Join us for a LIVE virtual conversation with the lead actor, writer, executive producers, and casting directors from the critically acclaimed Apple TV+ show PACHINKO. Featuring actor Minha Kim, casting directors Michelle Wade Byrd, Mary Vernieu and Su Kim, writer, showrunner and producer Soo Hugh and executive producers Theresa Kang and Michael Ellenberg. Moderated by Steve Greene, Indiewire.

Audience participation encouraged! Please submit questions for panelists here. The form will also be provided during the program.

PANELIST BIOS

Minha Kim is the star of the critically acclaimed AppleTV+ series, “Pachinko,” which is only the Korean actress’s second professional role and first U.S. production. During an open casting for “Pachinko,” Kim’s audition so impressed the filmmakers that she was offered the central role of teenage Sunja. In 2022, “Pachinko” won a Gotham Award for “Breakthrough Series – Long Format” and Kim was nominated individually for “Outstanding Performance in a New Series.” “Pachinko” was also nominated for two Hollywood Critics Association Awards for “Best International Series” and “Best Streaming Series, Drama.” Production on season 2 begins in January 2023. 

Kim made her first on-screen appearance in the Korean short film “Main Street,” which won Best Romantic Comedy Short at the 2020 Indie Short Fest. Kim is fluent in both Korean and English.

Soo Hugh serves as showrunner, executive producer, writer and visionary behind the drama series PACHINKO, which received critical acclaim with reviews calling it, “masterpiece tv”, “one of the best things on tv”, “Apple’s Best TV Show So Far”, and “one of the best adaptations of not just this year but of all time”. 

Following the success of PACHINKO, Hugh is continuing her fruitful partnership with Apple TV+ as co-showrunner of THE WHITE DARKNESS, based on David Grann’s nonfiction book of the same name, the project is inspired by Henry Worsley, played by Tom Hiddleston. Hugh recently signed a multi-year overall deal with UCP to develop, write and produce projects in addition to launching an incubator program, “The Thousand Miles Project,” to help bring more AAPI stories to cinematic life and jumpstart fruitful careers in the entertainment industry.

Hugh was previously the co-showrunner for the critically-lauded first season of AMC’s THE TERROR, creator of THE WHISPERS for ABC, and other television credits include writing on THE KILLING (AMC) and UNDER THE DOME (CBS).

Theresa Kang is the founder and CEO of Blue Marble Pictures and Blue Marble Management. Blue Marble Pictures has an exclusive multi-year overall producing deal at AppleTV+ for film and television, where Kang focuses on producing works of artistic, cultural and commercial merit.   

Her first project with AppleTV+ is the highly-acclaimed drama series, PACHINKO, based on the best-selling, acclaimed novel by Min Jin Lee. This incredible story is told in three languages (Korean, Japanese and English) and is epic in scope but intimate in tone – it chronicles the hopes and dreams of four generations of a Korean immigrant family. AppleTV+ released the series on March 25, 2022 to critical acclaim and won a 2022 Gotham Award for Best Series Long Format, and was nominated for an Emmy Award and a Hollywood Critics Association Award for Best Series and Best International Series. Kang executive produced the series through Blue Marble Pictures. The company is also producing the upcoming series THE WHITE DARKNESS based on The New Yorker article of the same name and to star Tom Hiddleston, led by Soo Hugh and Mark Heyman.  

Blue Marble Management represents Oscar®-winning filmmakers Alfonso Cuaron (ROMA, GRAVITY, CHILDREN OF MEN), Chris Terrio (ARGO, STAR WARS: EPISODE IX) and Simon Beaufoy (SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE), Emmy®-winner Lena Waithe (THE CHI, MASTER OF NONE), Golden Globe®- nominee and best-selling author Gillian Flynn (GONE GIRL), Emmy nominees Prentice Penny (INSECURE), Jason Kim (KPOP), Little Marvin (THEM: COVENANT), multiple Emmy®-nominated writer Gordon Smith (BETTER CALL SAUL), and cultural force Bobby Hundreds (THE HUNDREDS, THIS IS NOT A T SHIRT). Kang is passionate about discovering and amplifying new voices who use the power of storytelling to craft transformative experiences about the human condition.  

She was a Partner and Agent at William Morris Endeavor Agency for fourteen years where she represented a broad array of award-winning producers, writers, directors, showrunners and actors across film and television, including Riz Ahmed, Damien Chazelle, Deborah Chow, Lisa Joy, Ryan Coogler, Steve Zaillian, Ryan Condal, and Miguel Sapochnik, amongst others. Over the last several years, she has negotiated revenue in excess of half a billion dollars on behalf of her clients. She repped and packaged HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, a show which enjoyed the largest European HBO / HBO Max premiere viewership in HBO history. She was the first Asian American to be promoted to Partner at WME. Additionally, she was the architect and co- founder of Empower, a company-wide program promoting diversity, inclusion and mentorship.  

