Tony Le-Nguyen

Last updated

Tony Le Nguyen
Tonylenguyen.jpg
Born
Lê Thiện Toàn

(1968-10-03) 3 October 1968 (age 56)
Occupation(s)Actor, filmmaker, teacher
Years active1985–present

Tony Le Nguyen is a Vietnamese-Australian actor, film-maker and teacher. Le-Nguyen is perhaps best known for his role as Tiger in the 1992 Australian drama film Romper Stomper .

Contents

Early life

Le Nguyen was born in as Lê Thiện Toàn [1] Sa Đéc, Mekong Delta, Vietnam on 3 October 1968. [2] In 1978, Le-Nguyen and his family migrated from Vietnam to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, as refugees, when he was ten years old. [3] In 1985 he changed his name to Tony Lee as he began working as an actor.

Career

Le Nguyen is the first Vietnamese-Australian to be appointed as an Official Prison Visitor to Port Phillip and Fulham Correctional Centres by the Minister for Corrections, the Honourable Andre Haermeyer in 2003 to act as an independent voice for the prison system in Victoria.[ citation needed ]

Le Nguyen played Tiger in Geoffrey Wright’s 1992 Australian drama film Romper Stomper . [4] He has also appeared in other television productions including: Stingers , SeaChange , Raw FM , G.P. , Fast Forward , All Together Now , Embassy , Secrets , The Damnation of Harvey McHugh , Paradise Beach , Australia’s most wanted & Sword of Honour [5]

Between 1986 and 1987, Le Nguyen toured with Mary Coustas in Handspan Theatre’s [6] production A Change of Face [7] written by Andrea Lemon and directed by Carmelina di Guglielmo. He worked on the Victorian Opera 1990 production of Madama Butterfly and performed in Theatreworks 1993 production of Titus, directed by David Pledger and Robert Draffin.

In May 1994, he founded Australian Vietnamese Youth Media [8] with the support of Huu Tran and David Everist, the theatre coordinator at the Footscray Community Arts Centre. [9] The company received its first funding from the Queens Trust in 1995 to produce Chay Vong Vong, [10] a play he wrote and directed with the Vietnamese Community in Footscray, Melbourne. The following year, this organisation received funding from the Australia Council for the Arts and the Sidney Myer Foundation to re-stage Chay Vong Vong [11] as a fully professional production at the Napier Street Theatre, in South Melbourne. In 1998 he was commissioned by Urban Theatre Projects to write and direct "Chay Vong Vong [12] " with the Vietnamese Community in Sydney, Australia.

Le Nguyen has directed and produced such professional and community productions as A Time of Your Life, St. Martins Youth Theatre and Flemington Community Centre 1996, Now I Lay Me Down, [13] La Mama 1997, Taboo, Next Wave Festival 1998, "Aussie Bia Om, [14] 2001 Fringe Festival and directed segments for the BigWest Festival in 1997 and 2000, Children of the Dragon 2005, [15] Silent 2007 [16] He co-directed Worlds Apart in 1996 with Gary McKechnie, a half-hour Television drama about generation conflict within a Vietnamese Australian family. Worlds Apart was first screened on SBS Television in December 1997. [17]

Le Nguyen began teaching drama at Blackbox, Hanoi in December 2013 and directed his first Vietnamese 30-minute drama "Mơ Chua" (Sour Apricots) in 2015. He is the director of The Drama Lab, Hanoi which he founded in 2021 [18] and currently teaching life-skills using drama for KOTO, a not-for-profit social enterprise that empowers at-risk and disadvantaged youth in Vietnam founded by Jimmy Pham.

Education

Le Nguyen studied Television Production at RMIT in 1989 and completed his Bachelor of Arts (Drama/Community Development) in 1998 and Diploma of Education in 2000 at Victoria University. [19]

Awards

He was awarded the Community Cultural Development Fellowship by the Australia Council for the Arts in 2000. [20]

He was inducted into the 2024 Victoria Multicultural Honour Roll by the Victorian Multicultural Commission


Filmography

Films

TV series

Related Research Articles

Articles related to Vietnam and Vietnamese culture include:

Dương Triệu Vũ is the stage name of Tuấn Linh, a singer on the popular Vietnamese diaspora music show Paris By Night.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paris by Night 81</span> Episode of Paris by Night

Paris By Night 81: Âm Nhạc Không Biên Giới 2 is a Paris By Night program produced by Thúy Nga Productions that was filmed at the Terrace Theater at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center in California on Saturday, January 21, 2006, the first show of 2006. It is a direct continuation of Paris By Night 62: Âm Nhạc Không Biên Giới, that was released at the end of 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Đặng Nhật Minh</span> Vietnamese film director

Đặng Nhật Minh is one of Vietnam's foremost film directors. He began making documentary films around 1965 and is the first Vietnamese person to be awarded the Nikkei Asia Prize for Culture, in 1999. His films have won several prizes at international film festivals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paris by Night 91</span> Episode of Paris by Night

