Anna Lian Tes (she/her) is a Cambodian-American filmmaker and graphic designer based in Los Angeles. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York studying graphic design. She later worked in key art and production design before transitioning to filmmaking.
Obsessed with storytelling, she uses frankness and heart to write about complicated family dynamics, the complexities of being a child of refugees, and living as a woman in a world that can’t catch up.
Her first short film, We Belong Here (2019), won the Audience Award at the Highland Park Film Festival and Like Me (2020), a pilot about modern Asian-American women, was a winner of the Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay competition and made it to the 2nd round of the 2021 Sundance Episodic Lab. She finished her second short, Twenty-Four Heaven in 2022.
When she’s not writing, she stays up too late playing Animal Crossing, crafting polymer clay bagels, attempting to perfect her mom’s recipes, FaceTiming her family in Jersey and making up songs to get through the day.
You can find her graphic/production designer site here.