Tony Le Nguyen

Tony LeNguyen was born in the Mekong Delta Vietnam in 1968 with the name Le Thien Toan and changed his name to Tony Lee as he began working as an actor in 1985 and finally changed his name to Tony LeNguyen in 1995 as he began working as a director Tony Le Nguyen began touring Australia in 1986 with actress Maria Coustas Handspan Theater in the play A Change of Face by director Carmelina di Guglielmo In 19901992 he worked with the Victoria State Opera acting in Madama Butterfly and Titus at TheaterWorks directed by David Pledger and Robert Draffin Tony LeNguyen studied Television Productions Techniques at RMIT Melbourne In 1989 and completed his Bachelors degree Drama Arts and Community Development 1998 and a Graduate Diploma of Education from Victoria University in 2000 He is best known for his role as Tiger opposite actor Russell Crowe in the 1992 film Romper Stomper directed by Geoffrey Wright He has also appeared in many other Australian television episodes including Stingers SeaChange Raw FM GP Fast Forward All Together Now Embassy Secrets The Damnation of Harvey McHugh Paradise Beach English at Work and Australia Most Wanted In May 1994 he founded the AVYM Australian Vietnamese Youth Media Group with the support of David Everist at the Footscray Community Arts Centre The AVYM group received its first funding from the Queens Trust Australia in 1995 to produce the first version of the play Running Around which he himself wrote and directed In 1996 it received funding from the Arts Council of Australia and the Sidney Myer Foundation to recreate version 2 Running Around in a larger and more professional way at Napier Street Theatre South Melbourne And in 1998 he was invited by Urban Theater Projects to recreate the 3rd version of Running Around in Sydney In addition to the above works Tony LeNguyen has directed and produced professional community productions such as A Time of Our Lives at St Martins Youth Theater and Flemington community centre In 1996 he was invited to codirect Worlds Apart with Gary McKechnie a short drama about the generational conflict in a Vietnamese family in Australia It was first shown on Australian television station SBS in December 1997 In 1997 1998 he staged Now I Lay Me Down by Frank Ottis at La Mama theater and Taboo at the Next Wave Festival In 2001 Tony LeNguyen was the Author and Producer of the play Aussie Bia Om In 1997 and 2000 he was one of the directors for the Maribyrnong Festival In 2000 he was the first Vietnamese to be awarded a Community Development Fellowship by the Arts Council of Australia to study popular arts around the world Since then he has been invited to teach and give lectures in many places in Australia USA Canada Italy and Hong Kong In 2005 he produced Children of the Dragon at Trades Hall and in 2008 he produced Silence at La Mama Theater in Melbourne