Preston Mui is a Chinese American performer, choreographer and director. He began his career as a professional dancer working with pop idols, singing divas and Hollywood legends. Choreography projects include The Masked Singer on FOX, RUN by Cirque Du Soleil and musicals at East West Players; the nation’s leading Asian American Pacific Islander Theater Company. Currently, on Broadway as George Eacker in the hit show, Hamilton. For more information go to www.prestonmui.com.
Ashley Mui is a Chinese American multi-medium artist and the creator of ho mei do, a company that tastefully blends contemporary art and design with timeless traditions. She combines media, tech, art, and culture to champion impactful community-industry initiatives. As a Producer, Ashley has credits working alongside cultural critic and director, Nelson D. George, on documentary films such as Brooklyn Boheme (Netflix); Finding The Funk (vh1); and A Ballerina's Tale (IFC). With over 10 years of experience in film production, Ashley leads Content Development for The Gates Preserve, a multimedia experience company committed to archiving and preserving culture such that it lasts forever. She currently serves as a Programmer and Producer for the leading multicultural film festival in the U.S. - Urbanworld. In 2020, Mui was a finalist for best production design with the Independent Short Awards for a short narrative called Through the Wire. She recently joined 150 and Warner Bros. Discovery as their first Artist-in-Residence, lending her creativity to build their vision of an artist studio where innovation happens. Follow her musings at @ashley_mui and check out her work at ashleymui.com.
Justin W. Yu is an Executive Producer and award-winning Creative Director with 13+ years leading campaigns and experiences for global giants like Disney, Lionsgate, and CBS. From The World of The Hunger Games at Motiongate Dubai to La La Land in Concert at the Hollywood Bowl, and leading creative for legendary Broadway titles like The Lion King and Aladdin, his work spans five continents and millions of audience members. Now Executive Creative Director of ARTHOUSE at TodayTix Group, he blends story, scale, and strategy to move culture forward. A UCLA alum and Cornell Executive MBA candidate, Justin co-created Forbidden to reclaim the powerful, untold legacy of AAPI performers in America. Discover more: jycreative.co
Sallomé Hralima is an award-winning writer and producer born in San Francisco and based in Brooklyn, NY. She specializes in historical drama and childhood adventure. Her documentary filmmaking includes a retrospective on the impact of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, a spotlight on hip hop archivist Syreeta Gates, and the award-winning archival feature It Was All a Dream focusing on the rappers and producers in the west and east coasts just before hip hop’s biggest stars are slain. She is currently penning a slate of scripted and unscripted episodic and feature projects.
Gabrielle Glore navigates the film and television space as Emmy-nominated producer (Sylvie’s Love), executive producer (Dirty Laundry), and film financier (Through The Fire). She produced 2 seasons of The Round for CENTRIC (now BET HER), a TV show providing a platform for women of color giving inspiring TED-style talks. Under the GLORIFIED production banner, she is developing a slate of episodic and feature projects, spanning the scripted, unscripted, and animation genres. Alongside her film & television projects, Gabrielle served as a co-producer of the limited engagement Broadway revival of The Wiz at The Marquis Theater in 2024.
She served as a consulting producer for Warner Bros. Discovery’s 150 Artist Studio, with an eye on sourcing and supporting undiscovered stories, while surfacing projects for development opportunities across the company’s portfolio of brands. For 18 years, Gabrielle formerly served as Festival Director and Head of Programming for Urbanworld, a 28-year-old NYC based festival providing a platform for inclusive storytellers from around the globe and a launching pad for some of Hollywood’s most successful talent in front of and behind the camera.
Gabrielle Co-Chairs the Board of The Moth, a nonprofit dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling and serves on the Board of MoCADA (Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts) a Brooklyn-based cultural institution.
– ARTIST STATEMENT –
An actor, marketer, and producer walk into a tea parlor…
Each carrying the weight of generations before us, we see 'Forbidden' as both a tribute and a rallying cry. As Chinese Americans, we grew up keeping our Chinese culture and traditions to ourselves: Sunday dim sum in Chinatown and walking through the market with grandma. We lived double lives — drawn to the vibrant pulse of Chinatown, yet never sharing that special place and and its culture with anyone outside of family. We folded away pieces of ourselves and learned to navigate a world where our heritage was a barrier, making us outsiders in our own homeland.
Therefore, 'Forbidden' is more than a series to us — it’s a reclamation, a love letter, an unapologetic, bold, declarative rebuke of all the narratives that made it so hard to be proudly Chinese in America. We are shattering and forever laying to rest the model minority myth and all its lasting damage. We are daring to show our whole selves.
We, and our people, have always been heroes of our own stories — complicated, flawed, and nuanced. It’s only here in the West that we are removed from the spotlight. So we’re changing that: we are the protagonists, the storytellers, and the history-makers, finally brought to center stage. We are telling our stories in full — no longer fractured, no longer hidden. We are here sharing our culture, our past, and our dreams as they truly are. This is our stand. Our series is an embrace of all parts of us that were once, but will no longer be, forbidden.
THE TEAM