Timothy Tau
Born	Timothy Tau Hsieh August 24 Torrance, California, U.S.
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley (BS,LLM) University of London (LLB) University of California, Hastings (JD) University of California, Los Angeles (MSE)
Occupations	Writer filmmaker attorney law professor
Awards	Grand Prize,HyphenAsian American Writers' Workshop Short Story Contest,The Understudy

Timothy Tau (bornTimothy Tau Hsieh (/ʃeɪ/SHAY);traditional Chinese: 謝韜;pinyin:Xiè Tāo) is aTaiwanese-American writer, engineer, attorney, law professor and filmmaker. Tau won the 2011HyphenAsian American Writers' Workshop Short Story Contest for his short story, "The Understudy", which was published in the Winter 2011 issue ofHyphen magazine, Issue No. 24, the "Survival Issue." Tau also won Second Prize in the 2010Playboy College Fiction Contest for his short story, "Land of Origin" (see the October 2010 issue ofPlayboy magazine). He has also directed a number of short films and music videos that have screened at various film festivals worldwide and on YouTube.

Tau was born as Timothy Tau Hsieh inTorrance, California, to aTaiwanese American family: his father, Chung-Ta Hsieh worked as anelectrical engineer while his mother Kuei-Chen Hsieh née Chang worked as acomputer programmer. He also has a younger brother named Daniel Hsieh, a graduate ofUCLA (Bachelor’s, Electrical Engineering) andSanta Clara University School of Law (J.D.), apatent attorney that works at the Australian law firm of Griffith Hack inMelbourne.^[1] After graduating fromTorrey Pines High School in 2001,^[2] Tau was educated at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, where he earned aBachelor of Science (B.S.) inElectrical Engineering andComputer Science (EECS - a joint department in Engineering at UC Berkeley) in 2004, completing the degree in just three years.^[3] He then attendedFranklin Pierce Law Center (now theUniversity of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law) for his 1L year and then transferred to theUniversity of California Hastings College of Law (nowUniversity of California College of the Law, San Francisco orUC Law SF) where he was the staff editor and technology editor of theHastings Law Journal, and received aJ.D. in 2007.^[4][5]

From 2008 to 2014, Tau pursued graduate studies at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles, and received aMaster of Science in Engineering inelectrical engineering in 2010, along with a certificate in fiction from theUCLA Extension Writers' Program, and certificates in screenwriting as well as television writing from the Professional Programs at theUCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.^[6][7][8] In 2017, he earned aMaster of Laws (LL.M.) from theUC Berkeley School of Law, where he was an articles editor of theBerkeley Technology Law Journal.^[9] In 2024, he received aBachelor of Laws or LL.B. degree from theUniversity of London.^[10]

Tau's short story "The Understudy" is a comic-surrealist story about an Asian American actor named Jack Chang struggling in Los Angeles who must deal with the sudden emergence of a mysterious new understudy named Hyde on a production of a play (Eugène Ionesco'sRhinoceros) he is working on.^[11] It is told in thesecond-person narrative. The story was published in the Winter 2011 Issue ofHyphen magazine and won Grand Prize in the 2011Hyphen Asian American Short Story Contest, sponsored by theAsian American Writers Workshop and the only national Pan-Asian American Writing Competition of its kind.^[12][13] Award-winning novelistPorochista Khakpour, one of the judges, called the story a "psychological thriller successfully pulled off in second person -- alone a feat worthy of mention -- and [a] cautionary tale about what happens when you entirely live for and therefore ultimately lose everything but your art. At surface glance, it can make one think 'Chinese thespianBlack Swan,' but the wild, brainy, dark and dazzling prose is in a league of its own."MacArthur Fellow and award-winning novelistYiyun Li said: "Full of vibrating energy, ‘The Understudy’ is an exciting story to read; better, the excitement does not fizz off but makes a reader think afterward."^[14] The short story was also listed on the syllabus in the upper-division level English course "Reading and Writing Short Stories" (ENGE 3290) taught by Dr. Suzanne Wong at theChinese University of Hong Kong.^[15]

