Qui Nguyen is a Vietnamese American playwright, TV/Film writer and self-proclaimed geek.
He is a speech and theatre graduate from Louisiana Tech. Nguyen co-founded Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company of New York with director, Robert Ross Parker, in 2000 when they began collaborating on projects during their time in the Ohio University graduate theatre program.
Vampire Cowboys has been dubbed the pioneer of geek theatre. Nguyen has written many of the company’s plays, including Alice in Slasherland, Fight Girl Battleworld, Men of Steel, Living Dead in Denmark, Soul Samurai, The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G (co-produced with Ma-Yi Theatre). His most recent play with the Vampire Cowboys, Revenger Song: A Vampire Production, premiered in 2020.
His other notable plays include Vietgone (2015) and its sequel Poor Yella Rednecks (2019). The plays follow Nguyen’s parents’ love story. Nguyen’s work is noted for its references to popular culture, the use of stage violence and multimedia.
In 2021 Nguyen became the first Vietnamese American screenwriter to be credited for a major Hollywood production for his work on Raya and the Last Dragon, which he co-wrote with Adele Lim. His other screen credits include Netflix’s Society and PBS’s Peg+Cat.
In 2016 he won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing on a Preschool Animated Program for his work on Peg+Cat. He also won the Steinberg New Play Award for Vietgone. Other awards include the 2013 AATE Distinguished Play Award for She Kills Monsters, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2021.
References
Brown, Patrick. 2020, January 2. “Meet the Vampire Cowboys.” geffenplayhouse.org. https://www.geffenplayhouse.org/blog/meet-the-vampire-cowboys/
Christine B. 2021, March 3. “Qui Nguyen: Writer for ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’”. Tight 5 Blog. https://tight5.org/qui-nguyen-writer-for-raya-and-the-last-dragon/
Cox, Gordon. 2020, February 5. “Listen: Superheroes, Stagefights and Stealth Diversity.” Variety.com. https://variety.com/2020/legit/news/vampire-cowboys-qui-nguyen-revenge-song-1203491277/
Fung, Lisa. 2019, March 28. “‘Poor Yella Rednecks’: Kung-fu, F-bombs, and the immigrant superheroes of playwright Qui Nguyen.” Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-qui-nguyen-yella-rednecks-20190328-story.html
Ma-Yi Theater Comany. “Qui Nguyen.” ma-yitheatre.org. http://ma-yitheatre.org/labbies/qui-nguyen/
Quinguyen.com. 2011. “Bio.” quinguyen.com. https://quinguyen.com/bio.html
Vampirecowboys.com. 2011. “About.” vampirecowboys.com. https://www.vampirecowboys.com/about.htm