From Cannes to 500 million views: Roger Teng is dressing Hollywood’s next obsession
From festival short films to the bite-sized insanity of billionaire romances and werewolf love triangles, costume designer Roger Teng knows that what a character wears can be just as revealing as what they say.
What do a stage musical, a Cannes-selected short film, and a two-minute drama about a billionaire CEO have in common? More than you might think.
For costume designer Roger Teng, they are all exercises in visual storytelling. The difference is how quickly the audience needs to understand what they're seeing.
Having worked on the Broadway production Floyd Collins, at St. Louis's enormous outdoor theater The Muny, and on independent films including Terminal and Toe Tag, Teng has now found himself at the intersection of traditional craftsmanship and one of entertainment's fastest-evolving formats: vertical drama.
The ReelShort series he has costume designed, including Carrying His Triplets, Becoming His Wifey, Pregnant and Spoiled by the Billionaire, and Two Alphas Are in Love with Me, have collectively attracted more than 500 million views worldwide. And while critics might dismiss these smartphone-sized melodramas as disposable entertainment, Teng knows how much work goes into making a billionaire look like a billionaire when the frame cuts off at the waist, a viewer might drop in at episode 30, and the wardrobe budget wouldn't cover a Hollywood leading man's shoes.
Terminal, which he costume designed, was selected for the 2024 Cannes Film Festival's La Cinef program, while Toe Tag has traveled through LGBTQ+ film festivals internationally.
Now he's applying that same understanding of character and visual language to an entertainment format built around cliffhangers, outrageous romance, and instant gratification.
Film Daily caught up with Teng to discuss Cannes, queer history, the surprisingly complicated art of dressing a werewolf, and why Hollywood might have something to learn from the vertical drama revolution.
Film Daily talks to Roger Teng
From Taiwan to the fitting room
Film Daily: You’ve said you’ve always been fascinated by how people reveal themselves through clothing. What was the first moment you realized fashion could tell a story?
Roger Teng: Growing up in Taiwan, most people around me dressed the same way, following whatever trend was in, which was mostly Western. So the people who didn't follow trends always caught my eye.
Our school's chairwoman wore a qipao every day. Given Taiwan's history, some people from older generations hold a strong pride in their Chinese heritage, and she was one of them. It also signaled class and authority, because nobody else around me dressed that way.
I realized clothes are never just clothes. They're a choice, and every choice tells you something about who a person is, or who they want to be. When I design someone powerful, my mind often goes to tradition, culture, and history.
Film Daily: You’ve worked across theater, independent cinema, and vertical drama. What connects these seemingly different creative worlds?
Roger Teng: No matter the medium, costume design comes down to one thing: making a character believable.
In theater, we lean into theatricality, so a lead might look more dramatic against the ensemble. Film is more realistic. But the goal is always to create a world that makes sense, with a visual language that ties every character together.
Cannes, queer history, and the details audiences never notice
Film Daily: Terminal, which you costume designed, screened at Cannes through La Cinef. What did that recognition mean to you, and how did the experience influence your ambitions as a designer?
Roger Teng: I was the costume designer on Terminal, which was selected for La Cinef at Cannes in 2024.
I designed the characters through color and pattern, using their relationships to shape the visual progression.
At the beginning, the main character's palette is closely tied to his roommate and best friend. When his ex-girlfriend comes back into his life and they start dating again, he shifts into brighter colors and bolder patterns.
Being selected for La Cinef was a real honor and a recognition of the work of everyone involved.
Film Daily: Toe Tag has traveled through LGBTQ+ film festivals internationally. How did you approach creating characters whose clothing needed to communicate identity, vulnerability, or personal history?
Roger Teng: Toe Tag taps into queer history, which can be complicated. The film moves between the '90s and the present day, so a big part of our job was making the period section stand out clearly against the modern-day parts.
We used silhouette and pattern to separate the characters. One is more rigid and traditional, in a tucked-in button-down. The other is an artist type, much freer, in looser, more flowing silhouettes and nothing tucked in.
It was never about making things flashy. These were real people living their lives, and that's what we wanted the audience to feel.
Film Daily: Costume designers often work with directors who have a very specific visual language. How do you translate someone else's vision into clothing while maintaining your own creative identity?
Roger Teng: Working with a director is always a collaboration. Translating someone's vision starts with understanding the story and the style.
On Toe Tag, which is based on the producer's own story, the producer pushed back on our designs. In their memory, they and the people around them were much more fashionable in the early '90s.
My co-designer and I explained our reasoning: the story is about two very different people, a free-spirited artist and a man who's more restrained and afraid to love openly.
As they fall in love, their worlds blend. He loses the glasses, and his silhouettes and patterns become more playful. After his partner dies, he partly retreats to who he was, but not completely. He carries a piece of the artist with him.
Film Daily: You've spoken about searching for the one detail that makes a character feel real. Can you give us an example of a seemingly insignificant wardrobe choice that completely transformed a performance?
