Mia Ando
Director, Producer
Born and raised in Okayama, Japan. Mia Ando is an award-winning actor, producer, screenwriter, poet, and lyricist with a diverse career.
She studied with Broadway and film director Robert Allan Ackerman ("Life with Judy Garland," "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone," "Ramen Girl”, the Golden Globe & Emmy Award nominee). As an actress, she has portrayed numerous characters on film and stage, including the role of Koyo, a boy with HIV in the midst of Japan’s AIDS crisis in the play BLOOD, for which she was nominated Best Female Supporting Performer for the Los Angeles Stage Raw Theater Awards and the role of Suzuki in the short film THE WIND PHONE which received over 40 awards including the Best Narrative Film Award at Windrider Forum at Sundance. The film also qualified for the 2019 Academy Awards for Best Live-Action Short.
Mia recently starred in a Sci-fi short film SUBMITTAN, in which she plays the protagonist Chase has been screening around the world and won the Best Storytelling Award, Best Performance Award, and People’s Choice Award. The film had a global release on the Sci-Fi network DUST on 1/30, it has reached over 12k views and counting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmG7b9SzX1I&t=305s
As a lyricist, Mia has written more than 250 songs for various artists including, “Adabana – Sora ni Mau” ( Rekochoku MV Daily Rankings No. 1 ), "Tsumugi Bito" (No. 5 in the iTunes Store • J-Pop MV • Japan Division), and "We'll Find a Dawn", the opening theme for television anime series Ame no Yamanai Mura.
Mia Ando Official Website
Aaron Woolfolk
Tim Toyama
Writer,Producer
Aaron Woolfolk is a filmmaker and playwright who has lived and worked in Japan. He wrote, directed, and produced the award-winning T-Joy Co./Toei Company, Ltd. film The Harimaya Bridge, making him the first person of African descent to direct a narrative feature film in Japan. He also co-wrote the Ovation Award-nominated play Bronzeville. In addition, he wrote and directed the science fiction stories Family Line and Renaissance Man and the ghost story There’s Something Going On With Sam for the podcast anthology series Earbud Theater. While developing other film projects, he is also writing his first novel and a book of short stories. Aaron was a Walt Disney Studios/ABC Entertainment Writing Fellow.
Writer
Timothy Toyama is a playwright with a multitude of works and awards. Among them is Visas and Virtue, inspired by Holocaust rescuer Chiune Sugihara. Later adapted for the big screen, the short film received the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film. Tim’s play Independence Day, inspired by his own father’s experience in a Japanese American internment camp, was adapted into the short film Day of Independence for PBS and received an Emmy Nomination. Tim partnered with Aaron Woolfolk to write the play Bronzeville, which received its world premiere in 2009 with the Robey Theatre Company producing in association with The Los Angeles Theatre Company. The Ovation Award-nominated play has since had several revivals. In 2008, Tim’s play Yuri and Malcolm X received the Ruby Yoshino Schaar Playwright Award. Tim’s play Memorial Day received the same award in 2010.