About

Who’s Thuc, besides being a Vietnamese woman with an American and an Irish passport?

American. Global. Tries to be classy in public. Idiosyncratic?

Someone who wears bolo ties and who’s fallen & can get up again

If you see Thuc Doan Nguyen (sounds like Tope Dawn Win) sitting around looking like she’s listening and you’re speaking Vietnamese, German or French- she quite possibly knows what you’re talking about – so – just saying…

Thuc was born in Vietnam and escaped with her family as a child boat person. After staying in refugee camps, they were sponsored to the United States by Gordon Street Christian Church in Kinston, North Carolina. Thuc grew up in The American South– in Lenoir County and Wake County, North Carolina and then in rural Charles County, Maryland Amish country. She spent much of her childhood with an older Jewish couple named Faith Donia Shipp Pearson and Stanley Pearson (Per-sohn), along with other adopted grandparents like Eleanor Smith, Joanne and Billy Boone, and Jo Ann and Oscar Price in rural Eastern North Carolina.

Thuc skipped the country after undergrad at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (yes- the other basketball great besides Thuc named Michael Jordan went to school there too). She worked in London, UK for Amnesty International’s “International Secretariat” and for Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising on Charlotte Street. She then moved back stateside and worked in advertising and marketing in New York City where she was roommates with the drag queen Mistress Formika aka Michael Formika Jones. They met at La Nouvelle Justine by The Chelsea Hotel and worked in nightclubs together on the weekends after Thuc worked shifts in East Village restaurants like Goldfinch, 26 Seats and others.

Thuc moved to Los Angeles not long after 9/11 and worked as an entertainment assistant. She put herself through night school at UCLA and got a screenwriting certificate. Since then she’s gone back for more schooling (a Master’s Degree and the start of a PhD in Rhetoric). She writes for various major magazines and press outlets. Thuc works in the commercial world- only to support her writing habit. Thuc’s screenplays feature friendships between people of various races. She was a translator for The Academy Award nominated “Last Days in Vietnam” by Rory Kennedy.

Thuc’s really glad to have been part of marches/rallies/sit-ins through-out her life- namely Occupy London (St. Paul’s), BLM + Women’s Day + May Day marches all in Downtown Los Angeles and Standing Rock #MniWiconi in North Dakota. Her dogs are protest pups!

Thuc’s new fun is starting Spooky Spaces – ooh wahahha

Find Thuc in Goodreads

Thuc live on BBC World Service discussing her feelings about the mass shooting in Monterey Park, the community in the East Los Angeles area that Thuc called home for a very long time and the confusion happening— when we Asian diaspora members should be completely revelatory celebrating Lunar New Year and the Oscar nominees who are Asian / Asian American / Vietnamese American.

Time code 4:55 – 11:55

Thuc was with Marjorie Ellis Thompson and Hamish Pringle when they opened the world’s first ever Cause Related Marketing Division called “Cause Connection” at Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide on Charlotte Street in London, UK. She helped them put together the CRM bible “Brand Spirit“. Find Thuc’s name in the thank yous here: