Email: aaron.toronto@fulbright.edu.vn
Fields of Interest: Filmmaking, Acting, Theater, History of Film
Education: BA, 2003 University of Southern California, USA
Bio: Aaron Toronto studied filmmaking and Japanese at the University of Southern California and Brigham Young University. He has been active in the Vietnamese film, television and theater industries for eighteen years as director, writer, producer and actor. He has worked on such hits as “Tracer” (producer), “Tam Cam: The Untold Story” (screenwriter) and “Jailbait” (line producer), as well as working as consulting director on Veronica Ngo’s film “Furies”. His feature directorial debut, “The Brilliant Darkness!”, won two awards at the Santa Fe Film Festival 2022. It then opened to superlative reviews by critics and audiences alike in April 2022, with praise reserved especially for the performances of the cast.
In 2010, Aaron co-founded the Dragonfly Theatre Co. with Jaime Zuniga, an HCMC-based group dedicated to putting on professional English-language theatre. Over the past few years, Dragonfly has become a well-known brand in the ex-pat community with such hits as “The Importance of Being Earnest”, “The Little Prince”, “Dangerous Liaisons”, and the classic of world theater, “Waiting for Godot”.
With a strong theater background and long experience in the industry, Aaron’s strengths as a filmmaker lie in directing actors and having a complete skill set as a filmmaker, having experience in writing, directing, editing, acting, and producing. Though he holds an American passport, Aaron has lived over half his life overseas, having grown up in Latin America and spent time in Japan as well as almost two decades in Vietnam. He speaks Spanish, Japanese, and Vietnamese.
Courses:
- Principles of Acting
- Video and Film Production
Select Works:
Feature films:
- Thanh Sói (2022), Consulting director / writer
- Đêm Tối Rực Rỡ! (2022), Director / writer / producer
- Em Chưa 18 (2017), Production manager
- Tấm Cám: Chuyện Chưa Kể (2016), Writer
- Truy Sát (2016), Producer
Stage:
- Lend Me a Tenor – Ken Ludwig (2017), Director / producer
- Interior: Panic / Kingdom of Earth – Tennessee Williams (2015), Director / actor
- Waiting for Godot – Samuel Beckett (2014), Actor
- Les Liaisons Dangereuses – Christopher Hampton (2013), Director / producer / actor
- The Little Prince – based on novel by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (2012), Writer / actor
