Mother of the Bride
Frances was raised a free-range kid. As a result, she is VERY spunky, resourceful, creative, artistically talented, and not afraid of a little prank to keep things lively! Popular to a fault, Frances can make a friend wherever she goes, and her collection of friends from around the world is simply too numerous to invite to her daughter's wedding. Vivacious and fun, she loves to host parties - and boy, can she cook!!!! Frances came to America after her studies in Taiwan. Due to the incredibly treacherous and dangerous years during the People's Revolution, she and her family knew life as refugees, both hungry, and poor. A constant refuge for others, she is wise, emotionally loving, warm, intelligent, forgiving, adaptable, and stronger than a Cypress tree on the beach.
Father of the Bride
Helen met Dr. John Y. Huang the day she was born, but he started sacrificing himself to provide for her LONG before that. A man with the highest moral values and ability to commit himself wholly to a vow, Dr. John Y. Huang was once a poor, starving student who came to America to study medicine. He worked in a diner, struggled through 8 years of college while applying English as a second language, and married Frances, a tall, thin beauty. A graduate of UC Berkeley, and member of the 2nd graduating class of medicine at UC Davis, Dr. Huang became a small town pediatrician, and midnight emergency calls became the norm. He loves dining, travel. sports, tennis, scuba diving, ballroom dancing, and gardening, but he is a devoted Dad, first and foremost.
Matron of Honor
Helen met Holly at AFM a decade before Helen met Scott at AFM! Well, technically, they met in a parking garage. Ask Holly for the entire story - it's hilarious! Holly graduated from one of the best universities in the nation, which as you know, is very important to Helen's parents. (She is a very good influence on Helen, who can be a little lazy about doing her homework.) One of Helen's best friends, Holly is relentlessly funny and constantly caring. She makes Helen's mother laugh, loves Aunt Shirley's cooking, feeds Scott Twizzlers, and genuinely brings joy to everyone's life. Co-owner of Lion Cao Asset Management, she is married to Bob Hellman, CEO of American Infrastructure MLP Funds, and together, they are raising twins Carter and Tucker, who can bake sourdough bread from scratch!
Maid of Honor
As soon as Frossy met Helen at a fun (all-day!) party, she decided she wanted to be friends, unbeknownst to Helen. What INCREDIBLE luck for Helen, because as the years unfolded, Frossy became like a sister to her: unflaggingly supportive, upbeat, adventure-filled, ever-giving, hilarious, and sympathetic. She always goes the extra mile (and can do that while fasting for 15 days in a row), while lending others a hand. A brave and natural leader during a crisis, Frossy manages a multi-hundred unit luxury high-rise building at the marina in LA. Whether there's a fire, bomb threat, building flood, or dramatic conflict with a resident, Frossy courageously leads all the efforts to ensure the well-being of thousands of residents. She has been a bikini model, too.
Bridesmaid
Aszur and Helen met nearly 20 years ago, when they laughed at the same thing that happened in front of them. It turned out that they shared the same sense of humor, but on the surface, that might have been all they had in common. Aszur: gorgeous, Southern and Southern Californian, a former high school cheerleader, a sporty and fashionable type, who worked in casting with celebrities and professional athletes. Helen: nerd. But, Aszur and Helen turned out to have a ton in common. They hosted parties, made mutual friends, skied, drank Cabernet Sauvignon, and persisted through everything bad that life threw at them, ending up at film festivals, comedy shows, Zog, Cinespia, Sanctuary, Terranea, La Jolla, Kauai, Palm Springs, Sundance, Middleburg, New York, and Montreal, as friends for life.
Bridesmaid
Amy was a stunningly beautiful, soft-spoken, petite blonde publicist who gracefully gathered high-powered speakers for a panel at the glamorous Cannes Film Festival. Helen was a stressed executive, who wore the same day-to-night office dresses on rotation throughout the week in order to save decision-making energy and time. They became instant friends when, instead of having yet-another meet-and-greet business lunch, Helen asked Amy if they could meet each other while getting manicures and pedicures on their lunch hour! Over a decade, their true friendship emerged and solidified. Helen finds strength by referring to Amy's grace of spirit, grounded perspective & abilities to lead in her role at Apple and thrive in her family life with producer Fernando Loureiro and sons, Henry and George.
Bridesmaid
Helen has known Diane since the day Diane was born. They've talked about Life - since they were toddlers! Spending countless holidays and weekends together with Diane, Helen is grateful to have had a cousin who is also a best friend. They have shopped around the world, at night markets and boutiques, indulged in street photography and delicious food, shared films with each other, supported each other in times of sadness and joined each other in times of happiness. The tasteful one, Diane has immense talent in design, art, and beauty. Scott also owes Diane, the first to teach Helen how to cook sans recipe. Elegant and graceful, Diane is an expert licensed acupuncturist. (Helen was needle-ssly worried that it would hurt, but it doesn't at all!)