Paris By Night 91: Huế, Sài Gòn, Hà Nội is a Paris By Night program produced by Thúy Nga that was filmed at the Terrace Theater at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center on January 12, 2008 and January 13, 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paris by Night 80</span> Episode of Paris by Night

Paris By Night 80: Tết Khắp Mọi Nhà is a Paris By Night program produced by Thúy Nga that was filmed at Studio 40 of the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto, Canada on October 29, 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paris by Night 96</span> Episode of Paris by Night

Paris By Night 96 - Nhạc Yêu Cầu 2 is a Paris By Night program produced by Thúy Nga that was filmed at the Knott's Berry Farm on April 18, 2009 and April 19, 2009 and release DVD from June 25, 2009. The show was MC'ed by Nguyễn Ngọc Ngạn and Nguyễn Cao Kỳ Duyên.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paris by Night 97</span> Episode of Paris by Night

Paris By Night 97 - Khiêu Vũ Của Các Ngôi Sao 2 is a Paris By Night program produced by Thúy Nga that was filmed at Knott's Berry Farm on April 22, 2009 and released onto DVD September 7, 2009. The show was approximately 5 hours and was MC'ed by Nguyễn Văn Thinh and Nguyễn Cao Kỳ Duyên.

The 11th Vietnam Film Festival was held from November 28 to November 30, 1996, in Hanoi, Vietnam, with the slogan: "For an advanced Vietnam cinema imbued with national identity".

The 8th Vietnam Film Festival was held from March 15 to March 22, 1988, in Danang, Vietnam, with the slogan "For the creation of art and perfection of the new socialist people. For the development of the national cinema".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paris by Night 100</span> Episode of Paris by Night

Paris By Night 100: Ghi Nhớ Một Chặng Đường is a Paris By Night program produced by Thúy Nga Productions that was filmed at the Planet Hollywood Theatre for the Performing Arts in Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino from July 3–4, 2010 and released DVD on October 7, 2010. The show was hosted by emcees Nguyễn Ngọc Ngạn and Nguyễn Cao Kỳ Duyên.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paris by Night 99</span> Episode of Paris by Night

Paris By Night 99 – Tôi Là Người Việt Nam is a Paris By Night program produced by Thúy Nga Productions that was filmed at Knott's Berry Farm on 16 and 17 January 2010 and released DVD from 9 April 2010. The show was hosted by Nguyễn Ngọc Ngạn, Nguyễn Cao Kỳ Duyên and Trịnh Hội.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vietnam Television Network</span> Television channel

Vietnam Television, sometimes also unofficially known as the National Television, Saigon Television or Channel 9, was one of two national television broadcasters in South Vietnam from February 7, 1966, until just before the Fall of Saigon on April 29, 1975. It was the first television broadcaster in Vietnam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thanh Lan</span> Vietnamese singer and recipient of political asylum in the United States

Thanh Lan is a popular Vietnamese American singer and actress. She was unable to leave Vietnam at the Fall of Saigon in 1975. In 1994 during a sponsored series of concerts in the United States, Vietnamese protesters accused her of colluding with the Hanoi government and being a communist sympathizer. Although she had been a beloved singer during the 1970s, in the US she became the subject of forceful protests and even death threats. She canceled all but one of her concerts, gave interviews pleading her case, and finally prevailed in her quest for asylum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suni Hạ Linh</span> Vietnamese musician (born 1990)

Ngô Đặng Thu Giang, professionally known as Suni Hạ Linh, is a Vietnamese musician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nhật Lâm</span>

Nguyễn Nhật Lâm is a Vietnamese ballad and bolero singer

References

  1. Le Nguyen, Tony. "Birth name". IMDB. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  2. "Workshop sáng tạo: 'Lục giác Hợp nhất' cùng Tony Lê Nguyễn". ticketgo.vn (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  3. "Tony's story". Refugee Council of Australia. 1 April 2011. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  4. Le Nguyen, Tony. "Biographies of living person". IMDb.com. IMDb.
  5. Le Nguyen, Tony. "Biographies of living person". IMDb.com. IMDb. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  6. "Handspan Theatre". handspantheatre.com.au. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  7. "Handspan Theatre | A Change of Face". Handspan Theatre. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  8. "AusStage". www.ausstage.edu.au. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  9. Twenty4. "Footscray Community Arts Centre". Footscray Community Arts Centre. Retrieved 16 June 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. "AusStage". www.ausstage.edu.au. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  11. "AusStage". www.ausstage.edu.au. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  12. "The middle years: Death Defying Theatre transformed – By Ian Maxwell". Urban Theatre Projects. 2 December 2012. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  13. "AusStage". www.ausstage.edu.au. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  14. "AusStage". www.ausstage.edu.au. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  15. "AusStage". www.ausstage.edu.au. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  16. "AusStage". www.ausstage.edu.au. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  17. Le Nguyen, Tony. "Work". IMDb.com. IMDb.
  18. Le Nguyen, Tony. "Current position". linkedin.
  19. Le Nguyen, Tony. "Education". IMDb.com. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  20. Le Nguyen, Tony. "Awards". IMDb.com. IMDb. Retrieved 15 September 2021.