About

Photo credit: Anna Britvina, 2025

Dan Asenlund was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1981, but quickly dreamed himself away and longed for bigger adventures. He spent a year in Detroit, Michigan, in high school and later moved back to the United States to pursue a degree in Journalism at the University of Oregon. He ended up not only double-majoring in Japanese, but developed a life-long passion for all things Japanese. He first set foot in the land of the rising sun in 2004 as an exchange student in Tokyo and later came back to work as an English teacher in Saga, Kyushu, between 2007-09.

Dan then moved to Tokyo to pursue acting, and he appeared in several TV shows both as an actor and as an expert on Swedish culture. In 2009 he moved to Seoul, South Korea, to work as a screenwriter and feature film producer. He also appeared weekly as an actor on the TV show MBC Surprise, playing various historical figures. He is back in Sweden since 2013, working as a translator as well as occasional freelance journalist for The Japan Times, Metropolis Magazine and other publications. He also writes fiction that has appeared in Eastlit Journal and elsewhere and is hard at work on a novel. After a short hiatus, he is now also back to making films.

His short film Four Degrees of Jonas Rydell was an Official Selection at Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival in 2011 and at Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in 2012. His documentary When West Meets East: The Life and Legacy of Gertrude Bass Warner was nominated for a Student Emmy (Northwest Chapter) in 2007. His latest film, Cassandra Insköld’s Last Word (2024), has won awards and screened at festivals worldwide. He is currently in post-production of an omnibus of shorts shot in Berlin as well as in development of a mystery thriller feature set in rural Japan.

Dan on Instagram

Dan on IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3841576/

Dan on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user7854275

Dan on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/Oregondanne

Bitar ur ett liv (Dan’s Swedish blog of autobiographical essays about video games): https://bitarurettliv.nu/

Dannes Japanblogg (Dan’s Swedish blog about life in Japan and Korea, 2007-2012): http://dannesjapanblogg.blogspot.com/

Interview in Eastlit Magazine: http://www.eastlit.com/eastlit-may-2014/eastlit-may-2014-content/dan-asenlund/