After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities/Theater from the University of Southern California, Dean Yamada moved to the mountainous countryside of Sakuma, Japan, to teach English and study the culture. From Japan, he traveled to Hong Kong where he began a slow journey by train to London with stops in Mongolia and Russia. Upon returning to the U.S., Dean decided to spend the winter season snowboarding while teaching children how to ski at Alpine Meadows, Lake Tahoe. It was during this post-undergraduate odyssey that Dean realized that making films was how he wanted to spend the rest of his life. He returned to USC in 1998 to pursue his Master of Fine Arts at the School of Cinema- Television.

At USC, Dean produced a documentary entitled not black or white, which focuses on three Asian American women who are making a difference in the Western media. The documentary features actress Ming-na (ER, Mulan), comedian Amy Hill (All American Girl) and cartoonist Lela Lee (angry little asian girl). He also produced the short film tough girl, which has played at twenty film festivals worldwide.

His own graduate thesis film “The Nisei Farmer” is the recipient of a Caucus Foundation grant as well as a Multicultural Motion Picture Association Diversity Award. It has won numerous other awards including the Grand Prize for Best Short Film at the Rhode Island International Film Festival. The film is Dean’s tribute to his late father, a second-generation Japanese American farmer who spent three years of his childhood at the Tule Lake Internment Camp. Dean is thankful that his father’s memory lives on through his film.