Roger Teng: In Toe Tag, we used a bracelet to connect one character across time. The story follows a man in his twenties in the '90s and the same man decades later, played by two different actors.
So we gave him a simple silver bracelet that he wears in both timelines. It's a small detail, but it tells the audience this is the same person, and this is something he's always worn.
We used the same bracelet on both actors and aged it for the older version, so you can feel the years in it.
Billionaires, werewolves, and the vertical drama revolution
Film Daily: Let's talk about vertical drama. For readers who haven't fallen down the rabbit hole yet, what makes these bite-sized, phone-first productions so addictive?
Roger Teng: Vertical dramas fit into the small gaps in people's days: a commute, a line at a coffee shop, a few spare minutes.
You can often guess how a story will end, but you still want to see how it gets there. They're brilliant at building cycles where one conflict resolves and another opens up right away, so you keep watching.
There's almost always a CEO or someone incredibly wealthy, and part of the appeal is aspiration.
At the same time, they show that these seemingly perfect people still have very human problems, and that's what makes them relatable.
Film Daily: Your vertical drama projects have collectively reached more than 500 million views worldwide, with Carrying His Triplets, Becoming His Wifey alone accumulating almost 350 million views. What does designing for an audience of that scale teach you about contemporary entertainment?
Roger Teng: It taught me that first impressions are everything.
It reminds me a lot of Hollywood's Golden Age, when everything on screen seemed a little better than real life. The actors were beautiful, the clothes were beautiful, the sets were beautiful.
Verticals tap into that same desire. I don't know if it's shifting culture yet, but it might be.
Film Daily: Traditional cinema gives audiences time to study a character. Vertical drama might give you three seconds and half a phone screen. How do you communicate an entire personality that quickly?
Roger Teng: It's brilliant at establishing strong archetypes the audience recognizes instantly: the CEO, the heiress, the mafia boss.
A CEO is a three-piece suit, a crisp white shirt, a beautiful tie. A werewolf gets a fur element, something a little distressed, a shirt that's less traditional, with more design detail.
A college student gets a cute blazer and a uniform look, because that always reads as a student.
In verticals, the first impression has to do almost all of the work.
Film Daily: Are there particular colors, silhouettes, fabrics, or visual tricks that work brilliantly on smartphones but would never have the same impact on a theatrical stage?
Roger Teng: On stage, you often need bolder colors and larger patterns so the audience can read the costumes from hundreds of feet away.
Vertical drama is different because the camera is much closer. Details around the neckline become especially important because the frame often cuts off at the waist.
Producers will sometimes ask for more detail in that area so the costume doesn't look flat on screen.
Why two-minute dramas are harder to make than they look
Film Daily: Vertical dramas are frequently dismissed as disposable entertainment. What do critics misunderstand about the craftsmanship and creative decisions behind these productions?
Roger Teng: Telling a story in two-minute installments requires a strong understanding of pacing, visual storytelling, and audience engagement.
A typical series shoots in seven or eight days, producing around ninety minutes of finished content. My team is usually just me and one assistant.
Depending on the script and locations, I've handled six or seven changes in a single day across both leads.
The result might look effortless on a phone, but getting there requires a lot of planning and problem-solving.
Film Daily: Vertical projects rarely come with unlimited budgets. What's the most inventive costume solution you've created when money, time, or resources were running out?
Roger Teng: People don't always realize how small the budgets for vertical dramas can be. We might have only a few thousand dollars to dress both leads, with each character needing more than ten looks.
A lot of our wardrobe comes from Amazon or our own personal stock, so the challenge is making inexpensive pieces look convincing on camera.
A less expensive suit that fits perfectly can look far more convincing than an expensive one that doesn't.
Film Daily: Some vertical dramas rely on instantly recognizable archetypes: billionaires, betrayed wives, secret heirs, and forbidden lovers. How do you make these familiar characters visually distinctive rather than simply repeating clichés?
Roger Teng: In vertical drama, I lean into archetypes intentionally.
If you imagine a scheming woman trying to take someone's inheritance, people might immediately think of red, fur, or leopard print. Those associations are useful starting points.
What makes the characters distinctive is the system I build around those choices.
A CEO might always wear an impeccably tailored three-piece suit in a classic business color, while pinstripes are reserved for a mafia character.
Film Daily: You've described the shift from theater to vertical drama as a lesson in creative control. How did you learn to collaborate with producers and executives without compromising your artistic judgment?
Roger Teng: On Two Alphas Are in Love with Me, I originally wanted the alpha in a black cloak. The producers felt black was too dark and wouldn't catch the viewer's eye.
My first instinct was to push back, because on stage or in film, black can read as powerful and intimidating. But on a phone screen, a black cloak swallows the actor.
So we went with a bright blue robe trimmed with fur, and it worked much better.
Imagine someone dropping into episode 30. The biggest lesson for me is that in verticals, it’s not always about the arc I’d build as a designer. It’s about the fantasy each character represents for the audience. How do they know this guy is the CEO? The suit. Take it away, and you lose them.
