Khai Thu Nguyen is a Vietnamese American filmmaker based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her films shine a light on people whose stories are not traditionally told. Khai’s short films Table Stakes on Fracture Comics comic book creators and their determination to create space for themselves and place people of color at the forefront of their work, and Alexa and May based on her mother's relationship with her frenemy the Amazon Alexa, won awards and have shown at festivals all over the U.S. She was field producer for HBO Max's documentary series Not So Pretty, focused on toxic chemicals in the beauty industry in communities such as Vietnamese American manicurists. Khai’s upcoming feature documentary The Full Thao about performer Thao P. Nguyen navigating queer Vietnamese identity while making a new comedy show, is supported by the Center for Asian American Media documentary fund and BAVC Media. Her documentary short Memoirs of May about her mother writing a memoir about her life married to a famous Vietnamese painter, is funded by the Still I Rise Films Fellowship for US women artists. She is a BAVC National Mediamaker 2024 Fellow, SFFilm Rainin Grant finalist, and BAVC Mediamaker Connect 2023 Mentee.

Previously Khai directed and produced theater in Vietnam and the SF Bay Area. Other grants from Fulbright-Hays, UC Pacific Rim, and Royal Norwegian Embassy have supported her work. She received her B.A. in Humanities from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in Performance Studies from UC Berkeley, where she had extensive experience in higher education administration, research and teaching.