Asian Americans in arts and entertainment
Encyclopedia
Asian Americans have been involved in the entertainment industry since the first half of the 19th century, when Chang and Eng Bunker
(the original "Siamese Twins") became naturalized citizens. Acting roles in television
, film
, and theater were relatively few, and many available roles were for narrow, stereotypical characters. Early Asian American actors such as Sessue Hayakawa
, Anna May Wong
, and Bruce Lee
encountered a movie-making culture that wanted to cast them as caricatures.
Bruce Lee abandoned Hollywood in the early 1970s and achieved worldwide fame in Hong Kong
. On another level, frustrated with the limited opportunities given to them, seven Asian American actors formed East West Players
(EWP), a Los Angeles
-based Asian American theater company in 1965, to produce their own shows, and the company continues today.
More recently, young Asian American comedians and filmmakers have also found an outlet on YouTube
and the Internet, allowing them to gain a strong and loyal fanbase. Notable YouTubers include comedians such as Kevin Wu and Christine Gambito
; musicians such as Far East Movement
, Sam Tsui
, David Choi
, and Kina Grannis
; and the filmmaking group Wong Fu Productions
. These entertainers have gained notable followings, mainly with young Asian American students, through solo and collaborative videos, short films and tours.
(the original "Siamese Twins") became naturalized citizens, they were managing their own careers.
George Takei
and Pat Morita
became famous from mere supporting roles in Star Trek
and Happy Days
, two of the best-known series of the 1960s and 1970s, respectively. Other Asian Americans who appeared on the small-screen during this time include Jack Soo
of Barney Miller
, and Bruce Lee
on the Green Hornet. In 1976, Morita starred in the first American sitcom centered on a person of Asian descent, Mr. T and Tina
and would go on to become widely known as the mentor to the main character, Mr. Miyagi, in The Karate Kid movies of the '80s.
Comedian Johnny Yune
made many appearances on the Tonight Show in the late '70s.
Margaret Cho
, stand-up comedian and actress, had a leading role in her own TV comedy series All American Girl in the '90s. Her character was a Korean-American (as is Cho), who struggled with her family and cultural issues in San Francisco. The show included other Asian-American actors such as Amy Hill
, who played Cho's grandmother, who has starred in numerous TV and movie roles throughout her life, including in episodes of Six Feet Under and Desperate Housewives
. Despite being a breakthrough in prime-time television, All American Girl show was cancelled after two seasons due to low ratings. After its run, due to the way it was handled and the pressures that were forced on her to conform to vague mainstream expectations to try and make the show a success, Cho suffered a huge psychotic break and self-disappointment that led to her drug and alcohol addiction. (Later it would be revealed that female stars of even successful sitcoms go through similar trials as related by Roseanne Barr in her story for New York Magazine in 2011.) Cho has since regained popularity and success from her 2000 one-woman show I'm the One That I Want
through her current involvement in Drop Dead Diva
on Lifetime.
Lucy Liu
had a major part in the Ally McBeal
TV show from 1998 to 2002 before going on to lead roles in feature films. Daniel Dae Kim and Sendhil Ramamurthy
have achieved some recognition as sex symbols for their respective roles on Lost
and Heroes
as has Jon Gosselin from the reality show Jon and Kate Plus 8; B. D. Wong, who starred in the Broadway production of M. Butterfly
and is the only actor to have won a Tony, a Drama Desk award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, among others currently stars on Law & Order: SVU after being featured in the critically acclaimed series Oz
.
After landing a role on As the World Turns
, Ming-Na
starred as Dr. Deb Chen in the medical drama television series ER
from 1995 to 2004 and played a lead in Joy Luck Club. She went on to star in other successful TV shows such as Stargate Universe
and lent her voice to the main character in Mulan.
Masi Oka
and James Kyson Lee are two lead Asian actors that are on the popular TV series Heroes
. Oka, a math major when he attended Brown University
, is also the only lead actor on the show to be nominated for either an Emmy or Golden Globe Award. Sonja Sohn was a series regular on the entire run of the critically acclaimed television series The Wire
. Tila Tequila was the star of the two-season MTV
show A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila
.
Olivia Munn
, from Oklahoma of Chinese descent on her mother's side, is an actress, model, and television personality is best known as a correspondent on The Jon Stewart Show
. She co-hosted G4
's Attack of the Show!
, and enjoyed roles in movies such as Iron Man 2
. South Korea-born SuChin Pak
was a news correspondent frequently seen on MTV News and now the host of G Word for Planet Green. Reiko Aylesworth
was part of the cast of the critically acclaimed hit TV series 24
. Kirk Acevedo
was a lead actor on various TV shows and was known for his regular roles on popular television shows such as OZ
, Law & Order: Trial by Jury
, and Fringe
.
Both Mark-Paul Gosselaar
and Jennie Kwan
in the past were both popularly known to the teen and children audiences for their roles on television series Saved by the Bell
and California Dreams
respectively both aimed at youth in the 1990s. The late Thuy Trang
is probably a familiar face to many children and young adults for her role as Trini Kwan
, the original yellow ranger, in the hit youth television show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
. Brenda Song
is a Thai-Hmong American actress known to younger audiences for starring in several Disney Channel
productions including The Suite Life Of Zack and Cody
, Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior
1 and 2, Stuck in the Suburbs
, The Suite Life on Deck
, and, most recently, The Social Network
.
