In 2021, Ziyao was selected as a fellow of Armed With a Camera with Visual Communication, where she created and premiered her short documentary THE BLESSING. Her sci-fi comedy short, DAISY IS GONE, won the Special Jury Award at the 2024 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. Her work has also screened at festivals including St. Louis, Brooklyn, Jia Village Short, Dallas, and FIRST FF. Ziyao is a member of BAFTA Connect since 2024. In 2025, she received a grant from the Deutsche Bank Frieze Los Angeles Film Award to make her neo-noir influenced short, TEMPORARY DETECTIVE, that takes place in Los Angeles Chinatown.
Ziyao is currently in post production for her first feature film, WHALE, a road trip film about a Chinese mother and daughter examining their reality of living apart after the father’s passing. WHALE was selected for the 2025 MNFF Creative Distribution Mentorship, a semifinalist of the 2023 humanitas New Voices Fellowship, and is fiscally sponsored by Film Independent for tax-deductible donations.
Ziyao creates character-driven narratives of hybrid genres. Her goal is to reimagine the lives of her characters that are otherwise constrained by reality, and reveal their strengths and weaknesses in intimate ways. She loves finding humor beyond language barriers.
Born in China and now a resident alien in Los Angeles, she spends her free time tending her plants and walking in her neighborhood.
contact her at ziyao 0806 at gmail dot com