While the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community have helped build America and contributed to culture around the world, until very recently mainstream storytelling from Hollywood has not reflected these contributions or included narratives of the diaspora. We believe in empowering and guiding students to understand and find footing in careers in entertainment and seek to create a pipeline of creatives from Cal to Hollywood.
The Berekley Center for New Media (BCNM) is proud to host the AAPI Entertainment Career Fellowship. Powered by Cal alumni and entertainment industry veterans, the fellowship program aims to transform both how entertainment career opportunities are viewed by students, and how AAPI are viewed within the entertainment industry.
Apply today. Applications are due April 6, 2026.
Information Session 2/24, 4pm PST
Join lead mentor Jason Lin (Story Arch Films) and fellowship alumnus Alex Wong as they discuss the experience of the program and what it is like to try and break into the entertainment industry today. We will also be available to answer any questions concerning your application to the program. Register today!
Program Benefits
Selected fellows will receive a summer stipend of $1,500 plus mentorship from industry professionals. The funding will help fellows pursue the start to their creative career journey in media and entertainment over the summer. Often the best way to enter the entertainment industry is through an internship at a Hollywood talent agency, management company, studio or a related hands-on internship at an entertainment company broadly defined.
Fellows will also receive valuable mentorship from industry leaders Jason Lin (Producer, Story Arch Pictures), Joanne Lee (EVP, Jackson Pictures), and Jonder Ho (SVP, Business Affairs, Universal Studios Group), which will include activities and events, such as lunches, 1-1 meetings, speaker events and more.
This is the fourth year of our fellowship. Previous fellows secured full-time graduating jobs at companies like Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and have interned for companies ranging from Range Media Partners to Free The Work. We look forward to building a pipeline of young professionals to the entertainment industry.
We want to build a network of Cal alumni in leadership positions in entertainment who, by developing narratives that feature AAPI and encouraging greater diversity at all levels within studios and agencies, will make strides to change the ecosystem of cultural production to be more reflective of the AAPI community at large.
This year, BCNM has one Fellowship to award. Students will be selected based on their commitment to developing narratives that feature Asian American and Pacific Islanders and encouraging greater diversity at all levels within entertainment.
Eligibility and Internship Requirements
Undergraduates from all majors and years are eligible to apply. We highly encourage third-year undergraduates to apply for this opportunity.
Applicants must have applied for and secured a full-time summer internship in order to be eligible for this opportunity. Applicants must also be responsible for their own housing, transportation, and living costs. The ideal applicant will be located in Los Angeles in order to take full advantage of mentor expertise and networking opportunities.
We understand that industry internships are few and difficult to obtain. Though current mentor expertise lies with traditional Hollywood film and television, the program is open to students undertaking a variety of entertainment internships in functions such as mailroom, assistant, marketing, finance, PR, strategy, distribution, etc.; or types of companies such as talent agencies, management companies, large or small studios, production companies, toy makers, or video game companies.
For students seeking internships, some resources include Masterclass, Hollylist, Assistants vs Agents, and UC Berkeley Career Engagement.
Application
Apply today. Applications are due April 6, 2026.
More information on our mentors below.
Alumni
- Riya Patel, 2025 Fellow — Account Services Representative, NBCUniversal
- Alex Wong, 2025 Fellow — NBCUniversal Page Program
- Yeonhee Choi, 2024 Fellow
- Minh Anh, 2023 Fellow — Senior Coordinator, Brand Events, Sphere, Las Vegas
"My name is Alex Wong, and I’m a UC Berkeley graduate from the Class of 2025, where I studied Data Science and Media Studies. It has been an honor to be recognized as an AAPI Entertainment Careers Fellow. When I entered this fellowship, my goal was to gain a broader understanding of both the entertainment industry and potential post-graduate pathways in the industry as well as build meaningful relationships with established industry professionals. And over the course of the summer, this fellowship truly offered all of that and more!
This experience gave me meaningful exposure to the entertainment landscape and mentorship from inspiring industry leaders, all while simultaneously allowing me to build hands-on experience in the field. During the summer, I worked as a Sales Planning and Analytics Intern at Disney in their Burbank office, assisting in distribution strategy and box office tracking for Disney Studios’ theatrical releases such as Lilo & Stitch, Marvel's The Fantastic Four, and Freakier Friday. While the work itself was deeply engaging, the fellowship really helped me contextualize the significance of the work that I was doing at the studio level, helping me understand how data and creative decision-making intersect to determine how content is produced and ultimately reaches audiences.