Recently the hit U.S. TV series Survivor
created teams along racial lines during Survivor: Cook Islands
. People of East and Southeast Asian ancestry composed the Asian American tribe. Asian American Yul Kwon
won the season.
Korean American actresses Yun Jin Kim and Sandra Oh
of the ABC
TV series "Lost
" and "Grey's Anatomy
," respectively, were during their series' runs the main two Asian American actors in lead roles on network television (the latter is still on air). Jenna Ushkowitz and Harry Shum, Jr. of "Glee
" are also prominent Asian American actors currently on network television, although all four of them are/were part of large, ensemble casts, where it is more likely to find minority characters.
is a NATAS
News/Documentary Cinematography Emmy awarded cinematographer
for the Sundance Channel feature documentary Amargosa about a dnacer who performs regularly in an opera house in a California ghost town.
Miyoshi Umeki
won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
in 1957 for Sayonara
. Haing Ngor won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
in 1985 for The Killing Fields
. Lou Diamond Phillips
had leading roles in several motion pictures including Young Guns
, Stand by Me
, and Extreme Prejudice. Lucy Liu
was one of the lead actresses in the popular Charlie's Angels
movie series and continued to hold her own in Quentin Tarentino's Kill Bill Vol. 1 for which she was paid $5.5 million. She also was the first Asian-American woman to host Saturday Night Live
in 2000.
Shin Koyamada
became best known to audience after his co-starring role "Nobutada" in Warner Bros.
Pictures Action epic The Last Samurai
, starring Tom Cruise
and also starred in Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior
with Brenda Song
.
John Cho
, a Korea-born American actor, famously portrayed Hikaru Sulu
in the Star Trek reboot, as well as appearing in the primary American Pie series and the Harold & Kumar
series along with popular Indian American actor Kal Penn
, who in addition to playing one of Dr. House's four fellows in the medical drama House
from 2007 to 2009, also starred in The Namesake
, one of his favorite books, taught a course and seminar on images of Asian Americans in the media at the University of Pennsylvania
as well as appearing as a terrorist on 24
.
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
frequently fills film roles that require an Asian American star and has an extensive film and television appearance history. While often portraying a villain, such as the soul-stealing sorcerer Shang Tsung
in the film adaptation of the video game Mortal Kombat, he was interviewed in the documentary The Slanted Screen (2006), directed by Jeff Adachi
, about the representation of Asian and Asian-American men in Hollywood. Darren Criss
is a half-Filipino actor who recently gained fame through the viral hit A Very Potter Musical and the popular TV show Glee
.
The international star Joan Chen
(Chong Chen) was featured in numerous films from China, the US, Australia, and some other countries. She won quite a number of awards for her acting and has also directed a film.
M. Night Shyamalan
has directed a number of movies, including Signs
, The Village
, Unbreakable, and the Academy Award-nominated The Sixth Sense
. Mira Nair
has acclaimed movies like Salaam Bombay, Monsoon Wedding
and The Namesake
to her credit. Ang Lee
is the much sought-after director of the critically acclaimed Brokeback Mountain
, Eat Drink Man Woman
, Sense and Sensibility
, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
. Director Justin Lin
brought attention to the experiences of Asian Americans through his movie Better Luck Tomorrow
, which included an almost exclusively Asian-American cast. He has since directed The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
, its prequel Fast & Furious and Fast Five.
(2007) and Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club
. Others have been created on stories about Asian American communities.
was the designer for many of the props on the Star Trek
series as well as The Time Machine
, which received an Academy Award for special effects.
is based on the 1957 novel, The Flower Drum Song, by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee
. which in turn is based on the San Francisco nightclub Forbidden City
that was popular for military men in transit during World War II. Rodgers and Hammerstein
adapted it into a musical that was produced on Broadway in 1958 and on film in 1961. Largely remembered for the hit song "I Enjoy Being A Girl", it would not be produced with an all-Asian-American cast until a 2002 Broadway revival.
In 1965, frustrated with the limited opportunities given to them, actors Mako
, James Hong
, Beulah Quo, Pat Li, and June Kim, together with Guy Lee and Yet Lock, formed East West Players
(EWP), a Los Angeles
-based Asian American theater company – the first of its kind. They produced their own shows to allow Asian American actors the opportunity to perform a wide range of leading roles. As the need still exists, EWP continues today. Dozens of other Asian American theater companies have since formed in major cities throughout the US
, providing similar outlets elsewhere.
In 1988, playwright David Henry Hwang
's Broadway hit M. Butterfly
won a Tony Award for Best Play, among other awards. Singer and actress Lea Salonga
, who broke out in the lead role in the musical Miss Saigon
, was also the first Asian to play the roles of Éponine and Fantine in the musical Les Misérables on Broadway, and is still active on Broadway
.
