Nadine Truong

Nadine Truong is a German-born Vietnamese filmmaker who worked in talent representation and production before earning her directing MFA in 2009 from the American Film Institute Conservatory. She received her BA in Anthropology from UCLA in 2003, where she was honored as commencement speaker.

Her short film credits include Chopsticks, In the Dark and Initiation. In 2006, she became an Armed With a Camera Fellow at the Los Angeles Asian American Pacific Film Festival, which funded her short The Muse, and in 2010 she received the George C. Lin Emerging Filmmaker Award from the San Diego International Asian Film Festival. At AFI, Truong received the Mary Pickford Scholarship for Excellence in Directing and was the only fellow to write and direct two award-winning thesis films: Eggbaby and Shadow Man, a Vietnam War drama shot on 35mm featuring a portrayal of U.S. Army forces during the Mỹ Lai Massacre. The U.S. State Department invited and sponsored a Shadow Man screening at SKENA UP International Students Film & Theatre Festival in the newly declared Republic of Kosovo.

Truong’s feature directorial debut was Someone I Used to Know, in 2013, starring Brian Yang (Hawaii 5-0), Rex Lee (Entourage), and Tzi Ma (Rush Hour). Two years later, she directed the teen comedy feature Senior Project, with Ryan Potter (Big Hero 6), Vanessa Marano (Switched at Birth), Sterling Beaumon (Red Widow) and Margaret Cho.

Truong directed two episodes of the 2017 web comedy Misery Loves Company. Her episode, "Racist," became a semi-finalist at the NBCU Shorts Festival; the show is currently in development at Sony as a long-form television series.

She wrote and directed the indie drama I Can I Will I Did, in 2017. Starring Tony Award-nominee Mike Faist, the film was a Grand Jury Award finalist at the Los Angeles Asian American Film Festival, won Best Feature and Best Supporting Actress (Selenis Leyva) at Florida's Sunscreen Film Festival, and received the Audience Choice Award at the Asian American Film Festival in New York, among other festival selections nationwide.

In recent years, Truong has expanded her practice to encompass expedition and documentary photography, with a focus on wildlife, landscape, and human-centered storytelling across multiple continents. She traveled to Antarctica in December 2025 to document the wildlife and landscapes of the Antarctic Peninsula. She is currently completing her credentials as a Certified Intimacy Coordinator through IDC.

In addition to Dodge College, Truong has been an adjunct professor at Loyola Marymount University, Berklee College of Music and UC Irvine, teaching directing, production, cinematography fundamentals, and screenwriting at the undergraduate and graduate levels since 2024.