Nahyeon Lee

Nahyeon Lee is a filmmaker and theatremaker of Korean descent. Her practice is divided between the screen, as a writer and director of film and TV projects, and the performing arts, as a writer, director and producer of theatre in Tāmaki Makaurau. Professionally, her work in the arts sector spans marketing and programming for organisations including Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival, Basement Theatre and Silo Theatre.

Graduating from the University of Auckland in 2019 with a Master of Arts in Drama Directing in Screen Production (First Class Hons), Lee’s early screen projects include the student short film, My Mother Told Me (2017), about a pregnant Chinese immigrant during the gold rush era; Myth of the Model Minority (2019), an anthology film created in collaboration with a community of writers and actors who all identity as Asian, which she co-directed with Julie Zhu for TVNZ On Demand; and Sixteen (2020), a semi-autobiographical short film made for a thesis project under the mentoring of Shuchi Kothari and Proudly Asian Theatre/New Zealand Film Commission’s New Asian Writers initiative.

Another Shuchi Kothari-led project, the feature film anthology Kāinga (2022), saw Lee contribute one of eight stories in a production that was written and directed entirely by Asian female filmmakers. She also directed six episodes for Portraits (2021), a 12-part short documentary series profiling Asian creatives in Aotearoa; Homecoming Poems (2021), a short film of poetry by regular collaborator Nathan Joe for Going West Writers Festival; and the pilot episode of Asian 8 (2023), one of five web series developed through Pan-Asian Screen Collective’s Episode One initiative.

In line with Lee’s screenwriting and directing projects, her debut work as a playwright, The First Prime-Time Asian Sitcom, explores Asian diaspora experience and representation. The play centres on the makers of a landmark Asian-led comedy series for network TV in Aotearoa, mixing satire and black comedy with a serious – and at times brutally honest – examination of the contradictions between opportunity and autonomy as an Asian artist.

Lee’s broader contribution to the performing arts community focuses on supporting artists with the delivery of new work, especially in the live art and queer theatre space. She has produced shows by Alice Kirker (Jelly Baby, 2020; Cake Baby, 2021), Dan Goodwin (Chrome Dome and Schizo, 2022) and Pelenakeke Brown (enter//return, 2022); and is a producer behind Julia Croft and Nisha Madhan’s creative partnership on performance art projects such as TERRAPOLIS and Working On My Night Moves (both 2022), The Making of Thelma and Louise (in development) and F.O.L.A. [AKL] (Festival of Live Art, 2023).

The diversity of these artists reflects Lee’s interest in alternative creative practice that challenges the status quo – or “projects that strive to dismantle the hegemony – in narratives about identity through genre and in form” – alongside the freedom of theatre itself, which she was drawn to as “a fertile place for makers to produce work quickly. Which is a little bit different from film (unless you’re doing that with no money).” In the same interview, as a film and theatremaker herself, she notes the burden of Asian representation by Asian artists and the importance of individual expression: “I hope it’s not about having to represent anymore, it’s about artistic freedom.”

Punctum Productions, a vehicle for self-determination for Asian artists in Aotearoa, was founded by Lee in 2023 with these twin concerns in mind – to empower Asian artists to make personal, independently-minded work that isn’t necessarily Asian in content. Punctum’s debut theatre productions, Losing Face by Nathan Joe and Chick Habit by Nuanzhi Zheng, premiered in September and October 2023, with Lee serving as producer and director respectively. Under Punctum, Lee also directed the music video for ‘아스라이 (Aseurai)’ by Tāmaki Makaurau-based dream-pop band, Phoebe Rings.

Nahyeon Lee’s website

Punctum Productions

As playwright:

2022 — The First Prime-Time Asian Sitcom, Q Theatre, Tāmaki Makaurau

As theatre producer:

2023 — An Imposter (song cycle/operetta), Basement Theatre, Tāmaki Makaurau
2023 — Losing Face: A Daddy Issues Play, Q Theatre, Tāmaki Makaurau
2023 — THE WILD (performance art), Q Theatre, Tāmaki Makaurau
2022 — Working On My Night Moves, Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne
2022 — enter//return, Sophiensæle, Berlin
2022 — TERRAPOLIS, Q Theatre, Tāmaki Makaurau
2022 — Chrome Dome and Schizo, Basement Theatre, Tāmaki Makaurau
2021 — Cake Baby, Basement Theatre, Tāmaki Makaurau
2020 — Jelly Baby, Basement Theatre, Tāmaki Makaurau
2019 — PINAY, Basement Theatre, Tāmaki Makaurau
2018 — Orientation (as assistant producer), Q Theatre, Tāmaki Makaurau

As director:

2023 — ‘아스라이 (Aseurai)’ by Phoebe Rings (music video), Punctum Productions
2023 — Chick Habit (play), Basement Theatre, Tāmaki Makaurau
2023 — Asian 8 (web series, pilot episode), PASC Episode One initiative
2022 — Amplified (web series, episode five), featuring Imugi 이무기, RNZ
2022 — Kāinga (anthology feature film), director of story ‘Soo Young’
2021 — Nathan Joe: Homecoming Poems (short film), Oriental Maidens/Going West Writers Festival
2021 — Portraits (web series, six episodes), Oryza/SquareSums&Co/Eyes & Ears
2020 — Sixteen (short film)
2019 — Myth of the Model Minority (web series), TVNZ
2017 — My Mother Told Me (short film)