California State University, Northridge

Charles Yu is an acclaimed, award-winning author and television screenwriter. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, where he majored in molecular and cellular biology and minored in creative writing. He obtained his Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School. Mr. Yu worked as an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell, at Bryan Cave as a corporate attorney, as the director of Business Affairs at Digital Domain and as an associate general counsel at Belkin International before becoming a full-time fiction and TV writer.

He has written four books, including “Interior Chinatown", which explores the stereotypes of Asian Americans in Hollywood and in American culture more broadly. The book was named the winner of the 2020 National Book Award. He received the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Award and was nominated for two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work on the HBO series, “Westworld".  He has also written for shows on FX, AMC and HBO. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. Together with TaiwaneseAmerican.org, he established the Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Writing Prizes in honor of his parents.

​In recognition for his written works including his critically acclaimed book on Asian American roles and culture in the entertainment industry, and his creative contributions on multiple television shows, the Board of Trustees of the California State University and California State University, Northridge are proud to confer upon Charles Yu the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts.