SAMANTHA K. TAN is a Los Angeles-based Vietnamese-Chinese-American writer, producer and director whose short film, F*CK FEELINGS, premiered at the Academy Award and BAFTA Qualifying LA Shorts International Film Festival. Partnered with 3 Left Handed Women and El Ride Productions, her dramedy series, Ambitious, was also accepted into the 2022 Sundance and The Asian American Foundation Fellowship & Scholarship program. Additionally, Samantha was a $25,000 grant recipient from Independence Public Media Foundation. Ambitious is now in production for their reboot and is actively fundraising to complete the six-episode 30 minute series.
More exciting projects she co-wrote and produced include Megan Lee’s En Pointe, which was executive produced by Tommy Lynch (Nickelodeon, Make It Pop) and Arden Cho (Netflix, Partner Track). Samantha also co-produced an animated short called Tree’s Blood, starring Ayo Edebiri and Rose Byrne, that partnered with Paramount Nickelodeon Animation and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. This Reel Start animated short film premiered at the Nickelodeon lot in December 2023 and won Gold in the 2024 Anthem Awards. Another animated short she co-produced with Reel Start and Paramount Nickelodeon Animation called Peppermint Spiral, starring TMNT: MM cast Shamon Brown Jr., Brady Noon and Seth Rogen, premiered at TIFF Lightbox in July 2024.
Her other professional works consist of working at Max as a Line Producer’s Assistant on The Flight Attendant Season 2 and The Sex Lives of College Girls Season 2, producing Hansen Bursic's documentary called Trans Heaven, Pennsylvania, which was sponsored by Outfest and Traverse32, and producing AJ Starzak’s My Monster and I, which won Best Sci-Fi Short at the 2023 Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival and at the San Francisco Arthouse Short Festival.
As an aspiring showrunner, Samantha is currently developing a sex shop anthology series, a superhero show, and a mockumentary series. She is devoted to writing and producing narratives that showcase the beauty and complexity of BIPOC histories and voices, specifically the AAPI community, all while challenging society norms and empowering female and LGBTQ perspectives. Samantha is extremely excited to share more diverse and thought provoking narratives on and off screen.
Samantha is a proud member of the Alliance of Women Directors (AWD) and Newfilmmakers LA (NFMLA).
Contact -
samanthaktan@gmail.com