Mother of the Groom
Harriet was born and raised in New York City – a proverbial Broadway baby whose mother ferried her to vocal lessons, auditions and talent competitions. She even formed her own girl group, Jacqueline and The Jills, and recorded a couple of up-tempo love songs for Goldisc Records. But Harriet eventually traded the Big Apple for the Sunshine State and the recording studio for the classroom, spending more than 40 years in education – 30 of them as principal of Tampa’s West Shore Elementary school, where, upon her retirement, they rechristened the school library in her honor. Today, Harriet spends her time volunteering; caring for her beloved Yorkie, Dolly; and periodically jetting west to visit Scott, especially if it happens to coincide with a movie premiere, film festival or awards show.
Father of the Groom
Themestocles Constantine “Tom” Foundas was born in Newburgh, New York, the son of Greek immigrants from Sparta. Tom was the first in the family to attend college, heading south to the University of Tampa, where he met Harriet. After a long engagement - lengthened by Tom's Army service - they married and, in 1978, welcomed Scott into their lives. At which point, for reasons debated to this day (some claim the first word out of the baby’s mouth was “cinema”), Tom began regularly taking Scott to the movies, seeding an obsession that would eventually become his vocation. A traveling salesman who shuddered at being tied to a desk, Tom may also have inspired Scott’s lifelong love of travel. We know he would have loved Helen, and is smiling down approvingly from that great Greek diner in the sky.
Best Man
Scott and Alex met as freshmen at USC, in the offices of the campus newspaper – the Daily Trojan – where both were vying for a position as the paper’s film critic. They became fast friends, bonding over a shared love of movies and heavy metal music. They also became roommates – a 13-year odyssey spanning multiple apartments, other co-habitants (including various significant others) and too many comic misadventures to recount here. Today, as EVP of Creative Affairs at Legendary Entertainment, Alex works closely with two of the cinema’s most iconic stars – Godzilla and King Kong – and even has a project in development with Scott at Amazon. He and his boyfriend, Arin, are also proud dog parents to Ozzie (Osbourne) and Ronnie (James Dio), to whom Scott enjoys playing doting human uncle.
Groomsman
Film critics are accustomed to receiving angry letters from directors whose movies they review. Considerably less common is the one that says, “I agree with everything you said. In fact, I like my movie even less than you do.” Such, however, is the email Scott received from Fish after reviewing one of his movies at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. Not long after, they met for drinks at the venerable La Poubelle, where Fish was something like the unofficial mayor, court jester and common thread connecting an exuberant crew of young actors, musicians and assorted other creative types navigating the Hollywood minefield. Two decades (and many a La Poubelle night) later, Fish has flourished as an in-demand TV producer/director (including the new STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS), and started a family with his wife Blair and their beautiful daughter, Poppy, who Scott is proud to call his goddaughter.
Groomsman
Clayton was that high-school anomaly: a popular athlete and top student whose vast circle of friends transcended the presumed boundaries of the teenage caste system, uniting jocks, nerds, et al. – basically, anyone Clayton found interesting - in some unwieldy Venn diagram. Unsurprisingly, after graduation, he remained the common thread uniting a disparate network of Plant High School alumni, checking in regularly and hosting annual holiday get-togethers at his parents’ Davis Islands home. A cultural omnivore who would probably be working in Hollywood if he hadn’t gone into the family business (law) instead, Clayton is also better-versed in the latest podcasts/books/articles than many a studio exec, and can claim to have sparked at least one Amazon Studios development project via his resourceful scouting. Somewhere along the way, Clayton met the brilliant Sarah, and is now passing the baton to the next generation by weaning their sons Jack and Tommy on a steady diet of ‘80s, ‘90s and '00s pop-culture touchstones.
Groomsman
According to legend, Scott met Eric when they were both two-years-old, on a playdate arranged by Scott’s neighbors, who happened to be Eric’s godparents. Although neither of them actually remembers this first encounter, it seems to have gone well enough, judging by the fact that they remain friends to this day. Though they always shared an interest in movies and media – including several summers spent taking “video production” workshops at the University of Tampa, where Eric appeared in some of Scott’s earliest short films – Eric initially seemed destined for a career in politics. Until he thought better of it and followed Scott out West (and to film school at USC). There, he has flourished as a TV writer on such shows as GREY'S ANATOMY and BLINDSPOT - and also found his wife, Melissa, with whom he is now father to daughters Zoe, Emily and Madeline. Scott was a groomsman in their wedding, and is delighted Eric has deigned to return the favor.