Film Daily: Vertical dramas are changing how audiences consume scripted entertainment. Do you think traditional Hollywood is underestimating the format, and what could established studios learn from its success?
Roger Teng: I don't think Hollywood is necessarily underestimating vertical drama. Studios and entertainment companies are already exploring the format, but I see it as a separate lane rather than a replacement for traditional film or theater.
What established studios could learn from vertical drama is the importance of understanding how audiences actually consume stories today, and of being willing to experiment with formats and storytelling approaches that might initially seem unconventional.
AI, cultural identity, and the future of costume design
Film Daily: With artificial intelligence increasingly entering fashion, filmmaking, and production design, which parts of costume design do you believe technology can genuinely improve, and which still demand a human eye?
Roger Teng: AI can generate a character that looks the way people expect, but something genuinely designed and thought through still needs a human eye.
What's the quality of their clothes? How do the materials, patterns, and colors separate one character from another?
Where technology has made a huge difference is reach. It hasn't replaced the craft, but it's carried that craft further than I ever imagined.
Film Daily: Your career bridges different cultures and creative industries. How has your personal background shaped the way you interpret American characters and challenge familiar visual stereotypes?
Roger Teng: Coming from Taiwan gave me a perspective that I think has been useful in my work.
That perspective is especially useful in vertical drama, where producers sometimes bring visual conventions from Asian storytelling into stories set in America.
For example, a producer on a vertical project might want a school-uniform look for a college flashback because uniforms immediately communicate that the characters are younger. But American schools don't generally have uniforms at every level.
Because I understand both visual languages, I can help find a solution that communicates the intended story beat while still feeling believable in an American setting.
Film Daily: Costume design can reinforce cultural clichés just as easily as it can dismantle them. How do you research characters from unfamiliar backgrounds without reducing their identities to recognizable clothing conventions?
Roger Teng: When I'm designing for a culture I'm not familiar with, the first thing I do is ask. There's no shame in asking questions.
The more we understand other people, the more accurately we can represent them.
Film Daily: Looking back across your theater and film credits, which production pushed you furthest outside your comfort zone, and what did you discover about yourself through the experience?
Roger Teng: One production that pushed me outside my comfort zone was The African Company Presents Richard III, which tells the story of a Black theater company in early nineteenth-century New York trying to stage Shakespeare against enormous obstacles.
Research was challenging because photography wasn't yet available, and the historical record disproportionately documents people who had wealth and privilege.
The director was clear that he didn't want the characters to look pitiful or defined by poverty. They were proud people who knew what they were doing.
Research isn't just about reproducing what people wore. It's also about understanding who they were, what they valued, and how we can represent them with care.
Film Daily: If you could revisit one classic Broadway musical or Hollywood film and completely reimagine its costumes through a different cultural perspective, which would you choose, and what would you change?
Roger Teng: In a design concept I developed, I reimagined Cabaret in 1940s Shanghai during the Chinese Civil War.
Shanghai was one of China's most cosmopolitan cities with a strong Western presence, and that world was about to be torn apart, which mirrors Berlin in the original.
My Emcee was a traditional Chinese opera singer who had become an entertainer for foreigners, holding onto his traditional values while performing for Western audiences.
The costumes were built around the qipao. I've always been fascinated by how it developed, because it's the perfect mix of East and West.
Film Daily: You've already worked across some remarkably different corners of the entertainment industry. What stories are you determined to tell next, and what do you want audiences to feel when they encounter a world you've helped create?
Roger Teng: I want to tell stories that are real and about people, but that also live a little in fantasy. I love living in a dream.
I live across cultures, and representing that matters to me. I have Western ideas and Eastern ideas, and my goal is always to combine them.
Right now, when the world feels so divided, I want to make historical, dramatic work that reminds people why art matters.
So much attention is on technology. But art is what makes us human.
Conclusion: The future of costume design isn't one-size-fits-all
There's something wonderfully contradictory about Roger Teng's career.
He can dig deep into researching the historical clothing of nineteenth-century New York, then turn around and dress a supernatural heartthrob in a bright blue fur-trimmed robe because black doesn't pop on an iPhone.
He understands the meticulous craftsmanship of the stage and the gloriously excessive fantasy of vertical drama. More importantly, he doesn't see them as competing forms of entertainment.
For Teng, both require the same fundamental skill: understanding what an audience needs to know about a character, then finding the clothes that make them believe it.
And while vertical drama's outrageous plots, improbable billionaires, and endless romantic betrayals might never win over every critic, its enormous audiences are difficult to ignore.
Behind those extravagant fantasies are working artists solving surprisingly complex creative problems, often with limited money and almost no time.
Teng is one of them.
From a school chairwoman's qipao to Cannes, Broadway, and 500 million smartphone views, his career makes a compelling argument that costume design isn't really about clothes.
It's about making us believe in people who don't exist.
And sometimes, all it takes is a perfectly tailored suit, a silver bracelet, or a blue fur-trimmed robe.
