Soo Hugh

Soo Hugh is a New York-based showrunner, producer, and television writer whose filmography includes AMC’s “The Terror,” ABC’s “The Whispers,” and Apple TV+’s “Pachinko,” adapted from Min Jin Lee’s novel of the same name. Born in Busan, South Korea, in 1977, she moved to the suburbs of Maryland when she was a one-year old, growing up alongside her brother as self-described “latchkey kids” who helped their parents run their deli—or as they say in Maryland, a “carry-out.”

Between the downtime afforded to her by her parents’ busy schedules, Soo developed a love for stories and storytelling—first in letters, and later in motion pictures through Francis Coppola’s “The Godfather.”Her work is characterized by what she calls a “shock of recognition:” that deeply human moment in which a profoundly electric connection is established between self and subject, a relationship that transcends spatial and temporal bounds. From 19th-century British Royal Navy sailors (The Terror) to the resilient women living through the Japanese occupation of Korea, Soo inhabits, transforms, and imbues life into the characters through whom she hopes to “talk to a world.”

Today, Soo views the storytelling muscle as a vital human tool, one that demands we step into the skin of others to foster a kinder world. Whether speaking to a new generation of writers or raising her own children, she champions the belief that we are not tied to the realities we are born into; through storytelling, one has the ability to render their world in empathy.