Born and raised in East Oakland, Anthony Lucero received his degree in film at San Francisco State and soon after landed at George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic where he worked on Star Wars: Episodes I & II, Pirates of the Caribbean, Ironman, The Avengers and Harry Potter III.

Lucero’s latest feature film, Paper Bag Plan, to-date has won fifteen festival awards, including five Jury Awards for Best Picture, four Audience Awards and Best Actor awards for leads Lance Kinsey and Cole Massie. The story, about a father who trains his son with Cerebral Palsy how to bag groceries, was inspired by the real relationship between Lucero’s mother and his disabled brother, Eddie. The Geena Davis Institute calls Paper Bag Plan “A blueprint for authentic disability storytelling.”

Lucero’s directorial debut feature film, East Side Sushi, tackled both race and gender roles in his original screenplay that tells the story of Juana, a Mexican immigrant who strives to become a sushi chef. HBO picked up this festival favorite which garnered 15 film festival awards (and many more nominations) nationwide, has a 95% Rotten Tomatoes score and was consistently listed as “Popular on Netflix” during its entire streaming run.

Lucero was selected by the USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and the U.S. State Department as an Envoy to participate in The American Film Showcase. Lucero toured six U.S. Embassies and Consulates in Japan as a film ambassador and screened East Side Sushi to hundreds of enthusiastic Japanese officials, civilians and students. East Side Sushi is now shown at major universities around the world including Princeton University, where he was also invited to be a guest speaker.

Lucero is an alum of the Disney Diverse Directors Fellowship Program and was most recently invited to participate in the Netflix Director’s on the Rise Masterclass.