Margaret Cho
won the American Comedy Award for Best Female Comedian in 1994. Comedian Byron Yee's show Paper Son was awarded "Outstanding Solo Show" at the New York International Fringe Festival.
Notable works of world architecture have been designed by Asian Americans, such as the Louvre Pyramid
(I.M. Pei), the World Trade Center (Minoru Yamasaki
), and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
(Maya Lin
). In commercial architecture, Gyo Obata
is a founding partner of HOK (formerly Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum)
, which designed the National Air and Space Museum
in Washington D.C. and the Taipei World Trade Center. Fazlur Rahman Khan designed the John Hancock Center
and the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower), both in Chicago
.
, friend to Anna Wintour
, and Anna Sui
have been working as highly accomplished and awarded fashion designers for years. Philippines-born
Monique Lhuillier
's dresses are on the Hollywood red carpet and Vietnamese-American Chloe Dao
won Project Runway
in spring 2006. Other designers include Phillip Lim, 2006 CFDA Emerging Talent Award Winner Doo-Ri Chung
, and 2005 Winner Derek Lam
; all three have been featured in Vogue magazine several times. At the Fashion Institute of Technology
, 23 percent of the nearly 1,200 students now enrolled are either Asian or Asian-American.
, young Asian Americans have become more prominent, gaining large followings through filmmaking, comedy, or music. This includes video bloggers/comedians like Kevin Wu (kevjumba) and the filmmaking group Wong Fu Productions
. The latter's growing influence is evident especially in Wong Fu Productions' annual concert series, International Secret Agents (ISA), which often sell out, and in which many popular Asian American guest performers appear, like Far East Movement
or Poreotics
. Kevin Wu's recent appearance on the 17th season of The Amazing Race
marked another significant venture into mainstream media. These along with other rising Asian American talents have shared and documented their journey among Asian American blogs including TheOtherAsians, and more recently Hyphen magazine
.
won the National Book Critics Circle
award in 1976 for her memoir The Woman Warrior
. Bharati Mukherjee
won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1988 for her short story collection The Middleman and Other Stories
. Jessica Hagedorn
won a 1990 American Book Award
for her novel Dogeaters. Chang-Rae Lee
received the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award
for his novel Native Speaker
(1995). Amy Tan
has received popular acclaim for her work and had a novel produced as a film. Jhumpa Lahiri
received a 2000 Pulitzer Prize
for Fiction for her short story collection The Interpreter of Maladies. Kiran Desai
won the British Man Booker Prize
(2006) and National Book Critics Circle Award
(2006) for her second novel The Inheritance of Loss
. Her mother Anita Desai
has also been nominated for major awards for her novels. Naomi Hirahara won a 2007 Edgar Award
for her novel Snakeskin Shamisen.
is considered to be one of the most popular comic book
artists and is one of the founders of Image Comics
. Adrian Tomine
's cartoons are featured in The New Yorker
.
and R&B
. A few notable examples are multi-racial Amerie
, Cassie, Ne-Yo
, who is one-quarter Chinese, Filipino-American Apl.de.ap
of The Black Eyed Peas
, and Jin
. There are many more Asian-Americans represented in local hip-hop scenes, including rising acts like the Blue Scholars
. In 2010 and 2011, half-Filipino
singer-songwriter Bruno Mars
broke into the Top 10 with his singles "Just the Way You Are
" and "Grenade
". In October 2010, Far East Movement
became the first Asian-American band to break into the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100
with their single "Like a G6
", which eventually reached No. 1.
, Asian-Americans are a sizable influence, including pop divas such as part-Filipino
Vanessa Hudgens, Utada Hikaru
, Lea Salonga
and Nicole Scherzinger
. Folk singer-songwriter and Christian Dawn Xiana Moon was the first to blend traditional Chinese music with Americana, pop, and jazz, and Vienna Teng
is notable for a folk/pop sound without the Eastern influences.
Asian-Americans play in a handful of "all-American" bands, including quarter-Indonesian
Eddie Van Halen
, James Iha
of The Smashing Pumpkins
, Keralan Indian Kim Thayil
of Soundgarden
, part-Filipino Kirk Hammett
of Metallica
, Indian-English Tony Kanal
of No Doubt
, Richard On of O.A.R.
, Joey Santiago
of Pixies, Kenny Choi
of Daphne Loves Derby
Hoobastank
's Doug Robb and former member Derek Kwan, and Linkin Park
's Mike Shinoda
and Joseph Hahn
, a Korean-American. The famous surf rock guitarist and pioneer of the electric guitar Dick Dale
is also Asian American, he is of Lebanese descent. Mike Park
is prominent in the independent music sphere as a member of Skankin' Pickle
, The Bruce Lee Band
, and The Chinkees
, as well as being the founder of Asian Man Records
.
Don Ho
was a Grammy Award
-winning Hawaiian pop singer and entertainer. Tia Carrere
is a Hawaiian singer, actress, and former model best known as Cassandra Wong in the Wayne's World
movies with a recurring role on Curb Your Enthusiasm
; her album Hawaiiana was nominated for an Grammy. Singer-songwriter Norah Jones
is also very successful. Nadia Ali
, singer-songwriter and the former front-woman of iiO
is prominent in the electronic dance music
genre, with her work having attained both critical and commercial success.
