Mark Manalo

Mark D. Manalo is an award-winning LA-based writer-director. He was born in Jersey City, New Jersey and spent most of his life in Trenton where he received his B.A. in Film Production and History from The College of New Jersey. He grew up loving the arts, being first inspired by seeing "Miss Saigon" on Broadway at the age of 9. By 12, Mark was writing and drawing his own comic books. Along with playing the piano throughout high school, he was the bass guitarist and vocalist in a punk-ska band, playing shows all around NJ. After graduating college, he began working for Asian American writer/director Greg Pak in NYC and started editing the popular website AsianAmericanFilm.com. In 2004, Mark began working as a public school teacher in the South Bronx through the New York City Teaching Fellows. He then moved to Japan in the summer of 2007 to work as an English Language teacher in Tokyo for another three years. Mark was accepted into the prestigious graduate film program at USC's School of Cinematic Arts in 2010. While at USC, he was selected out of many applicants to direct an advanced film project as well as an advanced television show in his final year at the school. His films "Present Trauma" and "No Child Left Deprived" have won numerous awards and have played at several prestigious film festivals. In addition, a film that Mark co-edited called "A Second Chance" received the Student Academy Award for Best Documentary in April of 2013. Mark was then invited by the Director's Guild of America to take part in their Asian American Directing Mentorship program learning from the best and brightest Asian American directors in the business. In 2014, Mark was chosen as one of the Top 10 Finalists in the Ben Affleck and Matt Damon-produced film competition and docu-series "Project Greenlight: Season 4". His 3-minute version of "Present Trauma" received the highest number of online fan votes by a landslide and has close to 3 million views on Project Greenlight's Facebook page. His interview with Affleck, Damon, and the Farrelly Brothers will be on Project Greenlight's Season 4 Premiere Episode in 2015.