Tau's short story "Land of Origin" is a love-crime and neo-noir story about a Taiwanese American professional/ex-pat named Dante Wu who lives an empty and jaded life in Los Angeles, and who goes back toKaohsiung,Taiwan, to get mixed up with betel nut girls (falling in love with one in the process) and a gang known as "The Heavenly Alliance." The story tracks his descent, like the Dante of TheDivine Comedy andThe Inferno, into the sprawling neon-lit criminal underworld of urbanTaiwan. The short story won Second Prize in the 2010 Playboy College Fiction Contest.^[16][17][18] It also won Second Place in the inaugural 2015 ScreenCraft Short Story Contest, which was judged byAcademy Award winning screenwriterDiana Ossana.^[19] The short story is also published at the ScreenCraft website.^[20] A feature screenplay adaptation of the short story entitled "Kaohsiung" also was a Quarter-Finalist in the 2017 Fifteenth AnnualZoetrope Screenplay Contest, judged byFrancis Ford Coppola.^[21]

Another one of Tau's short stories entitled "One Traveler" also won the Gold Key award from theScholastic Art and Writing Awards and 2nd prize in the Samuel C. Irving Prize for American Wit and Humor, given at theUniversity of California, Berkeley.^[22] Both "One Traveler" and "Land of Origin" were additionally finalists in the 2018William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition.^[23]

Tau's experimental short story "For/Most/Of" is atriptych that is published in the 2018 bookChrysanthemum: Voices of the Taiwanese Diaspora.^[24] The story is split into three segments that respectively cover: (1)Kaohsiung, Taiwan in 1979 (the beginning of theKaohsiung Incident orFormosa Incident); (2)Taipei, Taiwan in 2018; and (3) the high-tech hub ofHsinchu, Taiwan in the future year of 2056.^[24]

Tau has also written a play entitled "Yellow Shakespeare" and developed it as part of theDavid Henry Hwang Writer's Institute (DHHWI) atEast West Players. The play concerns the discovery of a long-lostShakespeare play that is the first and only Shakespeare play to feature Asian characters, and is set in the same universe as his short story, "The Understudy," as it revolves around the same fictional theater company from the short story, the Exit Ghost Repertory (the name taken from a stage direction inHamlet and the title of anovel byPhilip Roth). A staged reading of an early version of the play was held at the DHHWI New Works Festival at the David Henry Hwang Theater in Los Angeles.^{[25][26][27][28][29]} In 2013, another reading of the play was staged at the DHHWI New Works Festival.^[30][31] In 2013, Tau also held a reading of another play entitledBros/Hos/Foes at the DHHWI New Works Festival about two Asian American actors from different backgrounds trapped in a timeless space.^[32][33][34]

Tau is also a contributing writer toindieWire'sThe Playlist and writes film reviews^[35][36] and news articles^[37][38] for the site. He also conducts Q&A interviews atHyphen magazine with leading Asian American writers, film directors, actors, musicians, and artists and has them discuss their latest projects,^[39] and is also a contributing writer toScreen Anarchy (formerly Twitch Film).^[40][41] Tau has also taught an Introduction to Screenwriting & TV Writing course atThe Writer's Center,^[42] which has been featured onDCist.^[43]

Tau has also directed several short films under his production company, Firebrand Hand Creative[1]. In 2014, Tau was named as one of "6 Young Asian American Filmmakers Who Are Shattering America's Film Bias" byMic Magazine.^[44]

In 2018, a short documentary entitledNathan Jung v.Bruce Lee written and directed by Tau won Best Original Script and Best Comedy Short Film awards at the Winter 2018 Asians on Film Festival.^[45] The film recounts the true story of actorNathan Jung meetingBruce Lee for the first time on the set of the TV show,Here Come the Brides in 1969, where Bruce played his first and last purely dramatic and non-martial arts U.S. TV role as Lin Sung in the episode "Marriage, Chinese Style."^[46] The film has also been an official selection of the 2018–2019 Asians on Film Festival of Shorts,^[45][47] the 2018 Taiwanese American Film Festival,^[48] the 2018Vancouver Asian Film Festival,^[49] and the 2019Seattle Asian American Film Festival.^[50] UponNathan Jung's passing on April 24, 2021,Nathan Jung v. Bruce Lee was shared and Jung's death was covered by outlets (with Tau being the source sharing the news) includingVariety,^[51]Deadline Hollywood,^[52]SyFy Wire,^[53]The Independent (UK),^[54]The Daily Express (UK),^[55]News.com.au,^[56]The New Zealand Herald,^[57]NY Daily News,^[58]Heavy.com,^[59]Yahoo! Lifestyle,^[60]Daily Star Trek News,^[61]Comicbook.com,^[62]Outsider,^[63]AsAm News,^[64]iHorror,^[65]Giant Freakin Robot,^[66] and others.

