Alumni Spotlight: So Young Shelly Yo ’18

The Alumni Spotlight is a place to hear from the School of the Arts alumni community about their journeys as artists and creators.

So Young Shelly Yo ’18 is a Korean-American filmmaker whose work has been supported by HBO, Tribeca, SFFILM, the Sloan Foundation, and others. Shelly's feature film, Smoking Tigers, was the winner of Tribeca x AT&T’s Untold Stories and was awarded best screenplay, best performance, and a special mention for the Nora Ephron prize at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. Prior to Smoking Tigers, Shelly wrote and directed many short films including Soft Sounds of Peeling Fruit, Crashing Wheels on Concrete, and Moonwalk with Me . Most recently, Shelly was given the New Voices award at the 2023 Austin Film Festival and was selected as a 2024 BAFTA Breakthrough Talent. Shelly is currently in development for her next project.



Was there a specific faculty member or peer who especially inspired you while at the School of the Arts? If so, who and how?

Christina Lazaridi is a faculty member who has inspired me immensely throughout my years at Columbia and someone I continue to keep in touch with to this day. Every class with Christina shifted my known knowledge of screenwriting and gave me a new perspective into the way I tell stories. I always left her class glowing from all the wisdom I soaked up in class. I took almost every class she offered while I was there. I still reference the notes from her class to this day and have sought out her advice during the writing of my first feature. I feel grateful to have met her.

How did attending the School of the Arts impact your work and career as an artist?

Attending SOA has allowed me to meet some of my closest collaborators -- those whose work I admire and who I trust for notes with the first drafts and rough cuts. Though we are no longer in the close quarters at Dodge Hall, we continue to send films, books, writing, music...all of which continues to inspire me.

What were the first steps you took after graduating?
 
I wanted to get as much real world experience as possible so I took any job that I felt would nourish my creativity and nurture my voice as a filmmaker. I worked in writer's rooms as support staff, assisted commercial directors, researched and created pitch decks for production companies, tutored high school students, wrote script coverage, freelanced as a video editor, and more. These jobs gave me the opportunity to continue learning from other creatives and offered me the time and freedom to focus on my own writing and directing.