ABOUT
Photo by Micah Nazarino
GIAO NGUYEN is a Vietnamese-American director, photographer, and award-winning filmmaker based in Seattle.
Born and raised in Seattle to Vietnamese immigrant parents, his artistic compass aims to immerse audiences into the real and unreal moments of the human experience—from all the terror to all the love. His work is rooted in a fundamental belief in art as a generational tool to fight apathy, both on an individual to institutional scale. He holds a BA in Theatre Performance from Seattle Pacific University, and continues to work within the art industries in the Puget Sound. Across film and photography, his work has been featured in The Telegraph, The Seattle Times, BroadwayWorld, The Jimmy Awards, and others.
At the age of 22, his senior-thesis film Ocean’s Arrival (2022) won Best Feature Film at the West Sound Film Festival. Other selected film works include his short film series The Mesmerism (2024), feature documentaries Unseen Cualtzin (2019) and Loud & With Feeling (2024).
From 2023–2025, he worked on staff in Marketing and Digital Content for Seattle Shakespeare Company, ACT Theatre, and Union Arts Center.
© 2026 Giao Nguyen. All rights reserved.