Today we have filmmaker Quentin Lee on The Mag. Quentin, who recently directed and starred in the documentary Gay Hollywood Dad, is the father of an almost-four year old son. Read more about him and his work below!

Tell us your story! We’d love to hear a little bit about yourself, your job and your unique family.

I had always wanted to have a child growing up… but it depressed me when I thought that in order to have a child I had to get married to a woman. Because I knew was gay when I was young. When I came out to UCLA for film school in the 90s, my good friend from Yale donated her eggs to one of the first few people that did surrogacy in the world, a doctor and attorney gay couple who later started a surrogacy agency called Growing Generations. I was like… that was a cool idea because I could potentially have a kid on my own or with my partner.

Twenty two years later, in 2015, I was single and hitting mid forties… and my mom was like if you want to have a kid you should do it soon. I went to see Growing Generations which was no longer run by my friends. When I was talking to Stuart, the CEO of Growing Generations, he showed me a photo of the child from my friend’s eggs and told me that she was now going to Yale. I was sold and took the plunge.

As a filmmaker, I enjoyed making original films. And surrogacy clicked with me because it was like creating life from from scratch and from a cell or embryo. It’s almost purely ideological. The idea is just powerful and amazing. Through Growing Generations, I found an egg donor and got matched with a surrogate mom and my son arrived the beginning of the summer without a hitch.

And the rest is history.

How many kids do you have, what ages?

I have two parrot children, Holden and Toffey, at 14 and 13. Holden and Toffey had Mochi, who’s 10. Then Holden and Mochi, his daughter, had Agamemnon who ’s now 6 I think.

I only have one human son, Casper, who’s turning 4.

Was your family supportive of your decision to have a baby and raise them as a single father?

My mom had always wanted me to have a kid because I was the only son in the family that could carry on the family name. Very Chinese. My dad was a bit doubtful as he wasn’t sure if I would be a good father. Still, they’ve always been supportive of what I want to do in life be it being a filmmaker or having a child.

What are three tips you can share for people who are family planning and deciding whether they should have/adopt/foster kids?

1. Anyone can do it if they want to.

2. Read and learn as much as you can about childrearing and psychology before your first child comes.

3. Be ready to throw all your expectations out and listen to your child.

What is on your to do list for today?

I’m in the middle of delivering a comedy special feature to a distributor while trying to get a TV series off the ground in Canada.

Describe fatherhood in one sentence.

You’re not the boss anymore.

Anything else you want to add?

If you want to have children, then having and raising children will be challenging but rewarding. If you don’t want to have kids and have them… your life will be a living hell.

And finally, where can we find you?

You can watch my documentary feature Gay Hollywood Dad on Amazon Prime via gayhollywooddad.com.

o Website: gayhollywooddad.com
o Instagram: @gayhollywooddad