The titular Anna Sorokin surrounds herself with some fascinating, eccentric, and incredibly bright people in the Netflix miniseries “Inventing Anna.” There are some truly intelligent people in the mix despite the high society circles she frequents being viewed as shallow.
The series offers a wide range of colourful characters who are reimaginings of real people, all of which are based on Jessica Pressler’s 2018 New York Magazine article. Pressler’s essay also makes reference to “the Futurist,” a figure whose possible inspiration has been the subject of much conjecture ever since the show’s debut. One of the potential tech entrepreneurs to whom “the Futurist” might be referring, according to some stories, is Hunter Lee Soik. Let’s review the information we do have on Hunter.
Who is Hunter Lee Soik?
Hunter Lee Soik was born in Seoul, South Korea, and appears to have been adopted by a couple from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, shortly after turning two. He relocated to California after finishing high school and tried his hand at professional skating before taking a short course at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. Hunter reportedly had a part in a Coke commercial as well, and he later founded his own production firm, according to his New Yorker feature.
By 2011, he was serving as a creative consultant for Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne tour. Around this time, the young businessman developed the inspiration for what would eventually become the Shadow: Community of Dreamers app. After some unusually lengthy stretches of sleep during a well-deserved holiday, he wanted to store his dreams but found there wasn’t an app for that either.
Hunter spent several months examining the various perspectives from which dreams were interpreted, including those of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Japanese neuroscientists. Shadow’s Kickstarter campaign had amassed $82,500 by the time Fast Company ran a piece on him in 2014, and the app was allegedly due to go live soon. Simply defined, the app was an alarm that asked users to record their dreams as soon as they woke up (either by speech or text). The goal was to eventually create sizable dream databases utilising keywords from user input.
But it seems like Hunter departed Shadow in March 2016 and joined the group that founded Dubai Future Accelerators, a venue for futurist talks with well-known speakers, before being appointed Head of Program for Dubai Future Talks. Hunter was a member of the important Dubai Commercialcity steering group, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Where is Hunter Lee Soik Now?
Hunter appears to have worked in a variety of fields throughout his career, with a special emphasis in the tech sector. He is currently described as the Founder and Executive Chairman of the ens group, which appears to be situated in Hong Kong. He is a frequent entrepreneur. Additionally, his profile states that he co-founded TRADE X, a global B2B automobile trade platform, and currently serves as its interim chief operating officer. Although little is known about Hunter’s recent activities or family, it appears that he may be residing in New York City at the moment.
There has been much discussion on whether Hunter Lee Soik is actually “the Futurist” identified in Pressler’s 2018 piece about Anna Sorokin after the Netflix miniseries’ debut. Chase Sikorski, a less-than-flattering figure who briefly dates Anna in the series, represents “the Futurist.” Of course, since there is no formal confirmation regarding his identity, it is also possible that the persona is modelled on another IT entrepreneur.
