New podcast 'Magnificent Jerk' explores the eccentric life and career of actor/writer Galen Yuen.

The way most people probably remembered Galen Yuen — if they knew or knew of him at all — was as a working actor with a few dozen minor movie and TV roles, playing characters like "Yakuza Member," "Smuggler" or "Low Life #1." He also had a sprinkle of screenwriting credits, including an episode of the short-lived TV series Vanishing Son, and a direct-to-video movie called Crazy Six. Yuen died in 2015 at 63.

Fast forward a few years later, when journalist Maya Lin Sugarman finds a box of forgotten screenplays — written by her late uncle, Galen — that sets her on a journey to uncover the truth about his tumultuous life. She discovers, among other shocking things that may or may not be true, that Galen was a leader of a Chinese gang, that he went to jail, and, in a final twist, that he poured his life story into a screenplay that was turned into a 1990s Hollywood action movie… starring Rob Lowe, Burt Reynolds, and Ice-T.

Maya shares her journey to discover the truth about Galen in the new podcast Magnificent Jerk, "the true story — of a fake story — about a real life." Listen to the trailer:

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