George Huang (director)

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George Huang is a Korean-American film-maker.

Although none of his own films have yet to achieve major box-office success, the director has gained a small-but-loyal cult following. In addition to working on his own films, he also frequently contributes work to other independent film-makers, especially Robert Rodríguez.

The son of Korean immigrants, George Huang grew up with an avid love of motion pictures. After highschool, he attempted to move form his love of film into something tangible by enrolling in a producing program at the University of Southern California. After graduating, he began working from the bottom-up as an aspiring executive assistant at Columbia Pictures. Although George had gained entry into the entertainment industy, his career wasn't moving in the direction he had hoped.

In 1992, Columbia acquired the distribution rights to the film El Mariachi by Robert Rodríguez. As the film was being prepared for release, Rodriguez struck up a friendship with the young studio assistant with whom he shared a love of film. As Rodriguez, a native and resident of Austin, Texas, had no L.A. residence, he stayed at Huang's apartment.

Rodriguez--known for his money-saving/high-quality filmmaking techniques--is amazed by Huang's blasé attitude toward the way his superiours spend millions and millions on the production of a single motion picture. Huang, believing his own original stories will never be told, tells some of story ideas to Rodriguez. Rodriguez tells his new friend and room-mate that he's going nowhere fast and that he needs to immediately quit his job and make his own films. Huang is understandably reluctant to this idea, but in January 1993, he resigns from his post at Columbia.

George Huang's debut film, Swimming with Sharks starring Kevin Spacey and Frank Whaley.

He then begins writing, and seeking financing for, a script loosely based on his experiences at Columbia. Released in 1994, Huang's debut film, Swimming with Sharks is a biting satire of Hollywood politics from the point-of-view of a studio underling. Although not a major box-office smash, the movie receives huge critical acclaim.

Since then, Huang has gone on to do a lot of behind-the-scenes work with directorial turns on several short-lived television series such as Significant Others (one of the first acting appearances of Jennifer Garner), Live Through This, and The Invisible Man. He also directed the independent films Trojan War (starring Jennifer Love Hewitt) and How to Make a Monster (which has become a cult favourite).

In 2005, comic book creator Mike Allred announced that Huang was writing the screenplay for the movie Madman, based on Allred's comic of the same name. In February 2006, Allred announced that script was near completion and that he and Robert Rodríguez hoped to begin co-directing before the end of the year.