Xueni Yang

Xueni Yang is a writer-director, actress, dancer, and university lecturer based in Prague. Born in Beijing, she began studying Chinese classical and folk dance at the age of four, performing both nationally and internationally throughout her youth. At fifteen, she moved to the United States and later earned her BA from Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied animation, filmmaking, literature, and social psychology, while also auditing theater acting and contemporary dance classes. During her sophomore year, she published the Chinese novel Tong Xiang Jin Du (《通向金都》), a project she began at the age of fourteen.

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In 2023, Xueni received her MFA in Film Directing from FAMU (Film and Television School of Performing Arts in Prague). Her thesis film Fir (《杉》) was nominated for Best Student Film at the Czech Lion Awards and selected by several international festivals, including Reel Sisters of the Diaspora. Her earlier works, including Hush, Mother, and Fishbowl, were also recognized on the international festival circuit. She created the short film The Bus Stop Where We Were under the mentorship of legendary auteur Béla Tarr during an intensive international masterclass—an experience that led her to experiment with character-based improvisation in her filmmaking.

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In 2025, her screenplay The Last Day of July (《漫天白日》) became a semifinalist in the BlueCat Screenplay Competition. She is currently developing multiple film projects, including her debut feature Deadly Alive (working title). As part of her preparation for this project, Xueni began studying physical theater to deepen her understanding of embodiment in performance. She has been awarded a full scholarship by the New International Performing Arts Institute and will take part in a three-week intensive in Hungary from June to July 2025.

As an actress, Xueni has appeared in a wide range of international commercials and films, including work for Amazon TV, Samsung, and Fujifilm. Alongside her creative work, she lectures on film analysis at the Prague School of Creative Communication. Across all her disciplines, Xueni continues to explore the intersection of movement, narrative, and visual storytelling in a cross-cultural context.