About
Daniel’s life as a young, gay, Korean American, struggling actor in New York was complicated enough — and that was before his disapproving and devout Christian mother moved in.
Based on a true relationship.
Since then, many people have fallen in love with Esther and her blunt, often insensitive, and always unintentionally funny words of wisdom.
Including Cathy, Daniel's friend who also happens to be a filmmaker. She approached Daniel to turn the posts into a film. With the backing of 200+ Kickstarter supporters, they shot a pilot presentation / short film about Daniel and Esther.
And then Cathy and Daniel realized that this wonderful relationship shouldn't just exist within the confines of a short film or a pilot or even a feature film. There should be a whole series about Daniel and Esther.
Why? While Daniel and Esther's story has a uniquely contentious backdrop of an Korean American immigrant family struggling with tolerance and acceptance, ultimately, their story is universal. It's about the love between a parent and child, despite the cultural, religious, and political differences that pull them apart. Can you still love someone even if you don’t agree with them? Even if you think demons are feasting on a buffet of your son’s soul because he’s a “sinning homo-gay?” We think yes. We have to believe yes. We have to believe that in an America that is more divided than ever before, there is still hope that love can bring people together. And laughter can bring people together too. Rather than converting one side to another, we poke fun at both sides through dark, uncensored comedy.
Television has been at the forefront of representing the underrepresented. It’s about time we use the lens of Daniel and Esther’s funny yet heartbreaking, unique yet universal relationship that stretches from Queens, New York to Orange County, California to 1970s Seoul, Korea to explore what it means to be family in America today: Judging and being judged, yet finding a way to love, if not to understand.
The Team
Cathy Y. Yan
(Co-Creator, Director)
Cathy Yan is a filmmaker based in New York City, born in China and raised between Hong Kong and Washington, DC. She received her MBA from NYU's Stern School of Business and an MFA from the Tisch Graduate Film Program. is a filmmaker born in China and based in New York. Her feature film debut, DEAD PIGS, with legendary auteur Jia Zhangke as executive producer, premiered at Sundance 2018 in the World Cinema Dramatic competition and won the Special Jury Prize for ensemble acting. Previously, she was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Cathy graduated from Princeton University, magna cum laude, with a bachelor’s degree in the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs.
Daniel K. Isaac
(Co-Creator, Lead)
Daniel K. Isaac was born and raised in sunny Southern California. When he was in fifth grade, his mother heard a mortifying story about a preacher who went numb with stage fright and had to be escorted off the stage. Daniel was promptly signed up for Grace Korean Church's theatre troupe and he's been an actor ever since. After receiving his Bachelor's in Theatre from the University of California - San Diego (UCSD), Daniel moved to not-always-sunny New York City where he's been seen on large and small screens and stages. Some Film/TV Credits include: The Drummer opposite Danny Glover, The Dark End Of The Street, Money Monster (dir. Jodie Foster), “The Jim Gaffigan Show” (TV LAND), “Person of Interest” (CBS), Too Big to Fail (HBO), “The Other Two” (Comedy Central) and “Ben Kim” on SHOWTIME’s Billions.