Mentorship was definitely such an impactful part of this fellowship. Through my conversations with Jason and Joanne, I dove into the world of producing, gaining insight into everything from audience testing to the creative considerations that guide a project from conception to release. They overall helped me understand how producers balance artistic vision with commercial realities and navigate the complex pipeline of greenlighting and development. From Jonder, I gained a deeper appreciation for the business side of entertainment. He was able to give me a glimpse into how the financial and contractual components of TV and film all intersect together across different platforms and mediums. These insights were something I always wanted to get a deeper understanding of in and outside of the classroom, so it was truly inspiring learning from industry experts. Beyond meetings, I had the chance to grab lunches and coffee with my mentors, where we also discussed our favorite shows, go-to LA hotspots, and navigating the industry as an Asian American.
My mentors consistently encouraged me to take risks and seize new opportunities in the work that I do and will do in the future. By the end of the summer, I found myself applying their networking and interviewing advice in real time, ultimately receiving multiple job offers from different studios in Los Angeles following my internship. I chose to pursue the NBCUniversal Page Program as part of their Fall 2025 cohort, where I am now embarking on distinct rotations that span the entertainment landscape from broadcast promotional strategy to marketing and publicity. Looking back, I know this trajectory would not have been possible without the guidance, exposure, and encouragement I received through the fellowship.
As I look ahead, I’m excited to continue blending my understanding of media, data, and the business behind storytelling. This fellowship really reaffirmed my passion for entertainment and my desire to keep learning as a student of the craft."
— Alex Wong, Class of 2025
Sponsors
The AAPI Careers in Entertainment Creative Fellowship is made possible by the generous support of Sam Kwok and the College of Engineering.
Interested in donating to this important fellowship? Please donate here.
Media Industry Mentors 2026
Jason Lin
Jason Lin is a film producer and creative entrepreneur with representative films and producer credits including: A Dog’s Journey, Green Book, A Dog's Purpose, Peppa Celebrates Chinese New Year, The Forbidden Kingdom, Ocean Heaven, and Jet Li’s Fearless. He has worked at companies including Alibaba Pictures, Jet Li Production Studio, The Walt Disney Company, UTA, and Morgan Stanley. He created a premium apparel line called Adidas Wuji with Jet Li and Adidas that launched in China in 2009 infusing Adidas apparel with martial arts culture.
Jason started Story Arch Pictures in 2019 to develop and produce mainstream, cross-cultural, and socially-relevant film and TV series aimed at a global audience inclusive of perspectives from the Asian diaspora. Jason is a graduate of UC Berkeley and holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and a member of BAFTA.
Joanne Lee
Joanne Lee is the EVP of Jackson Pictures overseeing Film & TV development and production. Beyond helping build a robust slate of premium indies and studio fare, she sources quality material and packages at the highest level adapting to a rapidly changing ecosystem.
Currently, she is working with Academy Award-nominated Greta Lee and Golden Globe-nominated Lulu Wang on a book adaptation set up at Searchlight, developing with Jet Li on an untitled heist project, and coproducing a feature based on the true story of Bridget Cleary with Lena Dunham.
Previously, she associate produced Academy Award-winner Aaron Sorkin’s “Molly’s Game” at The Mark Gordon Company where she served as the Director of Development starting in the Spring of 2016.
Before joining The Mark Gordon Company, Joanne was the Director of Acquisitions at IM Global where she worked on Billy Ray’s “The Secret In Their Eyes” starring Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman and Chiwetel Ejiofor in addition to Rich Tanne’s Sundance darling “Southside With You,” the first date story between Michelle and Barack Obama. Prior to IM Global, Joanne assisted Matt Jackson at Exclusive Media in the fall of 2013. She began her career as an assistant in The Media Finance Department at CAA.
Joanne Lee is a Variety Hollywood New Leader of 2024, Northwestern University graduate, fluent in Chinese Mandarin, and a member of the PGA.
Jonder Ho
Jonder Ho is a SVP, Business Affairs at Universal Studios Group (USG) - the umbrella brand that house’s NBCUniversal’s four television studios, including Universal Television, UCP, Universal Television Alternative Studio and Universal International Studios. Jonder negotiates writer, actor, director and other above-the-line deals for USG with a focus on productions, including “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist,” “Hacks” and NBCU’s untitled Greg Daniels/Michael Koman project.
Prior to joining NBCUniversal, Jonder spent two years as the head of business affairs at VR content startup company founded by Robert Stromberg, the Academy Award-winning production designer of “Avatar and Alice in Wonderland.” Jonder began his career as an associate at the law firm Morrison Foerster. Jonder is a graduate of Pomona College and obtained his law degree from the University of Southern California.