Timothy Tau
Born	Timothy Tau Hsieh August 24 Torrance, California, U.S.
Education	University of California, Berkeley (BS, LLM) University of California, Hastings (JD) University of California, Los Angeles (MSE) University of London (LLB) Oklahoma City University (MFA)
Occupations	Writer filmmaker attorney law professor
Awards	Grand Prize, Hyphen Asian American Writers' Workshop Short Story Contest, The Understudy

Timothy Tau (born Timothy Tau Hsieh /ʃeɪ/ SHAY; Chinese: 謝韜; pinyin: Xiè Tāo) is a Taiwanese-American writer, lawyer, law professor and filmmaker. Tau won the 2011 Hyphen Asian American Writers' Workshop Short Story Contest for his short story, "The Understudy", which was published in the Winter 2011 issue of Hyphen magazine, Issue No. 24, the "Survival Issue." Tau also won Second Prize in the 2010 Playboy College Fiction Contest for his short story, "Land of Origin" (see the October 2010 issue of Playboy magazine). He has also directed a number of short films and music videos that have screened at various film festivals worldwide and on YouTube.

Early life and education

Tau attended Torrey Pines High School and graduated in 2001.^[1] After high school, Tau attended the University of California, Berkeley.^[2] He attended the University of California Hastings College of Law (now University of California College of the Law, San Francisco), where he became technology editor of the Hastings Law Journal, and earned his Juris Doctor (J.D.) in 2007.^[3][4]

From 2008 to 2015, Tau was a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received a Master of Science in Engineering in electrical engineering in 2011, along with a certificate in fiction from the UCLA Extension Writers' Program, and certificates in screenwriting as well as television writing from the Professional Programs at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in 2015.^[5][6] In 2017, he earned a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from the UC Berkeley School of Law, where he was an articles editor of the Berkeley Technology Law Journal.^[7] In 2024, he earned a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from the University of London.^[8] In 2025, he acquired a Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree from Oklahoma City University.^[9]

Writing

Tau's short story "The Understudy" is a comic-surrealist story about an Asian American actor named Jack Chang struggling in Los Angeles. The story was published in the Winter 2011 Issue of Hyphen magazine and won the 2011 Hyphen Asian American Short Story Contest, sponsored by the Asian American Writers Workshop and the only national Pan-Asian American Writing Competition of its kind. Porochista Khakpour, one of the judges, called the story a "psychological thriller successfully pulled off in second person -- alone a feat worthy of mention... the wild, brainy, dark and dazzling prose is in a league of its own." Novelist Yiyun Li said: "Full of vibrating energy, ‘The Understudy’ is an exciting story to read; better, the excitement does not fizz off but makes a reader think afterward."^[10]

Another one of Tau's short stories entitled "One Traveler" won the Gold Key award from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.^[11]

Tau's experimental short story "For/Most/Of" is a triptych that is published in the 2018 book Chrysanthemum: Voices of the Taiwanese Diaspora. The story is split into three segments that respectively cover: (1) Kaohsiung, Taiwan in 1979 (the beginning of the Kaohsiung Incident or Formosa Incident); (2) Taipei, Taiwan in 2018; and (3) the high-tech hub of Hsinchu, Taiwan in the future year of 2056.^[12]

Tau has also written a play entitled "Yellow Shakespeare" and developed it as part of the David Henry Hwang Writer's Institute (DHHWI) at East West Players. The play concerns the discovery of a long-lost Shakespeare play that is the first and only Shakespeare play to feature Asian characters. A staged reading of an early version of the play was held at the DHHWI New Works Festival at the David Henry Hwang Theater in Los Angeles, and directed by Kelvin Han Yee.^[13][14]

Tau has taught an Introduction to Screenwriting & TV Writing course at The Writer's Center.^[15]

Film

Legal career

Tau, under his full name of Timothy Tau Hsieh, has been a patent attorney practicing patent litigation and patent prosecution at law firms such as Greenberg Traurig, Foley & Lardner LLP, Seyfarth Shaw LLP, Russ August & Kabat and Loza & Loza LLP (where he was a non-equity partner), and was recognized as a Southern California "Rising Star" by Super Lawyers magazine in intellectual property, an honor given to only 2.5% of California attorneys.^[8]

In the fall of 2021, he joined the faculty of Oklahoma City University School of Law as an assistant professor of law, where he teaches, researches and writes scholarship about intellectual property, patent, trademark, copyright, trade secrets, blockchain, internet, social media & computer law, artificial intelligence, antitrust, entertainment, technology, literature/film, and Asian American legal studies.^[8][52]

In late 2025 and early 2026, the Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law ("IPSEL") program at OCU Law that he created and directed was named one of the Top Ten Entertainment Law Programs in the country by The National Jurist .^[53]

In October of 2025, he drafted and filed an amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Lynk Labs v. Samsung.^[54][55]

Filmography

Bibliography

References

External links

• Timothy Tau at IMDb