Brian Tashima

Brian Tashima was born and raised in Hawaii and has been a resident of Vancouver, Washington since 2000. He is an author, screenwriter, filmmaker, musician, creator, consultant, and philanthropist. He’s also the dad of two autistic children, and was himself diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum in April 2025.

Brian is the leader and managing general partner of Second Player Score, a punk rock band/multimedia production company whose mission is to provide career opportunities within the entertainment industry to people from the autism and neurodivergent communities.

His creative credits include the award-winning Joel Suzuki novels, a seven-volume young adult science fiction/fantasy series about a teenage boy whose autism is a source of magic, the manga-style comic book series Glorified, and the short film Hold My Beer, about an autistic young adult who discovers a passion for craft beer and embarks on a journey to open his own brewpub.

His music has won a Hoku award (Hawaii’s version of the Grammys) and has been licensed for use by TV stations like MLB Network, The Golf Channel, and more. He also writes a blog about his personal adventures and produces a podcast where he and his partners in Second Player Score discuss music, pop culture, and craft beer.

Brian joined the Autism Empowerment Board of Directors in 2013 after being a great supporter of the nonprofit. He serves as Treasurer. Brian is also on the Editorial Advisory Board of Autism Empowerment’s Spectrum Life Magazine and is a Program Co-Lead of Autism Empowerment’s Neurodivergent Creators Collective. Brian donates one dollar for every Joel Suzuki series book sold to Autism Empowerment.