In 2011–2013, Tau directed, wrote (with Ed Moy) and produced a short film bio-pic aboutKeye Luke (played byFeodor Chin) entitledKeye Luke, which premiered at the 2012Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.^{[67][68][69][70]} The film was made under aVisual Communications "Armed with a Camera" Fellowship, and highlightsLuke's earlier roles as the firstKato in the 1940sGreen Hornet film serials and the "Number One Son," Lee Chan, in the popularCharlie Chan films of the 1930s.^{[71][72][73][74]} The film has also screened at over a dozen film festivals worldwide.^[75][76] The film's composer,George Shaw, won a "Best Original Score" award at the Asians on Film Festival.^[77] The film also won an Audience Award at the 2014HollyShorts Film Festival Monthly Screenings.^[78][79]

"The Case"[2] is a genre-hybrid of a short film that melds genres such as Film Noir, Sci-Fi, Horror Camp (in the vein ofEd Wood) and Spaghetti Westerns, and which stars Max Phyo,Cyndee San Luis, Hidekun Hah and Oliver Seitz. It has screened at TheLos Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, TheSan Diego Asian Film Festival, TheCannes Film Festival Short Film Corner (Court Metrage), and The Capalbio International Short Film Festival in Rome, Italy, founded byMichelangelo Antonioni.

He has written and directed a web series entitled "Quantum Cops"[3], a time and dimension traveling, buddy-cop action/sci-fi-/comedy that he co-created with Joshua Murphy and which starsKelvin Han Yee,Feodor Chin, Joshua Murphy,David Huynh, andIna-Alice Kopp.^[80][81] He has also written and directed a short film entitled "Incentivus" about a Writer (Archie Kao) and imagination, hallucinations and dreams.^[82] The film starsArchie Kao,Mei Melançon,Jessika Van, andCyndee San Luis.^[83]

In 2012, he collaborated with rappers/comediansThe Fung Brothers (David and Andrew Fung) and directed, produced and edited a comedy sketch film aboutJeremy Lin that The Fung Brothers wrote entitled "The Jeremy Lin Effect 2 (Linsanity)" where an Asian American girl named "Babe" (played byJessika Van) only attracted to white men (including her boyfriend, Bret, played by Scott Lilly) is suddenly attracted to Asian American men (including a student named "Jeremy", played by Andrew Fung) after seeing clips of Jeremy Lin play.^[84] The video went viral and was mentioned on The Washington Post, the Associated Press and Yahoo! Sports,^[85] and on Taiwanese News ChannelCTV among other news outlets.

In 2011, Tau directed a music video for YouTube Sensation and singer-Songwriter-ActressMegan Lee for her second original single, "Destiny."^[86][87] The music video also starsKelvin Han Yee,Megan Lee,Jessika Van,Yul Spencer andIna-Alice Kopp.^[88]

In 2013, Tau directed the Los Angeles segment of a music video for a track fromDumbfoundead and Paul Kim entitled "No Turning Back," the song being produced and composed byCHOPS aka Scott "Chops" Jung (formerly of TheMountain Brothers) for his EP project, "Strength in Numbers," which compiles tracks from a number of leading Asian American hip hop, rap and R&B artists.^[89][90][91] In addition toDumbfoundead/Parker and Paul Kim, the music video also starred Jennifer Field and Cindy Bru, and NY-based Director/rap artist JL Jupiter (Jeff Lek) directed the New York segment as well as edited the music video.^[92][93]

