Arnold Chun's transformation

June 17, 2:07 PMLA Asian American Movie ExaminerEd Moy

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Arnold Chun

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Related Links

• Eli's Liquor Store website
• Arnold Chun's manager
  
• Arnold Chun Vimeo webpage

You might not recognize his name right away, but you may have seen his face in the movies and television.

Since leaving his job as a mechanical engineer consultant, he's had small uncredited roles in Hollywood films such as Lords of Dogtown and the new Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, as well as appearing in the HBO comedy series, Little Britain USA.

His name is Arnold Chun.  He's an Asian-American producer, writer, and director.

Chun's directorial debut, Eli’s Liquor Store was nominated for the Melvin Van Peebles Award and won Best Short Film at the Harlem International Film Festival.

Acccording to his IMDB profile, Chun was born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Los Angeles since he was 3-years-old. He graduated from the University of California Irvine with a Bachelor of Arts in European/East Asian History.

During his college career he worked as a supervisor of Intramural Athletics and formed the UC Irvine men's Volleyball Club in 1997. Upon graduation he took an opportunity to teach English for the Nagano Board of Education in Japan from 1998-1999. As a teacher he also found work part time writing editorials for the local English journal.

With the completion of his service in Japan, Chun found work for a Fortune 500 mechanical engineering firm. He was a top consultant before leaving that field to pursue a career in pharmaceuticals. It was at this time he found his calling for the arts.

Eric Kim from EKfilms was in the process of shooting a trailer for a feature film when Chun was referred through a friend to volunteer as a production assistant. Within one week, the job turned into an future opportunities and led him to a career in acting, his eyes had been opened.

Over the last four years, Chun has quickly established himself in the entertainment industry. He worked with Academy Award Winning director Clint Eastwood.  As well as well-known Hollywood directors F. Gary Gray, and Sam Mendes.

Gaining experience in casting, producing, writing and performing as an actor in numerous commercials and films, Chun created his own production company focused on telling unique stories from a multi-cultural community. 

Chun's directorial debut short film about life in Koreatown called Eli's Liquor Store screened around the country in various Independent film festivals.  He recently directed his first feature film entitled The Invincible Scripture which is currently listed as in post production.