YD PRODUCTION LLC.
SEARCHING FOR YOO
Written and Directed by Marissa Lichwick
is a film inspired by true-life events layered with a lot of imagination and heart to give the narrative an original twist. The movie explores family, romance, the unexplainable, self-identity, and belonging. We have a wonderful cast and crew to bring this film to life. Please follow us and keep an eye out for when we hit the film festival circuit. We are hoping to reach the moon with this little story! Thanks for visiting the film page!
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Actors John Ruby and Chris Yim on set June 2022
Current Films
SEARCHING FOR YOO IS A RITE OF PASSAGE HAUNTING DRAMA.
An ethereal entity begins to haunt Dani, a Korean adoptee as she begins to reunite with her birth family, but when she uncovers little information about the past she must forge a bond with the ghost that haunts the basement rather than her surviving birth family.
YELLOW DRESS : A SHORT
SEARCHING FOR YOO FEATURE FILM
YOO: A SHORT FILM
MI-MI SHU-SHU
SHORT FILM
2024-2025
COMPLICIT
FEATURE FILM
2026
About the
Artist
And, What's Happening with SEARCHING FOR YOO today!!
We are streaming on AMAZON PRIME, TUBI, HOOPLA, CINEFEST, FLIXFLING, XUMO, FUTURE TODAY,
CAREER BIO
Marissa Lichwick is an award-winning actress, filmmaker, and writer whose work bridges theatre, film, and deeply personal storytelling. She began her artistic journey on New York City’s Lower East Side at La MaMa E.T.C., creating new work under the visionary Ellen Stewart and collaborating with artists such as Elizabeth Swados and Michael Fieldman. After a decade performing throughout New York’s vibrant downtown theatre scene—including a celebrated Off-Broadway debut at Urban Stages—Marissa earned her MFA in Acting from the University of Washington.
Her career has since taken her across the country. In Chicago, she has performed at the Goodman, Steppenwolf, Court Theatre, Writers Theatre, Victory Gardens, and Silk Road Rising, as well as regionally at The Guthrie Theater, Denver Center, and Connecticut Free Shakespeare. On screen, Marissa has appeared in Chicago Fire, Chicago Justice, Chicago Med, and numerous independent films.
Marissa’s solo show Yellow Dress, written in graduate school and inspired by her personal story, has been performed in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Minnesota, St. Louis, and most recently at the Santa Monica Playhouse. She later adapted it into a short film that garnered 16 Best Film awards and 29 additional honors across national and international festivals.
Her second film, YOO, premiered in March and continues its festival run, winning Best Short Film on Women (RunDoc Film Festival), Best Actress (New York Movie Awards), and Best Acting Ensemble (Best Directors & Actors Awards, NYC). Searching for YOO now streams on Amazon Prime, Tubi, and additional platforms, and is available on Blu-ray.
Marissa completed her Screenwriting degree at UCLA in 2022. In Summer 2025, she received the University of Chicago Faculty Fellows Grant and returned to UCLA to attend the Summer Institute for Film Production. She is currently developing her second feature film.
She is represented bi-coastally by Firestarter Entertainment for theatre, film, and television.
YELLOW DRESS: A SHORT FILM
My philosophy is simple: take charge of your own story rather than wait for someone else to tell it.
Yellow Dress, a short film inspired by my one-person play of the same name, grew directly from that belief. After a disappointing audition left me frustrated by the limitations of the roles available to me, I turned that frustration into action. I wrote the script, created the opportunity, and began telling the kinds of stories I wanted to see.
Since then, I have learned to embrace my personal history as a source of creative power. My work explores motherhood, abandonment, family, death, loss, belonging, and the complexities of my identities as Korean, Korean American, and a Korean adoptee. I am particularly drawn to characters whose present lives are shaped—sometimes haunted—by memory and the experiences they cannot leave behind.
At the heart of much of my work is a recurring question: What allows us to survive the things that shape us? Again and again, I return to the transformative power of love, connection, and chosen or biological family as counterforces to trauma.
Yellow Dress has been recognized by more than 40 film festivals and received the Best Shorts Filmmaker Award at the Marina del Rey Film Festival in 2022.
I began making films because I stopped waiting for permission. That philosophy continues to define the stories I tell and the career I am building.
