Esther Um

Esther (she/her/they/them) was born in Seoul, South Korea. They moved to the U.S with their family at eight years old. They graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Art in 2021, earning a BFA Drama and a BA in History. At NYU, she trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and Stonestreet Studios. At NYU, have studied method acting and have experience with both theatre and on-camera acting.
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Since graduating she has been working with CPM Talent Management. She has taken part in several short films in the past year including Roadtrip, which she wrote and acted in. Roadtrip has screened at multiple film festivals, including Cat Fly or Die Halloween Film Fest, October Film Festival, and Yale Summer Cabaret: Summer of Love Film Festival. Their short films, LATE and Cupid were also accepted into the Stonestreet Screenwriting contest and produced into short films by Stonestreet Studios. In 2023, their short screenplay, Han, was listed as a finalist at the PRIX ROYAL: Paris Screenplay Awards, a semi-finalist at The Santa Barbara International Screenplay Awards, and received honorable mention at the New York Screenwriting Awards.
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Esther is also the film festival coordinator for One & Other Productions, a production company that is dedicated to leveraging narrative content from underrepresented voices. As the festival coordinator, she is in communication with globally and regionally recognized film festivals, advocating for projects headlined and worked on mainly by artists of multi-cultural and marginalized identities. In February of 2023, they received accreditation as a film industry professional from Festival de Cannes and was granted the Marche du Film badge to attend the festival this year in person.
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As a storyteller, arts administrator, and budding producer, Esther is passionate about advocating and uplifting artists of the global majority and traditionally marginalized identities. They are grateful to have the wonderful and loving communities they have around them, whom from which she constantly learns tremendously from and can trust to be held accountable by.