T.O. WEBFEST 2020: AN INTERVIEW WITH NATHALIE YOUNGLAI

Nathalie Younglai started her remarkable career when becoming a graduate at Humber College in Toronto where she studied TV writing.   She has written for KIDS’ TV for such shows as Magic School Bus Rides Again, Addison and 16 Hudson.  During the 2012 edition of the Reel Asian Film Festival, she was the writing mentor for the Unsung Voices Workshop for Youth as well as a speaker in the Industry Series.  Aside from being an actor, writer, producer and director, Nathalie Younglai founded BIPOC TV & FILM in 2012 advocating the representation of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour in the industry whether it would be in front or behind the camera.

Nathalie Younglai is also a writer and co-producer for the famous CBC hit drama Coroner.   She has received many awards such as the ACTRA Diversity’s Sandi Ross Award, Ben Watkin’s Breakthrough Award, and Reelworld’s Trailblazer Award.   Her nominations include an Ontario Colleges Premier Award and a Daytime Emmy nomination for her writing on Dino Dana.  She has also received  The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television’s 2020 Humanitarian Award and the WGC’s Alex Barris Mentorship Award Recipient for 2020.  She will be speaking at this year’s T.O. WebFest with Rodney V. Smith to speak about Diversity in Web Series.   FERNTV spoke with Nathalie Younglai about her illustrious career and her take on web series.

FERNTV:  When did you create BIPOC TV & FILM and tell us what inspired you to make this organization?

Nathalie:  I started it in 2012 as Creatives of Colour. I had a drama series optioned and needed a showrunner, but there were no Asian female showrunners in Canada. (There still aren’t.) I felt isolated. I wanted to connect with other creatives of colour and build a sense of community so we could raise each other as we moved in and up. 

FERNTV:  Why did you become involved with the web series medium and how do you think it will further the development of BIPOC TV & FILM? 

Nathalie:  The joy of web series is that there are no gatekeepers, no establishment. You can be a renegade, you can be a niche, you can be who you are, and your audience will find you and respond. It’s a good testing ground and proof of concept or IP to parlay into a larger series. BIPOC TV & FILM is not a production company, so we don’t produce content. But many of our members can tell their stories via web series when traditional networks won’t greenlight them. 

FERNTV:   What do you enjoy most about your job? 

Nathalie:  BIPOC TV & FILM is purely volunteer. I work as a screenwriter, which has been my dream for the longest time. It’s been such a long slog to get here, most days I wake up and can’t believe I’m making a living as a TV writer. The best is the laughter and collaboration in healthy writing rooms, and weaving in my revenge on paper.  

FERNTV:  Briefly describe the Mentorship Mondays program you have with BIPOC TV & FILM.

Nathalie:   Director Winnifred Jong wanted to do something to help the community, so she started making calls from her Rolodex and the industry responded! We have over 94 mentors who signed up and almost 300 BIPOC mentees throughout 3 Mondays. It was a huge feat to run a mini-Banff conference completely online with no money. It could not have been done without the hard work of Joan Digba and Christopher Yip and countless hours figuring out how to make Zoom work the way we wanted it to. 

FERNTV:  Do you feel that there will be much more inspiration in projects in the future because of this period of COVD-19? 

Nathalie:  It’s a period of Black Lives Matter and a reckoning of systemic racism in the industry. I hope to see the next 20 years full of movies, TV series, web series that highlight Black and Indigenous voices and stories of all sorts – comedy, drama, period, joyful, magical, good, bad, nuanced, LGBQT2S, disabled, upper class, lower class, horror, schtick, romcoms… 

FERNTV:  What are your thoughts when it comes to Asian representation in Hollywood?

Nathalie:  The world is finally acknowledging Asian men are hot! I’m celebrating the success of my Asian sisters like Lulu Wang, Sandra Oh, Domee Shi, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Veena Sud, and Keto Shimizu, but notice the pattern… all working in the US. We need more Asian representation behind the camera, writing and directing the stories and owning the production companies. Especially on this side of the border.  

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