Olivia Chu: a jack of all trades

The term “managing a full plate” doesn’t come close to describing the life of Olivia Chu (’18). The ambitious 18-year-old is following all of her different passions, which has led her to accomplish many impressive feats. Chu has not only started her own software company, but also worked at Universal Studios as a colorist on many notable big pictures. Her journey at Universal began back when she applied for an internship at Bad Robot Productions. Initially she was referred to an editing studio, Motion Studios, before she started her work at Bad Robot. Through this opportunity she was able to form valuable connections that would soon lead her to the job she holds at Universal today. “If you’re adamant enough, editing is one of the easiest things to learn. Along with my self-taught skills, I acquired my professional approach at Motion. Working under a professional editor/special effects (SFX) artist, my portfolio filled with the typical “epic” scenes in superhero movies, and such which landed me another referral to NBC/Universal,” Chu said.  Ever since getting the job last year, she has been working as a colorist for the company, doing everything from making filters, doing some computer graphics imaging (CGI) and making buildings explode in superhero movies. Her work has been in popular films such as “Spider-man: Homecoming” and “Call Me By Your Name.”  On the side, she edits photos for people on Instagram, where client list includes beauty gurus and advertising companies. Depending on the photo, she might have to do basic color correcting, up the saturation, correct the skin color or draw on more eyelashes. She’s worked with stars such as Romeo Lacoste, Zendaya, Jeffree Star and the well known news company Buzzfeed. More recently, Chu has been working on the launch of her software company. Chu’s company markets to China, and their prototype launches have already garnered over a million users. With offices already ready to set up, her company is set to start up in June.  “The company I am running with my colleague started as a hobby. As amateur software engineers, we would reverse engineer apps with Xcodes, the basic Apple software developer. Profit only came when he sold the software to his university, and we’ve been running with it ever since,” Chu said. Despite a busy schedule outside of Samo’s walls, she still manages to stay largely active on campus. In accordance with her long lived love for dance, Chu has been involved with this year’s musicals “Zoot Suit” and “How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying” as a student choreographer, as well as the current captain of the Contemporary Dance Combination Club (DCC).  “We have these amazing dancers to choreograph for and it’s such an organic process. I’ll ask them to do a somersault over three people or hit 180 degrees with your legs and there's no hesitation to try it. That kind of trust - with safety, style, casting - only happens at the top of the professional level, and I’m grateful I got to experience that,” Chu said.  Chu is also taking the engineering class at Samo, and is the co-president of Mathletes with Edie Graber (’18). She and Graber work together to organize their fellow team members and assign math topics to each person for the four competitions, or meets, happening this year. They hold tryouts before each meet and collaborate on a lot of planning and teaching to prepare the team for success. “Olivia is awesome. She’s good at getting the bureaucratic stuff done so that we are able to focus on the deeper meaning of what we’re doing. She’s amazing at managing so many things at once, and overall such a great person to work alongside,” Graber said. Samo has also given Chu the opportunity to explore her love of Shakespeare. After having English teacher Chon Lee her sophomore year, she was inspired to embrace her passion of the famous poet and playwright and joined the Shakespeare Society, of which she is now president. She also performs in the Shakespeare Festival held by the Drama Teachers Association of Southern California (DTASC). “What’s great about Olivia is that she’s highly intuitive, and it helps structure the club more with               different activities and gatherings and agenda items. She has really pulled together a stronger sense of collaboration and camaraderie with the club,” Lee said.  Chu has a lot of things that she has to do, but the fact that she loves everything she does makes it more manageable. “It’s really rough you know, but I think it’s a good balance of academics and creative things. I can sustain myself because I’m just so passionate about everything I do,” Chu said. In terms of the future, Chu isn’t sure if college is the right direction for her, but if that is the route she wants to go in, she would like to study engineering and business. “I think engineering is kind of the perfect vessel to do both creative and academic things, but also I’m really into business because I’m running my company,” Chu said.  Other than college, Chu is considering taking a year off and just focusing on her company. Either way, it is clear that Chu has already paved the way for a bright future ahead of her.