About me
Bryson Chun is a Native Hawaiian Screenwriter who wrote for Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. on Disney+ and Moana 2 for Walt Disney Animation Studios.
He was born and raised on the Windward side of O’ahu (96744 Represent). For all of the Hawai’i people reading this who want to know what high school he went to (this is a thing, trust me), he attended the Kamehameha Schools, Kapalama. He grew up with dreams of being both a rockstar and a Broadway actor, which means he’s currently a mediocre drum set player and he takes karaoke way too seriously. In college at the University of Hawai’i he discovered a passion for filmmaking, which combined all of his interests: writing, music, and pretending to understand things out of his depth (French Films, Citizen Kane, Nicholas Cage).
Since then, he has produced narrative and documentary films that have gone on to screen for PBS, The Smithsonian Institution, The Criterion Collection, and at festivals all over the world. He was a writing fellow for Sundance, CAPE, imagineNATIVE, LA Skins, and ‘Ohina Labs, where he was the Greenlight Award recipient for his short entitled Other People. His television pilot script Poi Dogs was selected to be part of The Black List’s inaugural Indigenous List, “which spotlights some of the best Indigenous film and television writers working within the U.S.” and his feature script Don’t Freak (co-written by Tara Aquino) was recently selected to be on The Black List’s Indigenous List for 2022.
He holds an MFA in Screenwriting from the Institute of American Indian Arts and is represented by Verve Talent and Literacy Agency.
Bryson is also a proud teaching artist, having been a visiting writer and mentor for The University of Hawai’i’s School for Cinematic Arts, The Institute of American Indian Arts, The Sundance Indigenous Lab, PEAK Pasifika’s Writer Program, ‘Ohina Labs, LA Skins, and the Dr. Barbara Seniors Harkins Foundation.
Stuff I’m proud of.
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Fellowships
2021 Sundance Native Lab
2021 CAPE New Writers Fellowship
2019 LA Skins Feature Fellowship
2019 ‘Ohina Labs
2018 imagineNATIVE Feature Film Fellowship
2016 Sundance NativeShorts Lab -
Accolades
2022 Blacklist Indigenous List (Don’t Freak)
2021 Best Short | Hawai’i Rainbow Film Festival (Other People)
2021 Criterion Channel Selection (Other People)
2020 Blacklist Inaugural Indigenous List (Poi Dogs)
2018 ‘Ohina Labs Greenlight Award Winner (Other People)
2018 PBS Online Film Festival Selection (Ka Piko) -
Press
Deadline - Indigenous Screenwriters List 2022
Variety - Sundance Institute Names Fellows for Native Labs
Deadline - CAPE Selects Participants For 2021 New Writers Fellowship
KHON2 - Hawai'i Films Stream on the Criterion Channel
Deadline - The Black List, IllumiNative, Sundance Institute Unveil Indigenous List
Hawai'i Magazine - Meet the Next Generation of Hawaiian Filmmakers
Agent:
Verve Talent and Literary Agency
Roberto Larios | rlarios@vervetla.com | TV