My name is Jonathan Diep. I’m a 21 year old Vietnamese-American who is currently a junior at the University of La Verne. I’m studying liberal arts with an emphasis on the greatest subject of all time; film studies. What I want to do exactly, I’m not too sure. Life is too short to be caught up in what our exact futures should be or how they’re played out. Life is about experience and risk-taking and being a fish out of water. There’s way too many things I want to do or plan to do. Part of me wants to be an actor, another part a filmmaker, and the safe part wants to be a high school teacher teaching digital film.
Growing up as an Asian American comes with an ideology that you have to make a lot of money to be happy. To me, that’s not the case. Happiness and self-fulfillment should always be eons above everything else. And that’s how I try to live my life when it’s not too busy. If I’m not at school, I’m working as an Associate Manager at an Edwards Cinema 40-50 hours a week.
If I’m not doing that, then I’m spending time going on adventures with my amazing girlfriend, and if I’m not doing that, I’m at home watching a movie or sleeping. Speaking of movies, I’m a huge movie buff. Ever since my dad showed me his acting reel and his membership with the Screen Actors Guild, I knew that my interests would peak into this category. And it’s something I strive towards making a career out of, no matter which field it turns out to be.
Other simple facts about me:
Favorites
Color: Black and Blue
Food: Sushi
Movie(s): 2001: A Space Odyssey, Magnolia, Seven Samurai, Chinatown, The Graduate, High and Low
Bands/ Artists: Joy Division, New Order, A Tribe Called Quest, Radiohead
Directors: Paul Thomas Anderson, Akira Kurosawa, Stanley Kubrick
Song: “Decades” by Joy Division
Pet Peeves: People who find any way to make any conversation about themselves
Dream Vacation: An island somewhere with no zombies or anything creepy
Superhero: Batman and Spider-Man