Wei Ling Chang grew up in Taiwan under martial law and was cajoled into moving to America by her parents with promises of finding gold on the streets. She fell in love with storytelling at the age of seven after accidentally watching a bootleg DVD of “The Shining” thinking it had cartoons — which explains her sweet spot for twisty tales with dark humor. Her directorial feature mystery thriller, “The Unlikely Girl,” premiered at Vancouver International Film Festival and was distributed by Netflix. She currently works as a writer on CBS’s “NCIS: Origins.”

She is a fellow of Paramount Writers Mentoring Program, and an alum of Ryan Murphy’s Half Initiative Directing Program and Sundance Episodic TV Lab. In 2023, she was named one of eight directors for Blackmagic Collective’s Future Women of TV. She’s worked in mini-rooms led by Veena Sud and Jessica Mecklenburg, and has been mentored by Graham Yost, Marti Noxon, and Corinne Brinkerhoff. She shadowed Michael Uppendahl on Netflix’s “Hollywood” and Rodrigo Garcia on Showtime’s “The Affair,” and wrote the action thriller screenplay “Iron Mom” for producer Jason Blumenthal at Escape Artists (“The Upside,” “The Equalizer”).

Wei Ling’s career began in unscripted TV and documentary. As writer/director, she’s attempted to solve crimes alongside homicide detectives on A&E’s crime series “The First 48,” survived Supermax prison inmates on A&E’s documentary “Max ER,” and learned to blast buildings (legally of course) on Discovery’s science show “The Detonators.” Her award-winning horror short “Aunt Tigress” screened at Sitges, Comic-Con, Puchon, and Cannes.

She holds a psychology BA from Cornell University and is a proud member of the Auntie Sewing Squad, a team of WOC volunteers formed during the pandemic to address mask shortages in underserved communities. To date, she has produced one genetically perfect human girl and is quitting while she’s ahead.