where we just want to be seen as a fellow human
A skilled person a good worker
But the flipside of that means
Not being seen for the fullness of who we are
I remember being on a different show
Years later with a very diverse cast of characters
The main character was a black female detective
Her partner was latino there was a white cop who was gay
And I asked the producer if we could add a cop character who was Asian-American
And this highly esteemed producer said
That they had tried to do that
They had auditioned ton of Asian-American men
But we couldn't find anyone in the community with command presence
Meaning they couldn't find a single Asian-American actor
Who audiences believe had any authority
And you know what it's like in those moments
You spend the first 30 seconds wondering
Did he just say that to my face?
Does he think that I'm just gonna sit here and not say anything
Am I gonna say anything?
What would I say?
Until I finally settled
On the most important question
All tv writers ask themselves no matter what their gender
Or ethnicity and that is
What am I going order for lunch today?
Being invisible as a Korean-American
Hasn't hurt my career lets face it maybe its even helped
But the consequence is I haven't really capitalized
On the value of being Korean-American
I mean internally I think its brought great value to my work
I can easily place myself in any character
Who feels other
I know what its like to be underestimated
I'm the youngest of two
And grew up in the shadow of my older brother
My mom was one of six girls
Because her parents kept trying to have a son
Eventually they gave up and adopted a nephew
So when she gave birth to my
Brother right out of the gate
It was if her two dollar quick pick
Made her the megamillions winner of the year
I knew up growing I was loved
Everything my parents did was for me and my brother
I sincerely believe that in my heart
In addition to hearing it my entire childhood
I also felt that I was loved differently
My kids are well acquainted with the air condition story
In which on hot summer nights
I would lay awake on top of my sheets
Sweating and trying to cool myself with a fan that pushed the hot air around
As I listened to the cool electric buzz of my brothers air conditioner
In the room across the hall
For years my friends had been telling me
I have to find a way
To share my story in TV form
But I didn't know how to tell it
Until I met Wen Zhou
The CEO of Phillip Lim
Whose clothes I'm wearing today
Who is hear
Whose story is so extraordinary
And different than mine
But I finally felt that I had found
An Asian-American story that I can sell to a network
And using Wen's story as a focal point
I came up with an idea for a show
That was based on Wen's life
But featured a group of Asian-American moms
Whose kids go to a crazy progressive school in the city
And who meet regularly for dimsum after drop off
Which is a real thing that Wen, Julie Young and I are apart of
As I develop the idea
I unconsciously found one of the characters
Background and perspective sounding very much like mine
And in October Wen and I went to LA
And sold the show to HBO
So I'm writing the pilot now
And there's still many hoops
That my script still has to pass through
Before it makes it to the air
But if it does
It would be the first tv series
Ever to have a group of Asian-American women as its lead characters
But even the act of writing it is a revelation to me
And is requiring a transformation
Which is why Im saying that I'm coming out as a Korean-American this year
Because this is the first time I've ever felt bold enough
To write about my experience
Thank you Wen for letting me tell your story
Which made it safe for me to tell mine
With the success of "Atlanta", "Insecure"
"Vida","Jane the Virgin","Empire" and "Blackish"
Networks are catching on to the idea that people want to see stories about
People of color
But Asian-Americans are getting the least amount of opportunity
Because we're not seen as a profitable audience
I know that makes no sense but we're not
And we have to change that
And theres a very clear and simple way
By supporting Asian-American stories
And Asian-American content makers
Watch "Fresh off the Boat" whether you like the show or not
Set your tivos to it every week
Join the social media campaign to save it, it's on the bubble
It may not get renewed for another season
And if it doesn't there will be no show on television
With a majority Asian-American cast
You know there are almost 500 tv shows in production right now
Between all the networks and Netflix and Amazon
And there is only one show
Centered on an Asian-American family
Those of you who are good at math can do the percentages
Watch West World which was co-created
By Asian-American show runner Lisa Joy
In August go see "Crazy Rich Asians"
At the movie theatre
Honestly it doesn't even matter if you like these shows or movies
Because if they fail
It won't be seen as a failure of the story to meet our expectations
It'll be seen as proof that there's no money to be made
Telling Asian-American stories
I know there's alot of different ways we need to be activists these days
But there's no better event
At which we should acknowledge
The importance of telling our stories
Thank you