Jon M. Chu Waited 20 Years for the Chance to Direct ‘Wicked’

He never doubted it would work as a movie. He just hoped he would be the one to film it: “I have my own experiences with being green.”

Jonathan Murray Chu (born November 2, 1979)^[2] is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known as the director of 2018's Crazy Rich Asians, one of the first films by a major Hollywood studio to feature a majority cast of Asian descent in a modern setting since The Joy Luck Club in 1993,^[3] and of the film adaptation of the stage musical Wicked, consisting of Wicked (2024).^[4]

a musical take on his 2018 breakthrough film, “Crazy Rich Asians.”

Chu, for his part, also identified with Elphaba. “I have my own experiences with being green,” he said, then added, citing Grande’s character, “But I’m also Glinda, the girl in the bubble. I’ve been very privileged, but I know what it means to decide to pop your bubble and confront those hard things.”

“And I’m also the Wizard,” he said. “How far will you go to entertain your audience? How far will you push your own moral boundaries to keep your audience entertained? So I think I’m in everything. But I think everybody, Cynthia, Ari, brought parts of themselves to each of these characters.”

Scenes from a career: Chu’s credits include, clockwise from top left, “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never,” “Step Up 2 the Streets,” “In the Heights” and “Crazy Rich Asians.”

朱浩偉（英語：Jonathan Murray "Jon" Chu，1979年11月2日—），臺灣裔美國電影導演、編劇。