All About Janet Yang, The First Asian American President Of The Academy

Producer Janet Yang has been elected as the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Yang is the fourth woman and first person of Asian descent to hold the position of the Academy’s president.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is the organisation behind The Oscars, also known as the annual Academy Awards. Janet Yang is replacing casting director David Rubin, who has served as the president of The Acaemy since 2019.

The 66-year-old is best known for award-winning films The Joy Luck Club, Zero Effect, High Crimes, Shanghai Calling, and The People vs. Larry Flynt.

Who Is Janet Yang?

• Janet Yang received a Bachelor of Arts in Chinese studies from Brown University and a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University.
• In 1985, Yang first started producing when she worked with legendary director, producer, and screenwriter, Steven Spielberg on Empire of the Son. She was hired as a liaison for the film’s production in China.
• She served as President of Ixtlan from 1989 to 1996, the company she formed with Oliver Stone, the Academy Award-winning writer and director. There, she produced The People vs. Larry Flynt which won two Golden Globe Awards and was nominated for the Oscars.
• Yang served as an executive producer for Indictment: The McMartin Trial, which won an Oscar and Golden Globe.
• The animated Netflix film Over the Moon was based on an idea by Yang about a retelling of a Chinese myth.
• Yang co-founded Gold House, the collective that aims to lift the voices of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) in Hollywood.
• Earlier this year, she was feted at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures with a pillar named in her honour. She became the first Asian American woman to have a pillar at the museum.
• The then-President of the Academy David Rubin mentioned how Yang educated her colleagues and built an Asian coalition within the Academy. Rubin said, “She now co-chairs an Asian affinity group so that our Asian and Asian American members will always have a voice at the academy”.
• Yang was elected as the President of the Academy, making her the fourth woman and the first person of Asian descent to hold the position.

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