Michael Yuchen Lei

Directing

Michael Yuchen Lei is an award-winning Chinese-born filmmaker whose fiction and non-fiction work has played at festivals including Tribeca, Slamdance, San Sebastian, CPH:DOX, and Palm Springs. His feature documentary debut, A Taste of Sky was produced by Archer Gray (The Persian Version) and premiered at Tribeca. A graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, he began his career in music as personal photographer to Joe Walsh of the Eagles and photographing artists such as Ringo Starr, the xx, and Outkast. He has been recognized as a fellow by Almanack Screenwriters, Points North Institute, SFFilm, the Swatch Artist Residency, and Film Independent in Documentary, Screenwriting and Project Involve. As producer and editor, his documentary Echo won the 2023 Audience Award at Aspen Shortsfest and premiered on the New Yorker. He is currently a 2025 Rideback RISE Fellow and a 2025 Indeed Rising Voices Filmmaker, and is developing a number of projects including his feature fiction debut.