Celine Song Bio
Celine Song (born Song Ha-Young; Korean: 송하영; born 19 September 1988) is a Canadian director, playwright, and screenwriter based in New York City. She first gained recognition for her plays, including Endlings and The Seagull on The Sims 4, before moving into film with her acclaimed directorial debut, Past Lives (2023). She has since expanded her body of work with Materialists (2025) and several upcoming projects in both film and television.
Song’s writing and directing are known for their quiet emotional precision, careful handling of dialogue, and a recurring focus on love, identity, and the immigrant experience. She is also a published playwright whose stage work has been produced at major New York theatres, and she has continued to write across theatre, film, and television throughout her career.
Early Life and Background
Celine Song was born in South Korea on 19 September 1988. Her parents, both artists, moved the family to Markham, Ontario, Canada when she was 12 years old. Her father, Song Neung-han, is a filmmaker, and her mother is an illustrator and graphic designer. Shortly after the move, her parents gave her permission to choose a new given name, and she selected the name Celine. Song has said that her immediate family believes she took the name from Jacques Rivette’s 1974 film Céline and Julie Go Boating, while she is convinced she decided on the name after seeing a Céline Dion CD.
While living in Markham, Song attended Markham District High School (MDHS). She wrote her first play, an adaptation of Prometheus, at a classics conference she attended with the Markham District Classics Club. During her undergraduate studies in 2009, she wrote and directed a play titled Sound Utterly Serious, which was referred to as an “innovative gem” by The Queen’s Journal. These early experiences in theatre and writing helped shape her interest in storytelling and laid the foundation for her future training as a playwright.
Path to Director
Song received her undergraduate degree from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, where she studied psychology with a minor in philosophy, graduating in 2010. She was the founder of an atheist club at the university and served as its first president. Although she initially considered a career in clinical psychology as a stepping stone toward becoming a writer, she decided to skip that path and go directly into writing after taking a German literature course where she was exposed to the work of Bertolt Brecht. She later received her Master of Fine Arts in playwriting from Columbia University in 2014.
After completing her MFA, Song spent several years developing her craft as a playwright in New York. From 2014 to 2015, she was part of Ars Nova’s Play Group, and in 2014 and 2016, she was a Great Plains Theatre Conference Playwright. She was also part of the Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group from 2016 to 2017, and held a writing fellowship with Playwrights Realm during the 2017-2018 season. These formative experiences in playwriting and mentorship set the stage for her transition into screenwriting and film directing.
Celine Song Career
Early Career (2017–2020)
Song’s first notable professional work in theatre included the play Tom and Eliza, which was named a semifinalist for the American Playwriting Foundation’s 2016 Relentless Award, as well as Family and The Feast. Her play Endlings premiered in 2019 at the American Repertory Theater and was chosen for the 2018 O’Neill Playwrights Conference. It was also a finalist for the 2020 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and was included on the 2017 Kilroy’s List. The show’s off-Broadway run opened in March 2020 at New York Theatre Workshop but was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In November 2020, Song directed a live production of Chekhov’s The Seagull using The Sims 4 on Twitch for New York Theatre Workshop, a project called The Seagull on The Sims 4. The production attracted attention for its inventive use of a video game platform to stage a classic play, and it established Song as a distinctive creative voice willing to experiment with form and medium. Throughout this period, she received residences, fellowships, and commissions from MTC/Sloan, Sundance, the Millay Colony for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the Edward F. Albee Foundation.
Breakthrough (2021–2025)
Song’s first television screenwriting job was as a staff writer for the first season of Amazon’s The Wheel of Time in 2021. The opportunity arose after Rafe Judkins, the showrunner for a TV series in development, had read a script that Song wrote. She then wrote the screenplay for Past Lives, her directorial film debut, about two childhood friends who reunite as adults. The film was partly inspired by a dinner she had with her English-speaking husband and a Korean-speaking friend visiting New York. The film was produced by A24 and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2023.
Past Lives received critical acclaim and has been compared to the work of Richard Linklater, Woody Allen, and Noah Baumbach. The film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay at the 96th Academy Awards, and Song became the first Asian woman to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. She was also awarded outstanding directorial achievement in a first-time feature film by the Directors Guild of America for her work on the film. Her next project with A24, Materialists, starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Chris Evans, was released in theaters on 13 June 2025, and within a few months of its release, the film earned more than $100 million worldwide.
Notable Works and Milestones
Song’s signature works include the plays Endlings and The Seagull on The Sims 4, and the films Past Lives (2023) and Materialists (2025). Past Lives earned her Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, a Directors Guild of America award for outstanding directorial achievement in a first-time feature film, and recognition as the first Asian woman nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards. Materialists further cemented her reputation as a filmmaker capable of bringing emotionally layered stories to a wide audience.
Celine Song Award Nominations
Celine Song has received Academy Award nominations for her work on the film Past Lives. In 2023, the film was nominated for Best Picture and for Best Original Screenplay at the 96th Academy Awards. With her Best Original Screenplay nomination, Song became the first Asian woman to be nominated in that category. She also received a Directors Guild of America award for outstanding directorial achievement in a first-time feature film for Past Lives.
Celine Song Awards Won
Song’s verified award wins include the Directors Guild of America award for outstanding directorial achievement in a first-time feature film for her directorial debut, Past Lives. She has also been recognized through prestigious residencies, fellowships, and commissions from organizations including Sundance, the Millay Colony for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the Edward F. Albee Foundation.
Celine Song Family
Celine Song was born to parents who are both artists. Her father, Song Neung-han, is a filmmaker, and her mother is an illustrator and graphic designer. The family moved from South Korea to Markham, Ontario, Canada when she was 12 years old, where she later attended Markham District High School. Her parents supported her decision to choose a new given name, Celine, after the family’s relocation to Canada.
Personal Life
Song resides in New York City with her husband, writer Justin Kuritzkes, whom she married in 2016. The couple met at an artist residency hosted by the Edward F. Albee Foundation. Song has said that Kuritzkes is always the first person to read her scripts, and he has been a consistent creative partner in her writing process. Her work often explores themes of love, modern relationships, and the immigrant experience, drawing in part from her own cross-cultural life and marriage.
