About Ayako Plascencia

Ayako Plascencia is a junior at the University of Southern California earning her B.F.A in Film and Television production. She has been writing scripts since the 5th grade and aims to create films that resonate with people and make them feel represented. Since she was a child, she has felt that stories like her own have not been commonly portrayed on screen, and her goal is for young, queer, women of color to not feel that way as they grow up.

In her most recent work at the University of Southern California, she wrote and directed her short film, What It Takes, a story about a couple facing the question of whether or not they should terminate a pregnancy. These stories that feel difficult to tell and are so specific and different to each experience, are the ones that she likes to tackle. These stories that have true emotional weight to them are the kinds she likes to tell. Having grown up in a poor town where the minorities made up the majority, her voice is unique amongst those presented in the media today. However, her experience is not unique to everyday people, but simply underrepresented in film and television. Her approach to storytelling is to bring attention to the stories still untold and open the floor for more diverse people to have the opportunity to use their individual voices.