Interview (Part 1): Chris Wu

My interview with 2021 Black List writer for his script Mr. Benihana.

Chris Wu wrote the original screenplay “Mr. Benihana” which landed on the 2021 Black List. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Brian about his creative background, his script, the craft of screenwriting, and what making the annual Black List has meant to him.

Today in Part 1 of a 6-part series to run each day through Saturday, Chris talks about how he wound his way into screenwriting.

Scott Myers: Congratulations on your script “Mr. Benihana” being selected to the 2021 Black List.

Chris Wu: Thank you. It’s exciting.

Scott: Let’s dig into your background a bit, how you got into the business of screenwriting. Where’d you grow up and how did you find your way into writing as an interest?

Chris: I was born and raised in a suburb of Dallas, called Plano. My parents were Taiwanese immigrants. I grew up with film, television, books, and comics as my main escape. I was always fascinated with stories. I ended up going to college at Yale. It was a complete one-eighty from my upbringing. I was able to discover a lot about myself. I came out of the closet, for one. I also found film and television as something I could potentially do as a career.

I was an econ major, mostly for my parents. That good old Asian guilt! But I took all these film studies classes, enough that I was able to double major in both. It was a good place to get a chance to write my own stuff. And direct shorts with other creative likeminded people there.

From there, I moved out to LA. I was still unsure of how I would break into the industry. At first, I thought I might do the business side of entertainment. I went to USC Business School to get my MBA. I thought maybe I could work at a studio. Marketing, corporate finance, something like that. So I got a summer internship at Disney in their corporate finance group. It was probably one of the most soul-sucking summers of my life. I knew very quickly it wasn’t for me. Even more so, I was constantly looking over the fence at all the creatives on the Disney lot. They were so close, it made it worse.

I knew I’d regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t give it a shot. I decided to take the plunge. I had spoken to a few people about the best way to break into the industry. A lot of them had suggested working at an agency. After getting my MBA, I jumped into the mail room at WME and ended up working for a TV lit agent.

That was a great experience to understand the TV landscape. And to see what the TV clients were doing, and what it was like to be a TV writer. That’s what I decided to focus on. I was writing pilots and specs of TV shows. Especially since I knew I didn’t want to be an agent, I left WME and worked at Fox TV Studios.

There, I got to meet a great team of creative execs. One of the first shows picked up while I was there was “The Killing” on AMC. I got a job as the Writers PA on the first season of that.

From there, I worked my way up the assistant ladder, and worked on many different shows. Got to learn how a writers’ room works and how you break story and write scenes. I got into the CAPE Writer Fellowship Program, and a few years later, the CBS Writers Program. Got a manager, an agent. That’s how I got my break into writing. Through the television side.

Scott: I’m looking at your IMDb credits. It’s interesting to track your progress going from one TV show to the next. You’ve mostly focused on TV. Are you still writing for TV at this point?

Chris: Yes. I’m currently writing on “Bosch: Legacy.”

Tomorrow in Part 2, Chris shares the real life inspiration behind his screenplay Mr. Benihana.

Chris is repped by John Zaozirny at Bellevue Productions.

Twitter: @wu_stein.

For my interviews with dozens of other Black List writers, go here.