The Studio Seattle, a small acting school teaching the professional actor's process. He also produces and directs theatre, television and film projects. Screenwriting As screenwriter, Tsao contributed story and dialogue for Taiwanese director Edward Yang's feature film Mahjong, which won the Special Mention Prize at the Berlin Film Festival in 1996. Educator In addition to his directing career, Tsao was associate professor of dramatic arts at the University of Washington School of Drama for twelve years where he headed the undergraduate drama program for seven years, taught acting and directing and cinema, led summer drama study programs at the Edinburgh Festival and was the artistic director of The Drama Collective, a European theater studies creative lab in Europe. He founded The Studio Seattle (thestudioseattler.org) in 2018 where a small group of students study acting and directing with him. Actor As an actor, he appeared stage productions and portrayed Trofimov in The Cherry Orchard directed by Libby Appel and played the role of David in the feature film Mahjong directed by Edward Yang. He appeared as himself in the 2009 documentary My Big Break. He was awarded the Center for Leadership Development's Arts Award by the City of Indianapolis, served as a grants panelist and on-site reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts and volunteers as a media advisor for public advocacy groups, Asian voter registration initiatives and local political campaigns. Awards In 2012 he was awarded a Donald E. Peterson Endowed Fellowship for creative work at the University of Washington. Additionally, he was awarded the City of Indianapolis' Arts award and the Gold Special Jury prize for his short film Brightness at the 2001 Houston Worldfest film festival. References External links The Studio Seattle American documentary filmmakers American television directors American television producers California Institute of the Arts alumni Living people American educators University of Washington faculty Place of birth missing (living people) 1959 births