#803 Flowing with Janet Yang
This week’s guest on the Bruce Lee Podcast is Janet Yang. She was the inspired force behind the idea to make a Bruce Lee biopic at Universal that ultimately became Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. She went on from there to become an award winning producer at the highest levels. Maybe you’ve heard of Empire of the Sun, The Joy Luck Club or The People vs Larry Flint? If you have, then you’ve been touched by Janet. Aside from being a producer Janet is also the current president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She saw a need for greater AANHPI representation and she stepped up to serve. Also a founding member of Gold House, Janet is one to heed a call to action. She is a powerhouse in a kind package – the best kind of powerhouse in my opinion! Shannon is pleased to call her a friend and colleague and overjoyed to introduce you all to her!
Get to know Janet Yang
Janet Yang
An Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning Hollywood producer, Yang is currently the President of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
Yang has worked with some of the most formidable filmmakers and talent 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 The People vs. Larry Flynt (Columbia Pictures). Her most recent credit is as an Executive Producer on the Oscar-nominated animated feature, Over the Moon. Based on her original story, the film was directed by legendary animator Glen Keane and released on Netflix in 2020.
Among her many other credits are: the Sundance award-winning Dark Matter (Universal Pictures) with Meryl Streep; The Weight of Water (Lionsgate) directed by Academy Award winner Kathryn Bigelow with Academy award winner Sean Penn; Savior (Lionsgate) with Dennis Quaid; South Central (Warner Bros.) directed by Steve Anderson; High Crimes (Fox) with Morgan Freeman; a Chinese adaptation of the acclaimed Disney franchise High School Musical; cult favorites Zero Effect, by Jake Kasdan, and Shanghai Calling with China Film Group. Yang won an Emmy and Golden Globe Award for the HBO movie Indictment: The McMartin Trial.
Most recently, Yang was named one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Hollywood” by the Hollywood Reporter, Variety's Power of Women 2023, and was featured on the Forbes 2024 “50 over 50” List.
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 is a co-founder of Gold House, the non-profit collective of influential Asian cultural leaders; a long-standing member of the Committee of 100, an organization of the most prominent Chinese-Americans; and an advisory board member of Asia Society Southern California where she also chairs its highly regarded US-Asia Entertainment Summit.
Yang serves on the IMAX China Board, the Forbes APEX VIP Founding Advisory Board, and the board of Unified Youth, a mental-health-focused organization.
Yang has been featured in The New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Variety, South China Morning Post, Harper’s Bazaar, as well as on numerous television and radio shows across the US and Asia such as NPR, CCTV and CGTV. She is frequently asked to consult on projects and sought after for public speaking engagements.
Yang is the first Asian American president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and also has a pillar dedicated to her inside the Renzo Piano-designed Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Yang holds a B.A. from Brown University in Chinese studies and an M.B.A. from Columbia University. She was appointed as a Presidential Fellow at Loyola Marymount University and recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree in Humane Letters from Bowdoin College.
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