Janet Yang

A Golden Globe® and Emmy Award®-winning Hollywood producer with deep roots in China, Janet Yang has worked with some of the most formidable directors and actors in the world. She came to prominence through her collaboration with Steven Spielberg on Empire of the Sun (Warner Bros).  That was followed by a long partnership with multiple Academy Award®-winner Oliver Stone – where she served as Executive Producer on the iconic The Joy Luck Club (Disney), and as a Producer on the Golden Globe®-winning The People vs. Larry Flynt (Columbia Pictures).

Her most recent project, Over The Moon (Netflix), is an animated feature based on her original story inspired by the Chinese moon goddess. Iconic animator Glen Keane directs the movie.

Among her many other credits are: the Sundance award-winning Dark Matter with Meryl Streep and Chinese star, Liu Ye; The Weight of Water (Lionsgate) directed by Academy Award® winner Kathryn Bigelow; Fox’s High Crimes with Morgan Freeman; a Chinese adaptation of the acclaimed Disney franchise High School Musical; and cult favorites Zero Effect, by Jake Kasdan, and Shanghai Calling with China Film Group.

Yang has been named one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Hollywood” by The Hollywood Reporter.

Yang began her career by running the first distribution company to market Chinese films into North America.  She also brokered the reintroduction of American cinema to the Chinese marketplace on behalf of several studios after a decades-long hiatus.

Committed to fostering global understanding, Yang has been a long-standing member of the Committee of 100, and an advisory board member of Asia Society Southern California where she also chairs its highly regarded Us-Asia Entertainment Summit as well as its nascent AWE: Asian Women Empowered Initiative.  She is also a co-founder of #GoldHouse, a leading group of Asians in tech, media and entertainment.

Yang sits on the Board of Governors of the Motion Picture Academy and chairs its Membership and Governance Committee.

Yang has been featured in The New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Variety, South China Morning Post, Harper’s Bazaar, as well as on numerous television and radio shows across the US and Asia such as CCTV and Beijing TV.  She is frequently asked to consult on projects and sought after for public speaking engagements.

Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Yang holds a B.A. from Brown University in Chinese studies and an M.B.A. from Columbia University. She has also been appointed a Presidential Fellowship at Loyola Marymount University.

Photo courtesy of Janet Yang.