Tau, under his full name of Timothy Tau Hsieh, has been apatent attorney practicingpatent litigation andpatent prosecution at law firms such asGreenberg Traurig,Foley & Lardner LLP,Seyfarth Shaw LLP, Russ August & Kabat and Loza & Loza LLP (where he was a non-equity Partner), and was recognized as a Southern California "Rising Star" bySuper Lawyers magazine inintellectual property, an honor given to only 2.5% of California attorneys.^[10] He was mentored byAlan MacPherson while starting out at the law firm of MacPherson Kwok Chen & Heid LLP, nowHaynes & Boone.^[94]

He has further served as afederal judicial law clerk for theHonorable Roy S. Payne of theU.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, the Honorable Kandis A. Westmore of theU.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and as a judicial law fellow orpro bonolaw clerk for theHonorable Michael A. Shipp of theU.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.^[10] Tau has additionally worked as apatent examiner at theU.S. Patent and Trademark Office, where he detailed as ajudicial law clerk for the Honorable Jameson Lee, the most seniorAdministrative Patent Judge at thePatent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).^[10] He was alsoeditor in chief of theJournal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society, the firstAsian American editor in chief in the journal'scentury-plus history, and moreover was the legislative chair for thePatent and Trademark Office Society.^[10]

In the fall of 2021, he joined the faculty ofOklahoma City University School of Law as a tenure-trackAssistantProfessor of Law, where he teaches, researches and writes scholarship aboutIntellectual Property Law,Patent Law,Trademark Law,Copyright Law,Trade Secret Law, Blockchain Law, Internet, Social Media & Computer Law,Artificial Intelligence Law,Antitrust Law,Entertainment Law, Law & Technology, Law & Literature/Film, Asian American Legal Studies and Representation in Media, among other topics.^[10][95]

In 2024, he was promoted to Associate Professor of Law, served as ajudicial law clerk toChief U.S. District JudgeTimothy D. DeGiusti of theU.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, and obtained aBachelor of Laws or LL.B degree from theUniversity of London.^[10]

In 2025, Tau became a Visiting Associate Professor atNational Taiwan University College of Law.^[96]

• Nathan Jung v.Bruce Lee (2018) – writer, director, producer, editor
• Keye Luke (2012) – writer, director, producer, editor
• The Jeremy Lin Effect II: Linsanity (2012) – director, producer, editor
• Incentivus (2011) – writer, director, producer, editor
• Quantum Cops: Law & Chicoban (2011) – writer, director, producer
• The Case (2010) – writer, director, producer

• No Turning Back – Feat.Dumbfoundead, Paul Kim &CHOPS (2013) – writer, director, producer
• Megan Lee's Destiny (2011) – writer, director, producer, editor

• "For/Most/Of," published inChrysanthemum: Voices of the Taiwanese Diaspora, pg. 30 (2018)
• "The Understudy" (2011),Hyphen, Winter 2011, pg. 74
  • Grand Prize, 2011HyphenAsian American Writers' Workshop Short Story Contest
• "Land of Origin" (2010)
  • 2nd Prize, 2010Playboy College Fiction Contest (listed in the October 2010 issue ofPlayboy, pg. 47)
  • 2nd Prize, 2015 ScreenCraft Short Story Contest (judged byAcademy Award winnerDiana Ossana)
  • Finalist, 2018William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition, Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society^[23]
• "One Traveler" (2003)
  • Gold Key Prize,Scholastic Art and Writing Awards (2001–2002)
  • 2nd Prize Samuel C. Irving Prize for American Wit and Humor (2003–2004)
  • Finalist, 2018William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition, Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society^[23]

• Bros/Hos/Foes (2013) – Play, developed for theDavid Henry Hwang Writer's Institute (DHHWI) atEast West Players
• Yellow Shakespeare (2012) – Play, also developed at the DHHWI

• Timothy Tau atIMDb

• Living people
• 21st-century American novelists
• American male novelists
• American short story writers
• University of California, Berkeley alumni
• University of California, Los Angeles alumni
• People from Torrance, California
• University of California College of the Law, San Francisco alumni
• American writers of Chinese descent
• American film directors of Taiwanese descent
• Film directors from California
• Taiwanese film directors
• American male short story writers
• American patent attorneys
• American writers of Taiwanese descent
• 21st-century American male writers

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