Alan Yang

Alan Yang (born 1982) is an American screenwriter, producer and director. He was the screenwriter of the 2014 film Date and Switch. He was also a writer and producer for the NBC sitcom, Parks and Recreation. He also co-created and wrote the Netflix series Master of None starring Aziz Ansari.

Yang was born in 1982 in Riverside, California. His parents were originally from Taiwan. His father was a physician from Huwei (Tigertail) and his mother was a high school teacher. Yang studied Biology at Harvard University and wrote for the college's humor magazine, the Harvard Lampoon. Yang also wrote for "Fire Joe Morgan", a sports journalism blog, under the pseudonym "Junior."

Writing

His previous writing credits include Last Call with Carson Daly (as writer of the episode "Kate Flannery/Kevin Christy" and an associate producer) as well as South Park (as a writer, consultant, and consulting producer). In 2009, he was named by Variety magazine as one of "10 Screenwriters to Watch". Near the beginning of his career, Yang received interest around Hollywood for a spec screenplay entitled “Gay Dude," described as a “Superbad”-like comedy about two high school seniors on the prowl for a one-night stand. Shortly after writing that screenplay, he was signed to rewrite a script for a David Dobkin project entitled "Boss Go Home" for Warner Bros..

In 2009, he also sold a pitch for a comedy screenplay called "White Dad", which was about a white man who adopts the son of his black girlfriend after she dies suddenly, and it was going to be produced by Bob Simonds Also around the same time, Yang also sold the pitch for a screenplay entitled "Jackpot" to 20th Century Fox, described as being similar to the film 21 in that it revolves around a group of high school teens that win the lottery, with Michael Aguilar planning to produce. Yang also sold a script to Summit Entertainment entitled “We Love You” which is about “two close friends who discover they’re dating the same woman and the comedic and relationship consequences that ensue when they try to disentangle the situation.” Those three screenplays - Jackpot, White Dad, and We Love You - are also currently in development.

His project with Aziz Ansari, Master of None, which he co-created with Ansari and wrote for, was released on November 6, 2015 on Netflix. He also wrote the film Date and Switch (2014), directed by Chris Nelson and starring Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Dakota Johnson and more. He also wrote the Funny or Die short film, Parks and Recreation is the Wu Tang of Comedy (2010) directed by Dean Holland and Michael Schur as well as starring from the show Aziz Ansari, Rashida Jones, Amy Poehler, as well as RZA and Questlove.

Directing, producing and acting

For Parks and Recreation, he has directed two episodes - "New Beginnings" (2014) (Season 6, Episode 11) and "Swing Vote" (2013) (Season 5, Episode 21). In addition to being a writer on the show and writing 16 episodes (a "written by" credit), Yang has also served as a story editor for 24 episodes and an executive story editor for 6 episodes.

He has additionally served as an Executive Producer for Master of None, as a Co-Executive Producer, Supervising Producer, Producer and Co-Producer on Parks and Recreation, an Executive Producer on Date and Switch (2014), a Consulting Producer on South Park (the episode "Miss Teacher Bangs A Boy" (2006)), a Producer on the Funny or Die short Parks and Recreation is the Wu Tang of Comedy (2010), and as an Associate Producer on Last Call with Carson Daly. He has also served as a consultant for the 2007 MTV Movie Awards.

As an actor, he appears as "Chang" (or "Bass Player" or "Alan") on 14 episodes of Parks and Recreation. He also appears in the short film Food Club (2014), directed by Eric Wareheim, and on Kroll Show as a contestant on the episode "Sponsored by Stamps" (2014). He also is a performer on the song "5,000 Candles In The Wind" from episodes of Parks and Recreation ("Moving Up: Part 2" (2014) and "Lil' Sebastian" (2011)).