Pang-ni Landrum
http://www.wga.org/WrittenBy/1001/asian.html


A passion for comedy writing led Pang-ni Landrum and writing partner
Maggie Bandur to become the only women staff writers on the Fox show
Malcolm in the Middle. She says gender has been more of an issue
than race in being hired for jobs but adds that she got her first
job as a production assistant on Friends through a minority hiring
program.

"I had no idea it was a minority program when I applied for the job
and was a little miffed when I found out," says Landrum, sitting in
a Starbucks in West Los Angeles. "I worry about people being pegged
as the minority writer and not acknowledged because they're
talented. But maybe the diversity programs will help showrunners
realize there are people of color who do have talent."

Landrum's talent clearly impressed her bosses Marta Kauffman and
David Crane, who promoted her to writers' assistant on Friends and a
year later to script coordinator on Veronica's Closet. In January
1998, Landrum and Bandur were both accepted into the Warner Bros.
Comedy Writing Workshop, but Landrum missed half the program because
her mother, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer, was in failing
health.

"It was like life kicked me in the pants and said, 'Wake up,''' says
Landrum, who flew home to San Antonio to be with her mother for
several months. That August the writing team was hired for The Brian
Benben Show on CBS, and Landrum returned to L.A. "After four
episodes on the air, it was canceled. The timing couldn't have been
more perfect. The fifth episode was ours, and I flew home to view it
with my mom. That weekend trip ended up being for many months. Two
months later, she died on December 24. Unrelated to that, on January
12 my dad died of a heart attack."

Tears come to her eyes as she shares the memory. "You learn the
importance of things in life," she says. "What's more important?
Your family or a great job? For me, it was family. I was able to
take time to sell the house and take care of things before coming
back for the '99 staffing season."

For Asian-American writers like Landrum, ethnicity also means having
a dual heritage that is not always easy to navigate. "When I was a
kid, I thought everyone had an Asian mom," says Landrum. "My dad was
in the military, and many Asian women were married to African-
American men. I wondered why my dad was white. It shocked me that
not everyone ate rice or used chopsticks."

She fingers a jade Buddha on a necklace that her mother gave her and
says people have sometimes made reference to the piece, implying
that she's too blatant about her cultural identity. "Sometimes, it's
comments like, 'We get it. You're Asian,'" she says. "But it's a
gift from my mom. I'm not trying to make a statement. Some people
think I look Asian. Others think I look Caucasian. It's hard to know
where you belong sometimes."

Fortunately, Landrum has found a family on Malcolm in the Middle
that makes her very happy. "I'm in awe of the talent in our room,"
says the executive story editor. "I feel like it's the best job in
the world. I get paid to laugh. I watched a lot of TV growing up,
and when I read my diary from high school, Hollywood was so far
away. Now little kids' minds get rotted because of me. I love it!"


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APARTMENT 2H (New!)
http://www.thefutoncritic.com/cgi/gofuton.cgi?action=newswire&id=6389


Sony Pictures Television is developing a new comedy from writer Pang-
ni Landrum ("Friends," "Malcolm in the Middle") about a
twentysomething Los Angeles woman whose life, and those of her pals,
is complicated when her eccentric Chinese stepfather moves to town.
Said character, Mr. Liu, is actually based on Landrum's own
experience as her own stepfather arrived unannounced on her doorstep
straight from Beijing. The project was set up through the studio's
new program to develop more scripts with young and up-and-coming
writers.


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http://www.thefutoncritic.com/cgi/gofuton.cgi?
action=showatch&id=untitled_pang-ni_landrum_project


The Futon Critic reports writer Pang-ni Landrum ("Malcolm in the
Middle") is developing a comedy project at the Alphabet based on her
relationship with her mother, Shu-Chen Li, a Taiwanese immigrant who
wasn't afraid to speak her mind.