Jared Lee

Jared Lee’s journey as a storyteller began at the age of seven. Having grown up in the suburb of Subang Jaya, Selangor, he spent countless hours at his mother's hair salon and often ventured to the neighbouring convenience store to buy comics. These early experiences sparked his imagination, allowing him to envision worlds beyond our own.

In 2011, Jared Lee wrote a script for his first short film, The Long Distance Relationship, which tells the story of a couple navigating the struggles and emotional challenges of a “long-distance relationship”. It accumulated over three million views on YouTube and became a Top 10 finalist in the BMW Shorties competition that same year.

Building on this success, Lee founded Grim Film. Originally a YouTube channel that produced short films, comedy sketches, and travelogues, Lee transitioned Grim Film into a full-fledged production house in 2015 to make engaging short films.

While growing Grim Film as a filmmaker, he bagged multiple awards, including Best Drama at America’s Soul 4 Reel International Film Festival 2013 for The Long Distance Relationship and Best Pilot and Best Special Effects at the 2018 Vancouver WebFest in Canada for The Last 7.

Lee spotlights social issues through comics, animation, and film productions. His first fully animated short film, Horologist, was what he calls a “Covid-19 baby” because it was created during the pandemic when time allowed for creativity to flow.

Horologist became the first Malaysian work to premiere and win the Best Animation award at the San Diego International Independent Film Festival. He’s working on another short film, developing two animated projects, writing a secret game project, and he recently opened a Japanese-themed cafe, Tomo Tomo.