For this month’s Artist Member Spotlight, we introduce another winner of our 10×10 contest. Daphne Joyce Wu is a Midwest-born and raised writer, filmmaker, and actress, currently studying Film & Media Studies at Yale University. She has directed four short films: a drama, Black Coffee (2024), a comedy The Very Sad Tale of Gerald Humm (2024), a romantic comedy Heartbreak Avenue (2023), and an experimental piece Yin Yang (2023). Daphne also recently directed Yale’s biggest show of the year in collaboration with the Yale Symphony Orchestra, Frosh’d & Found, guest-starring Laufey, about a group of first-year students who, during the First Year Formal, realize that their senior idols aren’t as cool as they thought. 

Daphne is also currently writing her first coming-of-age feature, titled Perhaps in Another Life. Callaia Company described the script as “a masterclass in character development… a screenplay that lingers in the mind long after the final scene has faded to black”.

At Yale University, Daphne serves as President of the Yale Cinematic Productions, the sole film production company at Yale. She has interned at Paramount; the Lionsgate 2023 feature film, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret; ACE Entertainment, a Los Angeles production company that produced the hit Netflix series, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before; and Toluca Pictures, known for Netflix’s Wednesday and Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale. In addition to being a HieronyVision x Film Independent fellow, Daphne was also awarded fellowships by the T. Howard Foundation and Emma Bowen Foundation. This summer, she will be in Los Angeles as an agent trainee intern at United Talent Agency.

As an actress, Daphne trains at New York City’s HB Studio and Los Angeles’ Anthony Gilardi Acting Studio. Daphne was a lead in Hindsight (2022), a short film that won the Student World Impact Film Festival (SWIFF) Drama award. She has been the lead actress in numerous other short films, including DIANE (2023), Birthday Wish (2023), and Back Home (2023). As a first-year, she produced two Yale senior theses: EXSTASIS (2023) and Algun Dia (2023), one of which won the prestigious Howard R. Lamar Prize. She has served as Director of Photography for Roughly Seven Minutes (2023) and How to Mind Your Mother (2024).

Currently a rising senior at Yale, Daphne is looking forward to co-writing and co-directing a feature film, tentatively titled Anatomy of Loneliness. 

For more about Daphne and her work, check out her Artist Member page or her website, daphnejoycewu.com