Hwang Dong-hyuk

Hwang Dong-hyuk
Born	1971 (age 45–46) Seoul, South Korea
Other names	Hwang Dong-hyeuk
Education	Seoul National University - B.A. in Communications University of Southern California - M.F.A. in Film Production
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter
Korean name
Hangul	황동혁
Revised Romanization	Hwang Dong-hyeok
McCune–Reischauer	Hwang Donghyŏk

Hwang Dong-hyuk (born 1971) is a South Korean film director and screenwriter.

Hwang Dong-hyuk was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea. After he graduated from Seoul National University with a B.A. in Communications, he wrote and directed numerous short films including Our Sad Life and A Puff of Smoke. Moving to Los Angeles to study for a M.F.A. in Film Production at the University of Southern California, he continued to make films, completing two shorts Heaven & Hell and Desperation (2000). His graduation thesis film was Miracle Mile (2004), a short starring Karl Yune as a Korean-American gypsy cab driver who helps his fare, a young Korean woman (played by Hana Kim) search for her brother who was adopted by Americans 20 years ago. Miracle Mile screened at over 40 international film festivals and won several awards, including the DGA Student Film Award and Student Emmy Award.

For his feature film debut, Hwang returned to the topic of adoption in My Father (2007). Based on the true story of Korean-American adoptee Aaron Bates, the film is about a U.S. Army soldier stationed in Korea who appears on national television to search for his birth parents, then finds his father on death row for murder. Kim Yeong-cheol played the father opposite lead actor Daniel Henney, whom Hwang decided to cast despite the latter being typecast as a heartthrob. Henney and Kim were praised for their acting, as was Hwang for his non-melodramatic handling of forgiveness and acceptance, intertwined with issues of cultural identity and the death penalty.

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