Born in Saigon, Vietnam and raised in Orange County, California, Anh Stephen Gauger received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre and French Literature at Cal State Fullerton. He subsequently worked in the camera and lighting departments on independent films in the U.S. and Southeast Asia, including "Three Seasons," "Green Dragon," and "Journey From the Fall," all the while honing his writing and directing craft on short films.

His feature-directing debut, "Owl and the Sparrow," shot on location in Saigon, premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival 2007 and has gone on to win nine awards at international festivals in Hawaii, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. Anh Stephane was featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of 2007. He was also nominated for "Breakthrough Director" at the Gotham Awards and the John Cassavetes award at Independent Spirit Awards. He is now in post-production on "Viet Nam Overtures," a documentary on Vietnam’s classical music scene, including the National Symphony in Hanoi and the Saigon Symphony Orchestra. He is now forming a film distribution company with directors Anh Timothy Bui and Anh Ham Tran to showcase Vietnamese content films.