Celine Song (bornSong Ha-Young;Korean:송하영;[1] born 19 September 1988) is a Canadian director, playwright, and screenwriter based inNew York City. Among her plays areEndlings andThe Seagull on The Sims 4 (both 2020). Her directorial film debut,Past Lives (2023), received critical acclaim and was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Picture andBest Original Screenplay. Her second film,Materialists, was released in theaters on 13 June 2025.
Song was born in South Korea.[2] Her parents, both artists, moved the family toMarkham, Ontario, Canada when she was 12.[2][3] Upon moving to Ontario, Song was given permission by her parents to select a new forename and decided it would be Celine (formerly Ha-Young).[4] Some of her immediate family members believe that she selected the name from Jacques Rivette's 1974 filmCeline and Julie Go Boating, whereas Song is convinced that she decided upon the name after seeing a Céline Dion CD.[5] Her father, Song Neung-han,[6] is a filmmaker.[7] Her mother is an illustrator and graphic designer.[8]
In Markham, Song attended public school Markham District High School (MDHS).[5] Song received her undergraduate degree fromQueen's University in Kingston, Ontario, where she studied psychology with a minor in philosophy. Song was initially hoping to pursue a career in clinical psychology.[5] She received her MFA inplaywriting fromColumbia University in 2014.[10][11][9]
Song's early career was largely dedicated to further developing her playwriting skills. From 2014-2015 she was part of the Ars Nova's Play Group, and in 2014 and 2016 was a Great Plains Theatre Conference Playwright. She was also part of the Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group from 2016-2017, and held a writing fellowship with Playwrights Realm during the 2017-2018 season.[12]
Song's playEndlings premiered in 2019 at theAmerican Repertory Theater. The show's off-Broadway run opened in March 2020 atNew York Theatre Workshop, but was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] The show tells the story of three older Korean womenhaenyeos and a Korean-Canadian writer living in New York.[13][2] In a mixed review, Alexandra Schwartz ofTheNew Yorker calledEndlings "two works spliced roughly together: a traditional play that seeks to depict people's lives, and a metafictional examination of the playwright's own motivations, which flirts with honesty before traipsing down a solipsistic path of no return."[14] The play was chosen for the 2018 O'Neill Playwrights Conference and was a finalist for the 2020Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.[15]Endlings was also incorporated on the 2017 Kilroy's List.[12]
In November 2020, Song directed a live production ofChekhov'sThe Seagull usingThe Sims 4 onTwitch for New York Theatre Workshop, calledThe Seagull on The Sims 4.[16][2] In a review forVulture, Helen Shaw praised the play: "I think Song's game-play/play-game managed the trick by capturing the experience not ofgoing to a show but ofworking on one. At her urging, viewers brought the quality of attention that comes with collaboration, and that felt like a churning motor under everything, trying to propel the show into being."[17]
Song's first television screenwriting job was as a staff writer for the first season of Amazon'sThe Wheel of Time in 2021.[19] The opportunity for the screenwriting job arose after Rafe Judkins, the showrunner for a TV series in development, had read a script that Song wrote.[5]
Song wrote the screenplay forPast Lives, her directorial film debut, about two childhood friends who reunite as adults (portrayed byGreta Lee andTeo Yoo).[20] The film is partly inspired by Song's life, specifically a dinner she had with her English-speaking husband and a Korean-speaking friend visiting New York.[9] She said that "at one point, I realized that I wasn't just translating between their languages and cultures, but also translating between these two parts of myself as well."[9] The film was produced byA24 and premiered at theSundance Film Festival in January 2023.[21]
Past Lives received critical acclaim and has been compared to the work ofRichard Linklater,Woody Allen, andNoah Baumbach.[22][23]The Guardian's Benjamin Lee wrote that "as writer, Song manages to keep her dialogue believably light-footed and spare while as director, she confidently and evocatively captures both cities with a breadth that belies her inexperience".[24]Richard Lawson ofVanity Fair called the film "understated and yet vast in its consideration of the slow changes of life, of the past ever whispering to the present. The film is as auspicious a debut as one can hope to see at Sundance, the announcement of a filmmaker confident in her craft and generous with her heart."[21] The filmPast Lives has also been praised for its portrayal of an immigrant experience and for its universal representation of love and fate.[4] The film received many accolades, including nominations forBest Picture andBest Original Screenplay at the96th Academy Awards.[25] Song was the first Asian woman to be nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Original Screenplay.[26][27] ForPast Lives, Song was also awarded outstanding directorial achievement in a first-time feature film by the Directors Guild of America.[5]
Her next film project with A24,Materialists, starringDakota Johnson,Pedro Pascal, andChris Evans,[28][29][30] was released in theaters on 13 June 2025.[31]Materialists was inspired by Song's experience and knowledge gained from her time being a matchmaker in New York City. The film follows Lucy's (played by Dakota Johnson) story when it comes to love in both matchmaking and her own romantic pursuits. It highlights Lucy's talent and skill as a matchmaker, as well as her struggle within her love triangle to pick between new-boy Harry (played by Pedro Pascal) and her ex-partner John (played by Chris Evans).[32]
Within a few months post-release, the filmMaterialists earned more than $90 million worldwide.[5] Marriska Fernandes of CBC Arts wrote that the filmMaterialists "is a masterclass in weaving profound questions into a narrative that remains both captivating and emotionally intelligent.Materialists has been garnering attention from moviegoers globally because it smartly subverts traditional rom-com tropes by making the material aspects of potential partners glaringly explicit".[32] The film received praise for its portrayal of love as both an analytical and selective process as well as a spontaneous, destined, and emotional connection.[5] However, the film was also criticized for the expectedness and unoriginality of its ending and for its missteps in its portrayal of a love triangle plot, with a review stating that "romantic triangles can collapse if all three legs aren't properly supported".[33]
In April 2024, the music video for pop artistLaufey's song "Goddess" was released, directed by Song.[34] And in July 2025, it was announced that Song was to write an upcoming sequel toMy Best Friend's Wedding (1997) by Sony Pictures.[35] Song's other upcoming project is a new A24 drama seriesDamage at HBO, where she is working with David Hinojosa, Jacqueline Lesko, Craig Mazin, and Cecil O'Connor. She was an executive producer and writer for this project. Song previously worked with David Hinojosa on both of her filmsPast Lives andMaterialists.[36] The development of this series began in September 2025.[5]
Song resides in New York City with her husband, writerJustin Kuritzkes, whom she met at an artist residency hosted by theEdward F. Albee Foundation.[37][38][9] Song has said he is always the first person to read her scripts.[39]
^Nordyke, Kimberly; Lewis, Hilary (23 January 2024)."Oscars: Full List of Nominations".The Hollywood Reporter.Archived from the original on 23 January 2024. Retrieved23 January 2024.
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