{{Short description|American journalist, author and screenwriter}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2025}} {{Use American English|date=August 2025}} {{Infobox person | image = Paula Yoo at SCBWI-LA Writer's Day 2008 (cropped).jpg | caption = At SCBWI-LA Writer's Day in 2008 | birth_place = Virginia, United States | education = Avon High School | alma_mater = Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism | notable_works = ''From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement'' }}
'''Paula Yoo''' is an American journalist, children's and young adult's author, and television screenwriter. She is also a professional freelance violinist and has performed with classical orchestras and contemporary rock bands.
== Early life and education == Yoo was born in Virginia, United States and is of Korean descent.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Lemanski |first=Michael |date=2025-01-10 |title=Simsbury HS Welcomes Acclaimed Author/Avon HS Grad |url=https://patch.com/connecticut/simsbury/simsbury-hs-welcomes-acclaimed-author-avon-hs-grad |access-date=2025-08-25 |website=CT Patch |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ytQUPPigJo |title=Paula Yoo: Navigating Two Cultures |date=2022-03-24 |last=Reading Rockets |access-date=2025-08-25 |via=YouTube |archive-date=May 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230518082829/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ytQUPPigJo |url-status=live }}</ref> She was educated at Avon High School in Avon, Connecticut, United States.<ref name=":0" /> She studied a master's degree at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, graduating in 1992.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Lee |first=Michelle |date=May 15, 2024 |title=Five Questions for Paula Yoo |url=https://www.hbook.com/story/five-questions-for-paula-yoo-2024 |access-date=2025-08-25 |website=The Horn Book |archive-date=August 4, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250804151250/https://www.hbook.com/story/five-questions-for-paula-yoo-2024 |url-status=live }}</ref>
== Career ==
=== Journalism === As a journalist, Yoo worked for publications including the ''Detroit News'', ''Seattle Times'' and ''People.''<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Paula Yoo |url=https://www.nationalbook.org/people/paula-yoo/ |access-date=2025-08-24 |website=National Book Foundation |language=en-US |archive-date=August 12, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250812134406/https://www.nationalbook.org/people/paula-yoo/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Paula Yoo: From Journalism School to the Television Writer's Room |url=https://www.readingrockets.org/videos/meet-authors/paula-yoo-journalism-school-television-writers-room |access-date=2025-08-25 |website=Reading Rockets |language=en}}</ref>
=== Screenwriting === As a television screenwriter, Yoo has writing credits for television shows including ''Supergirl'', ''Mozart in the Jungle'', and ''The West Wing.''<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Amazing Asians in the Arts: Paula Yoo |url=https://thecre8sianproject.com/blogs/news/amazing-asians-in-the-arts-paula-yoo |access-date=2025-08-24 |website=The Cre8sian Project |language=en |archive-date=June 24, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250624124645/https://thecre8sianproject.com/blogs/news/amazing-asians-in-the-arts-paula-yoo |url-status=live }}</ref> She was co-executive producer of ''Supergirl'' and ''Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists.''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Andreeva |first=Nellie |date=2019-12-05 |title=K-Pop-Themed Drama 'Olympic Boulevard' In Works At Peacock From Paula Yoo, Kyle Hanagami & Neil Meron |url=https://deadline.com/2019/12/k-pop-themed-drama-olympic-boulevard-peacock-paula-yoo-kyle-hanagami-neil-meron-1202801268/ |access-date=2025-08-24 |website=Deadline.com |language=en-US |archive-date=May 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200507022442/https://deadline.com/2019/12/k-pop-themed-drama-olympic-boulevard-peacock-paula-yoo-kyle-hanagami-neil-meron-1202801268/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
=== Children's and young adult books === Yoo's debut children's narrative nonfiction book<ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story by Paula Yoo |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781584302476 |access-date=2025-08-25 |website=Publishers Weekly |archive-date=December 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241205093425/https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781584302476 |url-status=live }}</ref> ''Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story'' was an Honor Book at the 2006 Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature (APAAL), awarded by the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA).<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Book Awards & Distinctions for Paula Yoo |url=https://school.teachingbooks.net/authorBookAwards.cgi?id=6939 |access-date=2025-08-25 |website=TeachingBooks}}</ref>
Yoo's book ''My Kite is Stuck! and Other Stories'' was a finalist for the 2017 Cybils Award.{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}}
