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Min Jin Lee and Alan Yang Join Forces for Netflix Series

Screenwriter and producer Alan Yang, and author Min Jin Lee Photo: Left: Andy Kropa/Invision/AP/Shutterstock, Right: Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock

Author Min Jin Lee and prolific screenwriter Alan Yang are teaming up. According to Variety, the two are bringing Lee’s Free Food for Millionaires to Netflix as a new series — hopefully one with a Netflix-size budget. The writer tweeted on January 26 that she wrote the pilot script adaptation with plans for Yang to produce it, and Netflix gave them the green light and a check. Free Food for Millionaires, Lee’s debut 2007 novel, takes place in 1990s Manhattan and follows Korean American Casey Han, “a strong-willed, Queens-bred daughter of Korean immigrants who is addicted to a glamorous Manhattan lifestyle she cannot afford. Fresh out of Princeton with an economics degree, no job, and a popular white boyfriend, Casey is determined to carve a space for herself in the glittering world.” There’s no set release date or any other details aside from the series being in the works with Netflix, but color us intrigued.

A decade after Free Food for Millionaires, Lee released Pachinko, another novel that will receive the series adaptation treatment over at Apple, with the cast and directors announced in October. Lee Min-ho (Boys Over Flowers, The Heirs), Jin Ha (Devs, Love Life) will lead the international ensemble drama series, which details the life of four generations of a Korean immigrant family as they navigate exile in Japan. Screenwriter and producer Alan Yang is known for producing shows such as Parks and Recreation, The Good Place and co-creating Master of None with Aziz Ansari in 2015. In 2020 he wrote, produced, and directed a Netflix original titled Tigertail, which centers around a Taiwanese worker’s journey to America and subsequent need to reconnect to his past and homeland.

Min Jin Lee and Alan Yang Join Forces for Netflix Series