Nathaniel Cayanan
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Professor and Writer
Cal State Fullerton and DC Comics
B.A., Film and Electronic Media, 2007
B.A., Film and Electronic Media, 2007
Nathan Cayanan is a writer, illustrator and college professor whose creative and academic work is deeply rooted in the Filipino American experience and the complexities of AAPI identity. Over a 20-year teaching career, including a decade at the college level and now graduate-level instruction, he has taught writing across the globe, from Taiwan and China to USC International Academy, UC Irvine and Irvine Valley College, and currently serves as a business communications professor in Cal State Fullerton's marketing department. A two-time teaching award recipient, Cayanan's passion for storytelling extends far beyond the classroom. His work in comics includes contributions to DC Comics and participation in the Milestone Initiative. His debut hybrid novel, Suspicious Activity, centers on Asian American gangsters but defies easy categorization, less a crime story than a bold existential exploration of identity, destiny and moral ambiguity. Through his writing and illustration, Cayanan grapples with the Asian diaspora, evolving AAPI identities and the lived experience of the perpetual foreigner, crafting work that is as thought-provoking as it is boundary-pushing.
