Originally from China, Grace moved to the U.S. at the age of 16, and attended high school in Irvine, California. She graduated from NYU Tisch Undergraduate Film/TV program in 2017, minoring in French, Creative Writing, and Entertainment Business (BEMT). Upon graduation, Grace became the Director’s Assistant to writer/director Xue Xiaolu for her Chinese-Australian co-production THE WHISTLEBLOWER (2019). She now works in story development in New York.

During her college years, Grace has written and directed four festival-running short films accepted by Cannes Short Film Corner, Manhattan Film Festival, and Nice International Film Festival. Grace’s original screenplay NARCISSUS (originally titled DORIAN) won the Best Undergraduate Feature Screenplay in Fusion Film Festival 2018 and finalist in Screencraft Film Fund 2020. NARCISSUS is now actively financing for its feature production.

Please find Grace’s portfolio at
www.gegracegao.com

Director Statement

NARCISSUS the short film is an excerpt from my feature screenplay with the same title. It’s a story about an Asian American actress in New York who takes her own life after slumping into plastic surgery addiction. We hope to build a bigger piece from here and build our audience through the festival run. We hope to bring this heartfelt story about addiction, false hope, the social standard for women of color to a diverse audience.