Yoo's young adult book ''From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement'' won the Children's Literature Council of Southern California's 2022 Peggy Miller Award for Young Adult Literature,<ref>{{Cite web |title=2022 CLCSC Awards - Acceptance Speech by Winner Paula Yoo |url=https://www.childrensliteraturecouncil.org/blog/2022-clcsc-awards-acceptance-speech-by-winner-paula-yoo |access-date=2025-08-25 |website=Children's Literature Council of Southern California |language=en-US |archive-date=November 16, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241116092302/https://www.childrensliteraturecouncil.org/blog/2022-clcsc-awards-acceptance-speech-by-winner-paula-yoo |url-status=live }}</ref> won the Chinese American Librarians Association's 2022 Best Young Adult Non-fiction Book Award,<ref>{{Cite web |title=2022 CALA Best Book Award Recipients |url=https://cala-web.org/node/2511 |access-date=2025-08-25 |website=Chinese American Librarians Association |archive-date=November 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/20257/20221108064225/https://cala-web.org/node/2511 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> and won the 2021 Nonfiction ''Boston Globe''–''Horn'' Book Award.<ref name=":4" /> The book was also a finalist for the 2022 Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)'s Award for Excellence in Nonfiction<ref name=":4" /> and was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Rising from the Ashes with Paula Yoo & Philip Chung |url=https://www.janm.org/events/2024-05-18/rising-ashes-paula-yoo-philip-chung |access-date=2025-08-24 |website=Japanese American National Museum (JANM) |archive-date=August 5, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250805082638/https://www.janm.org/events/2024-05-18/rising-ashes-paula-yoo-philip-chung |url-status=live }}</ref> It recounts the 1982 killing of Vincent Chin and the impact this had on Asian American people.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wang |first=Claire |date=2021-04-16 |title=New YA book details how Vincent Chin's killing galvanized Asian American activism |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/new-ya-book-details-vincent-chins-killing-galvanized-asian-american-ac-rcna691 |access-date=2025-08-25 |website=NBC News |language=en |archive-date=December 16, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241216175229/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/new-ya-book-details-vincent-chins-killing-galvanized-asian-american-ac-rcna691 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Simeon |first=Laura |title=A Journalist Revisits the Case of Vincent Chin |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/paula-yoo-whisper-rallying-cry-interview/ |access-date=2025-08-25 |website=Kirkus Reviews |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pang |first=Valerie Ooka |last2=Hokoda |first2=Audrey |last3=Pak |first3=Yoon K. |date=2024-05-01 |title=Social Justice, Inclusion, and Diversity in Asian American Literature for High School |url=https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ncss/se/2024/00000088/00000003/art00005 |journal=Social Education |volume=88 |issue=3 |pages=154–160 |archive-date=May 13, 2025 |access-date=August 25, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250513135001/https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ncss/se/2024/00000088/00000003/art00005 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Yoo's young adult book ''Rising from the Ashes: Los Angeles, 1992. Edward Jae Song Lee, Latasha Harlins, Rodney King, and a City on Fire'' narrates the 1992 Los Angeles uprising from multiple points of view in the Korean American and Black communities.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Spisak |first=April |date=2024 |title=Rising from the Ashes: Los Angeles, 1992. Edward Jae Song Lee, Latasha Harlins, Rodney King, and a City on Fire by Paula Yoo (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/919513 |journal=Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books |volume=77 |issue=7 |pages=267–267 |issn=1558-6766 |archive-date=February 14, 2024 |access-date=August 25, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240214000303/https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/919513 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Other works by Yoo include ''Good Enough'',<ref>Adams, Ursula. (2008) [https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA191345464&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=00094056&p=AONE&sw=w "Yoo, Paula: Good Enough."] ''Childhood Education'' '''85''' (2). pp. 127-128.</ref> ''Twenty-Two Cents: The Story of Muhammad Yunus'' (co-written with Jamel Akib),<ref name=":4" /> ''Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story''<ref name=":4" /> and titles in the ''Confetti Kids'' picture book series.<ref>Dahlen, Sarah Park. (25 February 2019). "Asian American children’s literature." In ''Oxford research encyclopedia of literature''.</ref>
=== Music === Yoo also works as a professional violinist and has performed with both classical orchestras and contemporary rock bands, such as Love, Fun and No Doubt.{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}}
Yoo supports organisations including the Orlando Youth Alliance, Stop AAPI Hate and We Need Diverse Books.<ref name=":3" />
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * {{IMDb name|id=nm1328493}} * {{Instagram|id=paulayoo|name=}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yoo, Paula}} Category:Living people Category:Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni Category:Writers from Virginia Category:Musicians from Virginia Category:21st-century American women journalists Category:21st-century American women writers Category:21st-century American screenwriters Category:21st-century American women musicians Category:American women violinists Category:American musicians of Korean descent Category:American women musicians of Asian descent Category:American women writers of Asian descent Category:American writers of Korean descent Category:Year of birth missing (living people)