In Conversation: Soo Hugh and Lynn Nottage

Join Soo Hugh (PACHINKO, THE TERROR) and Lynn Nottage (INTIMATE APPAREL, CLYDE’S, SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT) in conversation about the groundbreaking AppleTV+ series PACHINKO in celebration of its recent season.

ABOUT SOO HUGH: Soo Hugh serves as showrunner, executive producer, writer and visionary behind the drama series PACHINKO which debuted on Apple TV+ in March 2022. Based on the international best-selling novel of the same name, the series follows the hopes and dreams of four generations of a Korean immigrant family. Epic in scope, intimate in tone, the story begins with a forbidden love and crescendos into a sweeping saga that journeys between Korea, Japan and America to tell the unforgettable story of war and peace, love and loss, triumph and reckoning.

Told in three languages — Korean, Japanese, and English — and consisting of eight, one-hour episodes, the highly anticipated season two premiered globally on August 23 on Apple TV+.

Season 1 received the Peabody Entertainment Award, a Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Foreign Language Series, an Independent Spirit Award for Best Ensemble Cast in a Scripted Series, a Gotham Award for Breakthrough Series and was notably elected one of AFI’s TV Programs of the Year. The critically acclaimed series received plaudits from critics calling it, “masterpiece tv”, “one of the best things on tv”, “Apple’s Best TV Show So Far”, and “one of the best adaptations of not just this year but of all time.”

In March 2024, it was announced that Hugh signed a multi-year overall deal with Apple TV+ and Media Res. Under the deal, Hugh and her Moonslinger Productions banner will create, write, and produce content for the streaming service and the TV studio and movie production company.

Up next, Hugh and Moonslinger will executive produce THE WHITE DARKNESS for Apple TV+, a limited series being developed and showrun by Kerry Ehrin (THE MORNING SHOW, BATES MOTEL). Based on David Grann’s nonfiction book of the same name, the project is inspired by Henry Worsley, played by Tom Hiddleston, a devoted husband and father, a former soldier, a man of deep honor and sacrifice, but also a man deeply obsessed with adventure, manifesting in an epic journey crossing Antarctica on foot. Additionally, it was recently announced that Hugh will write and direct F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Tender Is the Night” for Searchlight Pictures.

Hugh was previously the co-showrunner for the critically lauded first season of AMC’s THE TERROR, produced by Ridley Scott and starring Jared Harris, Ciaran Hinds, and Tobias Menzies. She also created THE WHISPERS for ABC, based on a Ray Bradbury short story and produced by Steven Spielberg, directed by Mark Romanek. The series was sold when Soo was a staff writer. Other television credits include writing on THE KILLING (AMC) and UNDER THE DOME (CBS). Hugh formerly had a multi-year overall deal with UCP to develop, write and produce projects. As part of the deal, she launched an incubator program, “The Thousand Miles Project” to help bring more AAPI stories to cinematic life and jumpstart fruitful careers in the entertainment industry.

She earned her BA from Yale University and her MFA from University of Southern California’s film school. Hugh lives in New York City.

ABOUT LYNN NOTTAGE: Lynn Nottage is the first woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Her plays have been produced widely in the United States and throughout the world. Recent work includes the libretto for the opera Intimate Apparel (LCT), the book for the musical MJ (Broadway), Clyde’s (Broadway, 2ST), and the book for The Secret Life of Bees. Other credits include the libretto for Intimate Apparel the Opera ( Lincoln Center Theater) and co-curating the performance installation The Watering Hole (Signature Theater). (Atlantic); Mlima’s Tale; Sweat (Pulitzer Prize, Obie, Evening Standard Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Lilly Award); Ruined (Pulitzer Prize, Obie, Lortel, NY Drama Critics’ Circle, AUDELCO, Drama Desk and OCC awards); Intimate Apparel (American Theatre Critics and NY Drama Critics’ Circle).

TV: Writer/Producer of She’s Gotta Have It (Netflix), Consulting Producer on Dickinson (Apple TV+). Awards: PEN/Laura Pels Master Dramatist Award, Doris Duke Artist Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship. She is a Professor at Columbia University School of the Arts, and is a member of the Theater Hall of Fame and the Dramatists Guild.