Internationally, US-born Leehom Wang is a well-known musician in mainland China and Taiwan
, and also played a part in Ang Lee's 2007 film Lust, Caution
. In the heavy metal genre, Aja Kim
, has achieved notoriety as lead vocalist in the role of Bruce 'Lee' Chickinson for the tribute band
, The Iron Maidens.
In classical music
, cellist Yo-Yo Ma
and conductor Zubin Mehta
are examples of significant Asian American figures. The classical violinists Sarah Chang
and Midori Gotō
have each been awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize
, as has Ma. The composer Bright Chang has received extensive recognition for his work, including being invited to be composer-in-residence at the New York City Ballet. Hunan, China-born New York City
resident Tan Dun
is a contemporary classical composer, well known for his Grammy and Oscar-award winning scores for the movies Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero.
is a musical movement in the United States begun in the 20th century by Asian American jazz musicians that has produced a number of very prominent musicians.
is a Los Angeles-based artist and musician. Sueo Serisawa
helped establish the California Impressionist style of painting. Los Angeles-based artists James Jean
and David Choe
have received domestic and international recognition within the Lowbrow
art scene.
Chang and Eng Bunker
Chang and Eng Bunker were the conjoined twin brothers whose condition and birthplace became the basis for the term "Siamese twins".-Life:...
(the original "Siamese Twins") became naturalized citizens. Acting roles in television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, and theater were relatively few, and many available roles were for narrow, stereotypical characters. Early Asian American actors such as Sessue Hayakawa
Sessue Hayakawa
was a Japanese and American Issei actor who starred in American, Japanese, French, German, and British films. Hayakawa was the first and one of the few Asian actors to find stardom in the United States as well as Europe. Between the mid-1910s and the late 1920s, he was as well known as actors...
, Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star...
, and Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee was a Chinese American, Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement...
encountered a movie-making culture that wanted to cast them as caricatures.
Bruce Lee abandoned Hollywood in the early 1970s and achieved worldwide fame in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. On another level, frustrated with the limited opportunities given to them, seven Asian American actors formed East West Players
East West Players
East West Players is an Asian American theatre organization in Los Angeles, founded in 1965. As one of the nation's first Asian American theatre organizations, East West Players today continues to produce works and educational programs that give voice to the Asian Pacific American...
(EWP), a Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
-based Asian American theater company in 1965, to produce their own shows, and the company continues today.
More recently, young Asian American comedians and filmmakers have also found an outlet on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
and the Internet, allowing them to gain a strong and loyal fanbase. Notable YouTubers include comedians such as Kevin Wu and Christine Gambito
Christine Gambito
Christine Gambito, better known by her screen name HappySlip, is an American Internet personality, actress, and comedian. She maintains one of the most-subscribed-to channels on YouTube, a popular video sharing website...
; musicians such as Far East Movement
Far east movement
Far East Movement is an Asian American electro hop quartet based in Los Angeles. The group formed in 2003 and consists of Kev Nish , Prohgress , J-Splif , and DJ Virman...
, Sam Tsui
Sam Tsui
Samuel "Sam" Tsui is an American musician and Internet celebrity who rose to fame on YouTube. He is best known for covering and performing songs by popular artists, as well as original medleys and mashups...
, David Choi
David Choi
David Yong Choi is an American musician and YouTube video producer living in Los Angeles. He performs a mix of original songs and covers of pop hits. Choi released his debut album, Only You, in October 2008. His second album, By My Side, was released on May 19, 2010...
, and Kina Grannis
Kina Grannis
Kina Kasuya Grannis is a Japanese American guitarist and singer-songwriter. She is of Japanese, English, Irish, French, and German descent....
; and the filmmaking group Wong Fu Productions
Wong Fu Productions
Wong Fu ProductionsShort films by Wong Fu Productions prior to the group's graduation from the University of California, San Diego, included a logo with the Chinese characters for "Wong Fu" . The last film to feature this logo was License Plate, released on August 18, 2006. Films produced after the...
. These entertainers have gained notable followings, mainly with young Asian American students, through solo and collaborative videos, short films and tours.
19th century
They may have been discovered by a British showman and carted around the world, but by the time Chang and Eng BunkerChang and Eng Bunker
Chang and Eng Bunker were the conjoined twin brothers whose condition and birthplace became the basis for the term "Siamese twins".-Life:...
(the original "Siamese Twins") became naturalized citizens, they were managing their own careers.
Television
George Takei
George Hosato Takei Altman is an American actor, author, social activist and former civil politician. He is best known for his role in the television series Star Trek and its film spinoffs, in which he played Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the...
and Pat Morita
Pat Morita
Noriyuki "Pat" Morita was an American actor of Japanese descent who was well-known for playing the roles of Matsuo "Arnold" Takahashi on Happy Days and Mr. Miyagi in the The Karate Kid movie series, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1984.-Early life:Pat...
became famous from mere supporting roles in Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
and Happy Days
Happy Days
Happy Days is an American television sitcom that originally aired from January 15, 1974, to September 24, 1984, on ABC. Created by Garry Marshall, the series presents an idealized vision of life in mid-1950s to mid-1960s America....
