Banban Cheng (she/they) is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker who spent their childhood doing Chinese stand-up comedy in Houston, Texas. Since then, they’ve traded the stage for screenwriting and making movies.

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They’re passionate about telling entertaining stories with complex characters from marginalized communities. They’re the writer of Lucky Grandma, a black comedy about aging, luck, and a discount bodyguard, set in the cramped streets of Manhattan's Chinatown. In 2018, Lucky Grandma won a $1 million grant through the AT&T and TFI’s Untold Stories program. It premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2019 and is currently distributed by Good Deed Entertainment.

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Recently, Banban’s short film Hearsay won CAPE and Julia S. Gouw’s Short Film Challenge, and had its premier at CAAMFest, San Francisco. They’re also the recipient of NYFA’s Women’s Film, TV & Theatre Fund, for writing and directing a short film series about the comedic misadventures of being Asian-American in New York. Their short film ASMR Boyfriend won the Audience Award at the Asian American International Film Festival.

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Additionally, Banban has a particular interest in the intersection of culture, psychology, and science. They work at TED (you know, the folks behind TED Talks), producing and directing speakers on stage for three years before becoming the Creative Director on

the Audio Team at TED, where they develop and story edit podcasts. Some of these credits include The TED AI Show, which explores how we might live and thrive in a world where AI changes everything, Body Stuff with Dr. Jen Gunter, which debunks medical misinformation in a sassy way, and the award-winning Redemption of Jar Jar Binks with Dylan Marron, a show that takes a look at one of the most divisive characters in cinematic history and how the birth of the internet accelerated fandom discourse.