Hieu Gray

Hieu Gray (formally Huynh) is a filmmaker. Her short films have been screened nationally and internationally.

For over a decade, Gray honed her craft as a Senior Producer at CNN creating some of the network’s most memorable and innovative campaigns. Her most recent projects at the network included the launch campaigns for Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown and the award-winning commercials for CNNGo, the network’s inaugural on-demand streaming service. Her work on these projects won numerous industry awards including several Gold PROMAX/BDA awards and New York Festivals Gold awards.  Her work greatly contributed to CNN’s win as the Worldwide Marketing Team of the year at the PROMAX/BDA awards. However, her most rewarding project has been a personal one. For World Refugee Day, she initiated and spearheaded a company-wide key art campaign that focused on highlighting employees who also happened to be refugees. She wanted to change the narrative of what it means to be a refugee – not only are they survivors, but also neighbors, friends, and co-workers.  Her efforts drew attention to the many faces of being a refugee and won a PROMAX/BDA Worldwide award.

In 2016, Gray moved to the West Coast to pursue her writing and filmmaking full-time. During this time, she was selected as a Norman Mailer Center poetry summer fellow at Pepperdine University where she started work on her poetry that focused on cultural identity, immigration, and her experience as a refugee.

Gray holds an MFA in Creative Writing/Poetry from NYU’s inaugural low-residency program with workshops in Paris.  She has been a finalist for the Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship which recognizes young poets under thirty-two. She graduated from Emory University with a BA in Creative Writing and Journalism.