, two of the best-known series of the 1960s and 1970s, respectively. Other Asian Americans who appeared on the small-screen during this time include Jack Soo
Jack Soo
Jack Soo was a Japanese American actor. He is best known for his role as Detective Nick Yemana on the television sitcom Barney Miller.-Early life:...
of Barney Miller
Barney Miller
Barney Miller is a situation comedy television series set in a New York City police station in Greenwich Village. The series originally was broadcast from January 23, 1975 to May 20, 1982 on ABC. It was created by Danny Arnold and Theodore J. Flicker...
, and Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee was a Chinese American, Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement...
on the Green Hornet. In 1976, Morita starred in the first American sitcom centered on a person of Asian descent, Mr. T and Tina
Mr. T and Tina
Mr. T and Tina is an American sitcom that aired for five episodes on ABC in the fall of 1976. Starring Pat Morita, the series was a spin-off of the then-hit series Welcome Back, Kotter...
and would go on to become widely known as the mentor to the main character, Mr. Miyagi, in The Karate Kid movies of the '80s.
Comedian Johnny Yune
Johnny Yune
Johnny Yune is a Korean-American actor and comedian.He played the lead in the 1980s films They Call Me Bruce? and They Still Call Me Bruce. Yune's big break came at Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show". Yune stated that due to "Charlton Heston" not showing up on time, he was given over twenty minutes of...
made many appearances on the Tonight Show in the late '70s.
Margaret Cho
Margaret Cho
Margaret Cho is an American comedian, fashion designer, actress, author, and recording artist. Cho is best known for her stand-up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially those pertaining to race and sexuality. She has also directed and appeared in music...
, stand-up comedian and actress, had a leading role in her own TV comedy series All American Girl in the '90s. Her character was a Korean-American (as is Cho), who struggled with her family and cultural issues in San Francisco. The show included other Asian-American actors such as Amy Hill
Amy Hill
Amy Marie Hill is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles as Mrs. DePaulo in That's So Raven, Mrs. Kwan in The Cat in the Hat, the Kylie Minogue-inspired singer, Penny Candy from The Puzzle Place, and the voice of Jasmine Lee Amy Marie Hill (born May 9, 1953) is an American...
, who played Cho's grandmother, who has starred in numerous TV and movie roles throughout her life, including in episodes of Six Feet Under and Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producer Cherry serves as Showrunner. Other executive producers since the fourth season include Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W...
. Despite being a breakthrough in prime-time television, All American Girl show was cancelled after two seasons due to low ratings. After its run, due to the way it was handled and the pressures that were forced on her to conform to vague mainstream expectations to try and make the show a success, Cho suffered a huge psychotic break and self-disappointment that led to her drug and alcohol addiction. (Later it would be revealed that female stars of even successful sitcoms go through similar trials as related by Roseanne Barr in her story for New York Magazine in 2011.) Cho has since regained popularity and success from her 2000 one-woman show I'm the One That I Want
I'm the One That I Want
I'm the One That I Want can refer to one of three works by comedian Margaret Cho:*I'm the One That I Want , a book based on her stand up routine*I'm the One That I Want , a recording of her one-woman show...
through her current involvement in Drop Dead Diva
Drop Dead Diva
Drop Dead Diva is an American legal comedy-drama/fantasy television series that debuted on Lifetime on July 12, 2009. The hour-long series, which was created by Josh Berman, is produced by Sony Pictures Television...
on Lifetime.
Lucy Liu
Lucy Liu
Lucy Alexis Liu is an American actress and film producer. She became known for playing the role of the vicious and ill-mannered Ling Woo in the television series Ally McBeal , and has also appeared in several Hollywood films including Charlie's Angels, Chicago, Kill Bill, and Kung Fu Panda.-Early...
had a major part in the Ally McBeal
Ally McBeal
Ally McBeal is an American legal comedy-drama series which aired on the Fox network from 1997 to 2002. The series was created by David E. Kelley, who also served as the executive producer, along with Bill D'Elia...
TV show from 1998 to 2002 before going on to lead roles in feature films. Daniel Dae Kim and Sendhil Ramamurthy
Sendhil Ramamurthy
Sendhil Ramamurthy is an American actor. He is best known for the role as geneticist Mohinder Suresh in the NBC drama Heroes.-Personal life:...
have achieved some recognition as sex symbols for their respective roles on Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
and Heroes
Heroes (TV series)
Heroes is an American science fiction television drama series created by Tim Kring that appeared on NBC for four seasons from September 25, 2006 through February 8, 2010. The series tells the stories of ordinary people who discover superhuman abilities, and how these abilities take effect in the...
as has Jon Gosselin from the reality show Jon and Kate Plus 8; B. D. Wong, who starred in the Broadway production of M. Butterfly
M. Butterfly
M. Butterfly is a 1988 play by David Henry Hwang loosely based on the relationship between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, a male Peking opera singer....
and is the only actor to have won a Tony, a Drama Desk award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, among others currently stars on Law & Order: SVU after being featured in the critically acclaimed series Oz
Oz (TV series)
Oz is an American television drama series created by Tom Fontana, who also wrote or co-wrote all of the series' 56 episodes . It was the first one-hour dramatic television series to be produced by premium cable network HBO. Oz premiered on July 12, 1997 and ran for six seasons...
