Seattle native Pearl Mei Lam is doing what many people only dream of: she’s directing and starring in her own, self-produced movie, titled Wild Ragerz, her biggest project yet, heralding the arrival of a new voice in Seattle’s film scene.
Lam first got into acting in high school, before growing a following online by posting videos on her YouTube channel, which has over 30,000 subscribers. After a career in tech, she now works full-time as an actor, mainly in Seattle theater. Despite leaving YouTube behind, it’s still a huge part of Lam’s journey.
“I am glad I did it, because it really forces you to put content out there,” Lam told the SGN. “You can only find your voice through quantity of creation. I just had to practice, got the reps in.”
Lam went to school for business and film, and soon after pursued a career in marketing while doing theater at the same time. With the money she saved, she was able to quit her tech job in 2023.
“It was me listening to a lot of podcasts like ‘quit your job,’” Lam said. “I felt like I wasn’t putting in my best work.”
The gap allowed Lam to put all her effort into acting.
“I was just doing community productions here and there,” Lam said. “I just kept auditioning for things, and one thing led to another.”
“A lot of it is really community based,” Lam said of theater in Seattle. “I truly love the Seattle theater community — so many wonderfully talented people.”
While Lam’s passion originated in film and video, theater is what took gave her the opportunity to act.
“Theater is the training ground that you need,” she said. “You can just dive in and work so intimately with all your scene partners. It’s just a really beautiful capsule in time.”
Consuming identity
Lam’s next big project is her debut film, Wild Ragerz, an absurd dark comedy most akin to Wet Hot American Summer. Lam describes it as campy, irreverent humor, with major themes of media and identity, while also being very Gay. The idea first came from Lam’s obsession with reality TV.
“I love to nerd out about the film theory part,” Lam said. “I was like there’s got to be something here that I can make work in a meta way.”
According to Lam, reality TV is a mode of media that is about consuming identity. Specifically, Lam wanted to highlight queerness and Asian characters, who are often underrepresented, and even more so at the same time.
“I’m a Queer person of color, and everyone on the main cast is Queer,” Lam said. “My goal is to redefine Queer Asian American representation.”
To Lam, Queer identity is at the heart of the film’s “crazy, unhinged” narrative.
“I think being Queer is about creating space for you and others unapologetically,” Lam said. “I think I want to be more experimental and apply that to the art I do.”
Lam and her team spent 11 days shooting the principal photography, and several more months in the writing and postproduction stages. All of the film was shot in Washington and utilizes local art grants, paying homage to Lam’s upbringing.
Wild Ragerz will be released sometime in 2026. More information on the movie can be found on its Instagram page.
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