Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christine Lee. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Christine, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

One of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on was helping new detectives to become more culturally responsive when helping Asian (particularly Korean) victims of crime. I use my experience as both a journalist and as a domestic violence / sexual assault survivor to let law enforcement personnel interview me in human trafficking scenarios. It’s a part of their weeklong training to become a detective in California, and my ability to role play and provide advice afterwards equips them to better serve the Asian communities when they are out on patrol or trying to bring a resolution to future cases.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was born and raised in the L.A.-area but bounced around between here and South Korea quite a lot during my early years.

I always loved storytelling – I pursued acting and broadcast journalism while in high school and college, but broadcast gave me more opportunities so I stuck with it.

Being Korean American was not an asset when I began my career after graduating from UCLA. I was often the token Asian girl in my newsroom, and I was thankful to be that one person who can fulfill the quota that a news director may have been looking to fill.

I got lucky enough to report for the Vancouver Winter Olympics and got nominated for an Emmy for telling a story about a North Korean family using my bilingual skills.

Over the years, I started to realized how fortunate I was to speak both English and Korean. I used my language skills to tell more stories representing my culture and heritage through partnerships with AAA Westways and nonprofits across the country, such as Center for the Pacific Asian Family (L.A.), KAN-WIN (Chicago) and My Sister’s House (Sacramento).

I also wanted to raise awareness of issues such as domestic violence an sexual assault, especially in Asian communities, so I developed more content and partnered with organizations that can help me reach those audiences on a wider scale as a video creator, interviewer, instructor and public speaker.

The main thing I want people to know about me is that I’m a storyteller who continues to evolve. After my time in TV news I had an identity crisis because I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere. I briefly worked full-time for a nonprofit, a digital content creation agency, and a PR/marketing firm. None of those employers fully understood or appreciated what I had to offer.

I got here because I was willing to think outside of the box and create new ways to tell stories when I couldn’t find what I was looking for. For example, I created empowering video content for fellow Asian American DV/SA survivors. I also created a travel vlog series using my skills as a multimedia journalist to go beyond just flashy montages that I saw on YouTube or the heavily produced content I enjoyed on Netflix that only seemed possible with a full crew and a larger budget than what I had. I just began creating using what I had and started paving a way for myself despite obstacles I saw before me. And that led to opportunities.

My biggest priority is to tell stories that matter to somebody. Right now I work full-time as a Supervising Producer/Writer for Torrance CitiCABLE. It’s my hometown TV station, and I get to shape how stories get told in my neighborhood. On the side, I continue to do my passion projects as I have the energy and time. And in the future, I hope I can continue taking a chance at acting, producing and reporting in larger-scale productions. But for now, I’m content where I am.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I was working for one of the largest local TV stations in the country when I almost got killed in a domestic violence situation. That led me to drop everything and take time out for nearly a year. I was devastated because I had worked so hard to build a career I was proud of. But the incident led me back home, to a wonderful guy who I eventually married, and to a ‘perfect’ life now with a secure job, a big house, and the most beautiful dog, a Japanese Spitz named Somi. I never imagined my life could look like this, even if I was on my original path.

Growing up, I only had plan A. That was to become the most successful Broadcast Journalist I could be. That meant working within the top local TV stations or hopping over to network news. Anything outside of that felt like failure. But as I worked towards this goal, I saw my friends who wanted a family getting divorced or stepping away from their careers. I also witnessed those who made it to the top get ‘aged out’ or just thrown out by a conniving colleagues.

I didn’t see a ‘happily ever after’ in any scenario. When people leave the newsroom, they typically become a Communications, PR or marketing professional. But I was still hungry to tell stories from beginning to end and control that narrative. That’s when my husband encouraged me to start my own storytelling company called Kimbop TV LLC. It was a way for me to gain my voice back, where I can always have an outlet to tell stories exactly how I wanted to tell them.

I started losing that control as my clients started coming back or growing. Some clients began hiring editors and I became just a content gatherer, filming my trips and my stand-ups and handing them over with no control on how the story gets told. Others literally handed me a script and asked me to be an editor. I realized as a business owner, I needed to be ok with all of these assignments because I wanted to make money. But the process of losing control as I worked on these projects led me to realize that this was not why I started my business.

Around this time, I began working for and getting promoted at my hometown city job. It was only meant to sustain me part-time so that I can pursue my personal projects. But when a Supervising Producer/Writer position opened up, allowing me to control the narrative of our city’s TV programs, I thought this could perhaps fill the void I’ve been feeling for awhile. And it’s more personal, because I love my hometown and these are stories about my neighbors. So I talked with my husband and decided to focus on giving back to serve my community first and my business second. The stability of having a full-time government job is something I enjoy, but I also want to feel like I am destined to be here for reasons outside of just stability.

Honestly, I’m still figuring that part out. But I am grateful that I have seasonal work opportunities that allow me to reach beyond my own city while having the daily task of getting stories out there that have value to my local community.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I became a domestic violence survivor I never thought that would drive so much of what I do today. I just wanted to shut up about my experience, bury it, and try my best to forget about it. But every time my story got out, I had people (men, women, college and high school kiddos to senior citizens) confiding in me with their stories and asking me to never give up on this aspect of my work. So, I started to create video resources online that I wish I had during my healing journey, and I continue to speak about this topic with whoever will hire me as a keynote speaker or a panelist. I also train law enforcement on cultural responsiveness so they can better serve victims of domestic violence, human trafficking or sexual assault.   

Contact Info:

• Website: kimboptv.com
• Instagram: @kimboptv
• Facebook: @kimboptv
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/kimboptv
• Twitter: @mschristine_lee
• Youtube: @kimboptv