.
After landing a role on As the World Turns
As the World Turns
As the World Turns is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1956 to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera Guiding Light...
, Ming-Na
Ming-Na
Ming-Na is a Macanese-born American actress. She has been credited with and without her family name, but most credits since the late 1990s have been without it...
starred as Dr. Deb Chen in the medical drama television series ER
ER (TV series)
ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
from 1995 to 2004 and played a lead in Joy Luck Club. She went on to star in other successful TV shows such as Stargate Universe
Stargate Universe
Stargate Universe is a Canadian-American military science fiction television series and part of MGM's Stargate franchise. It follows the adventures of a present-day, multinational exploration team traveling on the Ancient spaceship Destiny many billions of light years distant from the Milky Way...
and lent her voice to the main character in Mulan.
Masi Oka
Masi Oka
Masayori "Masi" Oka is a Japanese-American actor and digital effects artist.He has performed in numerous feature films and TV series, most prominently as Hiro Nakamura in the NBC TV series Heroes from 2006 until its cancellation in May 2010. He resides in Los Angeles, California.-Early life:Oka...
and James Kyson Lee are two lead Asian actors that are on the popular TV series Heroes
Heroes (TV series)
Heroes is an American science fiction television drama series created by Tim Kring that appeared on NBC for four seasons from September 25, 2006 through February 8, 2010. The series tells the stories of ordinary people who discover superhuman abilities, and how these abilities take effect in the...
. Oka, a math major when he attended Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
, is also the only lead actor on the show to be nominated for either an Emmy or Golden Globe Award. Sonja Sohn was a series regular on the entire run of the critically acclaimed television series The Wire
The WIRE
the WIRE is the student-run College radio station at the University of Oklahoma, broadcasting in a freeform format. The WIRE serves the University of Oklahoma and surrounding communities, and is staffed by student DJs. The WIRE broadcasts at 1710 kHz AM in Norman, Oklahoma...
. Tila Tequila was the star of the two-season MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
show A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila
A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila
A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila is an American reality television dating game show similar to the TV show The Bachelor. It premiered on October 9, 2007 on MTV starring Tila Tequila. The series is a bisexual-themed reality dating show where 16 straight males and 16 lesbian-identified female...
.
Olivia Munn
Olivia Munn
Lisa Olivia Munn is an American comedic actress, model, television personality and author. She began her career being credited as Lisa Munn. Since 2006, she has been using the name Olivia Munn personally and professionally....
, from Oklahoma of Chinese descent on her mother's side, is an actress, model, and television personality is best known as a correspondent on The Jon Stewart Show
The Jon Stewart Show
The Jon Stewart Show was a short-lived talk show hosted by comedian Jon Stewart on MTV. It premiered in 1993 and became the second highest-rated program on the network behind Beavis and Butt-Head....
. She co-hosted G4
G4 (TV channel)
G4, also known as G4 TV, is an American cable- and satellite-television channel originally geared primarily toward young adult viewers, originally based on the world of video games...
's Attack of the Show!
Attack of the Show!
Attack of the Show! is an American live television program shown weeknights on G4, G4 Canada and Fuel TV in Australia. The program is hosted by Kevin Pereira and Candace Bailey...
, and enjoyed roles in movies such as Iron Man 2
Iron Man 2
Iron Man 2 is a 2010 American superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character Iron Man, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is the sequel to 2008's Iron Man, the second film in a planned trilogy and is a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Directed by Jon...
. South Korea-born SuChin Pak
SuChin Pak
SuChin Pak is a South Korean-born American television news correspondent, frequently appearing on the cable networks of MTV.SuChin Pak joined the MTV News Team as a correspondent in May 2001. She has covered the MTV Movie Awards, the Sundance Film Festival, and the MTV Video Music Awards. She...
was a news correspondent frequently seen on MTV News and now the host of G Word for Planet Green. Reiko Aylesworth
Reiko Aylesworth
Reiko M. Aylesworth is an American film, television and stage actress, best known for her role on the television series 24 as Michelle Dessler.-Life and career:...
was part of the cast of the critically acclaimed hit TV series 24
24 (TV series)
24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...
. Kirk Acevedo
Kirk Acevedo
Kirk Acevedo is an American actor. He is primarily known for his portrayals of Miguel Alvarez in the HBO series Oz, Joe Toye in Band of Brothers and FBI Agent Charlie Francis in the science-fiction series Fringe....
was a lead actor on various TV shows and was known for his regular roles on popular television shows such as OZ
Oz (TV series)
Oz is an American television drama series created by Tom Fontana, who also wrote or co-wrote all of the series' 56 episodes . It was the first one-hour dramatic television series to be produced by premium cable network HBO. Oz premiered on July 12, 1997 and ran for six seasons...
