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Bi-racial writer-director Eric Byler grew up in California, Virginia and Hawaii before graduating from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Eric was nominated for an Independant Spirit Award in 2003 for his first feature CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES, which also earned nominations for producer Marc Ambrose and actress Jacqueline Kim. Eric's second feature AMERICANese premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival where it won the Audience Award, and Special Jury Award for Outstanding Ensemble Cast. AMERICANese will be released in theaters in 2008. Eric's third feature "Tre" won the Special Jury Prize at the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival in 2007, was released theatrically by Cinema Libre Studio, and released on DVD May 6, 2008.

Eric directed the television pilot MY LIFE DISORIENTED which aired on PBS in 2006 and 2007.

Together with Annabel Park, Eric's current projects include the interactive documentary "9500 Liberty," which can be seen on YouTube.com/9500Liberty, "United for Obama" which can be seen at YouTube.com/UnitedForObama, and a film about the international grassroots effort to achieve truth and reconciliation with regard to the "Comfort Women" issue from WWII. "9500 Liberty" and the "Comfort Women" project will be edited into feature length documentaries. Byler and Park often speak on college campuses and at conferences in the USA and in Asia, where they show their YouTube video essays and discuss modes of political empowerment.

In 1995, Eric's student film KENJI'S FAITH premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, won six other festival awards, and was nominated for a Student Academy Award. Eric's father is of European descent and his mother is Chinese American.