Tze Chun

Tze Chun is a writer for ABC's Once Upon a Time.

Biography
Born as Tze-ngo Chun, Tze was born in Chicago and raised outside of Boston, and graduated from Milton Academy in 1998. He received his bachelor's degree in film studies at Columbia University.

His debut feature film, Children of Invention, premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, screened at over 50 film festivals, won 17 festival awards including 8 Grand Jury or Best Narrative Feature prize including "Best Narrative Feature" at the Newport International Film Festival, the Independent Film Festival Boston, the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (where the cast won a Special Jury Prize in New Talent to Watch in Acting), the San Diego Asian Film Festival, and the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival, as well as "Emerging Filmmaker Awards" from the Hawaii International Film Festival and the DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival.

In 2012, Chun wrapped principal photography on Cold Comes the Night. Chun has also directed numerous short films, including Windowbreaker, a selection of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Other short films directed by Chun include the World War II set Back to the Front (2006), Document (2006), about a writer whose girlfriend goes into a coma, Cold Feet, Wet Dreams, The Kitchen Sink (2007), and a sci-fi short entitled Silver Sling (2010).

Chun was also one of the staff writers for the ABC television series Cashmere Mafia, starring Lucy Liu. Chun was hired for the show based on his and writing partner Mike Weiss' original pilot, Getting in Good, a tongue-in-cheek drama set in the highly competitive world of Manhattan private school admissions. Chun worked on Once Upon a Time during its fourth and fifth seasons, before joining the third season of FOX's Gotham.

In 2007, Chun was named one of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film" by Filmmaker Magazine. In 2009, Chun received the Puma Emerging Filmmaker Award at the 2009 Hawaii International Film Festival and the George C. Lin Emerging Filmmaker Award at the DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival. He also received the "Visionary Award" from the Austin Asian American Film Festival. In 2011, Chun was named as a United States Artists (USA) Fellow, specifically an USA Rockefeller Fellow.

Chun is also a painter and visual artist. He has commissioned private portraits in cities such as New York and Los Angeles, is represented by CVZContemporary Gallery in SoHo, and also painted the original artwork for the poster of the Oscar nominated feature film starring Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson directed by Ryan Fleck, as well as the children's book drawings that are also used in the film.

During Comic-Con 2010 in San Diego, it was announced that Will Eisner's graphic novel A Contract With God will be adapted into a feature film, with Chun directing one of the story's four chapters.