, Law & Order: Trial by Jury
Law & Order: Trial by Jury
Law & Order: Trial by Jury is an American television drama about criminal trials set in New York City. It was the third spin-off from the long-running Law & Order. The show's almost exclusive focus was on the criminal trial of the accused, showing both the prosecution's and defense's preparation...
, and Fringe
Fringe (TV series)
Fringe is an American science fiction television series created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The series follows a Federal Bureau of Investigation "Fringe Division" team based in Boston, Massachusetts under the supervision of Homeland Security...
.
Both Mark-Paul Gosselaar
Mark-Paul Gosselaar
Mark-Paul Harry Gosselaar is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Zack Morris in NBC's Saved by the Bell, Good Morning, Miss Bliss, and Saved by the Bell: The College Years, Detective John Clark in NYPD Blue, Jerry Kellerman in TNT's Raising the Bar, and more recently Peter...
and Jennie Kwan
Jennie Kwan
Jennie Kwan is a Filipino-American actress and singer from Los Angeles, California. She is best known for her roles as Samantha "Sam" Woo on California Dreams and as Suki on Avatar: The Last Airbender.-Career:Jennie began acting at age 11, when she started performing with the touring company,...
in the past were both popularly known to the teen and children audiences for their roles on television series Saved by the Bell
Saved by the Bell
Saved by the Bell is an American television sitcom that aired between 1989 and 1993. The series is a retooled version of the 1988 series Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which was itself later folded into the history of Saved by the Bell...
and California Dreams
California Dreams
California Dreams is an American teen-oriented sitcom that aired from 1992 to 1996 on Saturday mornings during NBC's TNBC programming block. It was created by writers Brett Dewey and Ronald B. Solomon and executive produced by Peter Engel, all known for their work on Saved by the...
respectively both aimed at youth in the 1990s. The late Thuy Trang
Thuy Trang
Thuy Trang was a Vietnamese American actress. She was best known for her role as Trini Kwan, the original Yellow Ranger in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers television series.-Early life:...
is probably a familiar face to many children and young adults for her role as Trini Kwan
Trini Kwan
Trini Kwan is a fictional character in the Power Rangers universe, portrayed by Vietnamese actress Thuy Trang. She is best remembered as the original Yellow Ranger in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the first entry of the franchise....
, the original yellow ranger, in the hit youth television show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is an American live-action children's television series based on the 16th installment of the Japanese Super Sentai franchise, Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger. Both the show and its related merchandise saw unbridled overnight success, catapulting into pop culture in mere months...
. Brenda Song
Brenda Song
Brenda Song is an American actress, film producer, and model. Song started in show business as a child fashion model. Her early television work included roles in the shows Fudge and 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd...
is a Thai-Hmong American actress known to younger audiences for starring in several Disney Channel
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
productions including The Suite Life Of Zack and Cody
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
The Suite Life of Zack & Cody is an American sitcom created by Danny Kallis and Jim Geoghan. The series premiered on Disney Channel on March 18, 2005 with 4 million viewers, making it the most successful premiere for Disney Channel in 2005. It was one of their first five shows available on the...
, Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior
Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior
Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior is a 2006 Disney Channel Original Movie starring Brenda Song and Shin Koyamada. Koyamada plays a Chinese monk who visits the title character, an American teenager played by Song, claiming Wu is the reincarnation of a powerful female warrior and the only person who can...
1 and 2, Stuck in the Suburbs
Stuck in the Suburbs
Stuck in the Suburbs is a Disney Channel Original Movie based on unused material created by Walt Disney for his live-action films. It was released on July 16, 2004, and stars Danielle Panabaker as Brittany Aarons and Brenda Song as Natasha Kwon-Schwartz. Brittany, a regular middle school student in...
, The Suite Life on Deck
The Suite Life on Deck
The Suite Life on Deck is an American sitcom that aired on Disney Channel from September 26, 2008 to May 6, 2011. It is a sequel/spin-off of the Disney Channel Original Series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody...
, and, most recently, The Social Network
The Social Network
The Social Network is a 2010 American drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin. Adapted from Ben Mezrich's 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires, the film portrays the founding of social networking website Facebook and the resulting lawsuits...
.
Recently the hit U.S. TV series Survivor
Survivor (U.S. TV series)
Survivor is an American version of the Survivor reality television game show, itself derived from the Swedish television series Expedition Robinson originally created in 1997 by Charlie Parsons. The series premiered on May 31, 2000 on CBS...
created teams along racial lines during Survivor: Cook Islands
Survivor: Cook Islands
Survivor: Cook Islands is the thirteenth season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor, having premiered on September 14, 2006...
. People of East and Southeast Asian ancestry composed the Asian American tribe. Asian American Yul Kwon
Yul Kwon
Yul Kwon is a television host and former government official, lawyer, and management consultant based in Virginia. He first gained national recognition as the winner of the reality TV show Survivor: Cook Islands...
won the season.
