Pearry Reginald Teo, a Singaporean Chinese writer and director, made a name for himself with the short film Liberata Me, which won the Best Short award at the New York International Film Festival, attracting the attention of U.S. producers.
He made history by becoming the first person from his native country to direct a Hollywood feature film, The Gene Generation, a comic book series adaptation starring Bai Ling and Academy Award winner Faye Dunaway, released by Lionsgate.
Teo's directorial credits also include the medieval action/fantasy film Witchville, filmed in China and released by Universal, Dracula: The Dark Prince, starring Academy Award winner Jon Voight, and the horror film Necromentia, inspired by Clive Barker and released by Image Entertainment.
He also directed The Curse of Sleeping Beauty, starring Ethan Peck, India Eisley, and Natalie Hall.
As an Executive Producer, Teo worked on the film Cloud Atlas, directed by the Wachowski sisters and Tom Tykwer, starring Oscar winners Tom Hanks and Halle Berry.
Teo co-produced George Romero's Day of the Dead with Millennium Films while simultaneously directing Hellboy VR, a Virtual Reality experience for the 2019 movie starring David Harbour and Milla Jovovich.
Teo's films have won several awards, including Best Horror Feature for Dead Inside at the Women's International Film Festival and Best Feature for The Gene Generation at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival.
His movie The Assent, starring Academy Award winner Tatum O'Neal, had a sold-out premiere at the 2019 Toronto Film Festival and the Shockfest Film Festival in Las Vegas, where Teo won the Best Director award.
Teo was hired to write and direct Fast Vengeance, starring DMX in his last movie, and D.Y. Sao.
Tragically, Teo died on March 9, 2023, in North Hollywood, California, at the age of 44, due to a drug overdose.