Last year, she joined the Los Angeles Board of Governors for The Paley Center for Media. The Board advises the Paley Center on its strategic goals and Los Angeles programming calendar and commits their time to help the Paley Center forge new partnerships and expand its constituency to ensure the Paley Center stays at the forefront of media and technology on the West Coast and remains the preeminent media organization for the industry and the public. In 2019, she was appointed to Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti’s Entrepreneurs in Residence for the Evolve Entertainment Fund focused on increasing diversity initiatives in the entertainment industry. In the same year, she supported the $330M California tax production credit requiring the addition of diversity provisions including above- the-line diversity reporting. She is also a member of the Advisory Board for Korean American Leaders in Hollywood (KALH) organization.

Kang has been featured on numerous prestigious industry lists including The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment Power 100, The Hollywood Reporter’s 50 Agents Empowering Diverse Voices in Hollywood, Gold House’s annual A100 List, and Variety’s 2022 TV Producers Impact List.  

Casting Director Mary Vernieu has cast over 400 features during her expansive career. With an eye for talent in both actors and filmmakers, she has developed and enjoyed long-standing working relationships with many acclaimed directors.  Casting Director and Los Angeles native Michelle Wade Byrd is proud to be a fixture at Betty Mae for the last fifteen years, collaborating with Mary Vernieu on over 80 films and 5 television series together. Some recent casting highlights include BIRD BOX, NATIONAL CHAMPIONS, GREENLAND, WE CAN BE HEROES, GIRLS TRIP, and the Docu-series AMEND.

Casting Director Su Kim is a bilingual casting director based in Seoul, Korea who specializes in casting international projects i.e. finding Korean talents for foreign productions or casting foreign talents for Korean shows.

She got her MFA at FSU Film School where she learned all sides of production working on more than 50 short films in total. Then she started her career as an assistant for Tom Pollock and Ivan Reitman at the Montecito Picture Company in LA where she learned so much about how Hollywood Studio operates. She came back to Seoul in 2009 and started working in Korean films and tv production side in numerous positions such as AD, script supervisor, editor and producer. In 2014, she got to work on Netflix show ‘Sense8’ for Korean casting. All of her previous experience finally came together - had great connection with people in the local industry already, knew how to talk to actors, loved working with them, understood different terms on either side, bilingual and bicultural. She accomplished the job with joy and since then, she continues to work as a casting director on her own.

Su has been always curious about others and their stories. Her curiosity and affection for others continue till today. She has a great sense of empathy and loves to see actors bring lives to the characters. A perfect match makes the world more believable so the characters stay alive in the story. Every single character matters to build that world. So she continues to search, meet and chat in pursuit of finding the right people and talent in favor of the good story.

Michael Ellenberg  is the founder and chairman of Media Res, a motion picture production and finance company and television studio, which he launched in 2017.

Through Media Res, Ellenberg develops, produces and finances premium content for global markets, employing a fund to finance series production, in addition to a development fund to commission scripts and option material. Media Res finances production on both the in-house slate and top-tier projects from outside producers and suppliers.

Ellenberg is an executive producer on the critically acclaimed and Gotham Award winning AppleTV+ series “Pachinko,” based on the international best-selling same-name novel and the hit AppleTV+ series “The Morning Show,” starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. He is currently executive producing on the  climate change anthology series “Extrapolations” from Scott Z. Burns, which is set up at AppleTV+ and an absurdist comedy “I’m a Virgo” from filmmaker Boots Riley at Amazon. He previously was an executive producer on the HBO limited series “Scenes from a Marriage,” which premiered at the Venice Film Festival. 

Prior to founding Media Res, Ellenberg was the executive vice president of HBO programming, overseeing development and production of dramatic series for the network.  During his tenure, he developed and oversaw the production of such acclaimed series as “Westworld,” “The Leftovers,” “Big Little Lies,” “True Detective,” “The Young Pope” and “The Deuce.”  Ellenberg also oversaw “Game of Thrones,” “Boardwalk Empire,” and “True Blood,” including “Game of Thrones” two Emmy Award-winning seasons for Best Drama.  He also co-executive produced the final season of “The Leftovers,” which received wide acclaim.

Earlier in his career, from 2007-2011, Ellenberg was a senior vice president at Scott Free Productions, working closely with directors Ridley and Tony Scott.  There he produced such films as “Prometheus,” “Robin Hood,” “Cyrus” and “Stoker.”  Before that, Ellenberg served as vice president of Development at Scott Rudin Productions.