NBC Entertainment just announced the 2019-2020 classes of its Female Forward and Emerging Director Program, and three of the visionaries are repping Asian America in the director’s chair.
Kim Nguyen (“Santa Land”) was selected alongside four other directors for Female Forward, an initiative that aims to increase opportunities for female directors at NBC. Mahesh Pailoor (“Brahmin Bulls”) and Dinh Thai (“MONDAY”) will work with the Emerging Director Program, a separate program that increases opportunities for ethnically diverse male and nonbinary directors. The five female directors, as well as Pailoor and Thai, were chosen from a pool of 500 applicants to shadow NBC directors on existing scripted series, with a guarantee to direct an episode of their own.
“Female Forward and the Emerging Director Program have become the litmus test for successful and effective pipeline programs, and our new class of accomplished directors will continue to add to our rich heritage,” said Karen Horne, the Senior VP of Programming Talent Development and Inclusion at NBC, in a press release. “It is especially gratifying to continue to provide a stepping stone into episodic directing for so many talented directors.”
Nguyen will helm “Brooklyn 99,” while Pailoor will work on “The Blacklist” and Thai will handle “New Amsterdam.” To learn more about the programs and these directors, you can find more info here and here.