Korean American actresses Yun Jin Kim and Sandra Oh
Sandra Oh
Sandra Oh is a Canadian actress. She is best known for the role of Dr. Cristina Yang on ABC's Grey's Anatomy, for which she has won a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award. She also played notable roles in the feature films Under the Tuscan Sun and Sideways, and had a supporting role on the...
of the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
TV series "Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
" and "Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC; since then, seven seasons have aired. The series follows the lives of interns, residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in...
," respectively, were during their series' runs the main two Asian American actors in lead roles on network television (the latter is still on air). Jenna Ushkowitz and Harry Shum, Jr. of "Glee
Glee (TV series)
Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues...
" are also prominent Asian American actors currently on network television, although all four of them are/were part of large, ensemble casts, where it is more likely to find minority characters.
Behind the camera
Curt ApduhanCurt Apduhan
Curt Apduhan is an Emmy Award winning director of photography known for his work in feature documentaries. Apduhan's contributions to director Todd Robinson's documentary film Amargosa, a study of artist Marta Becket earned the cinematographer the NATAS 2002 News/Documentary Emmy for outstanding...
is a NATAS
Natas
Natas may refer to:*King Natas, the villain of the TurboGrafx-16 game Dungeon Explorer*Natas Kaupas, an American professional skateboarder*Natas , a Detroit hip hop group consisting of Esham, Mastamind and T-N-T...
News/Documentary Cinematography Emmy awarded cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
for the Sundance Channel feature documentary Amargosa about a dnacer who performs regularly in an opera house in a California ghost town.
Film
Miyoshi Umeki
was a naturalized American actress and standards singer. She was best known for her roles as Katsumi, the wife of Joe Kelly , in the 1957 film Sayonara, as Mei Li in the 1958 Broadway musical and 1961 film Flower Drum Song, and as Mrs. Livingston, the housekeeper of Bill Bixby's and Brandon Cruz's...
won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
in 1957 for Sayonara
Sayonara
Sayonara is a 1957 color American film starring Marlon Brando. It tells the story of an American Air Force flier who was an "ace" fighter pilot during the Korean War....
. Haing Ngor won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
in 1985 for The Killing Fields
The Killing Fields (film)
The Killing Fields is a 1984 British drama film about the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, which is based on the experiences of two journalists: Cambodian Dith Pran and American Sydney Schanberg. The film, which won three Academy Awards, was directed by Roland Joffé and stars Sam Waterston as...
. Lou Diamond Phillips
Lou Diamond Phillips
Lou Diamond Phillips is an American film, television, and stage actor and director. His breakthrough came when he starred in the film La Bamba. He earned a supporting actor Golden Globe Award nomination for his role in Stand and Deliver and a Tony Award nomination for his role in The King and I...
had leading roles in several motion pictures including Young Guns
Young Guns
Young Guns is a 1988 action/western film, directed by Christopher Cain and written by John Fusco. The film was the first to be produced by Morgan Creek Productions...
, Stand by Me
Stand by Me (film)
Stand by Me is a 1986 American drama film directed by Rob Reiner. Based on the novella The Body by Stephen King, the film takes its title from the Ben E. King song of the same name, which plays over the end credits.-Plot:...
, and Extreme Prejudice. Lucy Liu
Lucy Liu
Lucy Alexis Liu is an American actress and film producer. She became known for playing the role of the vicious and ill-mannered Ling Woo in the television series Ally McBeal , and has also appeared in several Hollywood films including Charlie's Angels, Chicago, Kill Bill, and Kung Fu Panda.-Early...
was one of the lead actresses in the popular Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels is a television series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men...
movie series and continued to hold her own in Quentin Tarentino's Kill Bill Vol. 1 for which she was paid $5.5 million. She also was the first Asian-American woman to host Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
in 2000.
Shin Koyamada
Shin Koyamada
is a film actor, producer, philanthropist and martial artist.Koyamada co-starred as “Nobutada” opposite Tom Cruise in the Warner Bros. action epic film The Last Samurai , with a worldwide box office of $456 million. Koyamada also starred in the action original movie Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior...
became best known to audience after his co-starring role "Nobutada" in Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
Pictures Action epic The Last Samurai
The Last Samurai
The Last Samurai is a 2003 American epic drama film directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick, who also co-wrote the screenplay based on a story by John Logan. The film was inspired by a project developed by writer and director Vincent Ward, who had previously filmed the movie in 1990, starring...
, starring Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
and also starred in Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior
Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior
Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior is a 2006 Disney Channel Original Movie starring Brenda Song and Shin Koyamada. Koyamada plays a Chinese monk who visits the title character, an American teenager played by Song, claiming Wu is the reincarnation of a powerful female warrior and the only person who can...
with Brenda Song
Brenda Song
Brenda Song is an American actress, film producer, and model. Song started in show business as a child fashion model. Her early television work included roles in the shows Fudge and 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd...
.
John Cho
John Cho
John Yohan Cho is an American actor and musician, best known for his roles in the American Pie films and the Harold & Kumar films . He also starred in the critically acclaimed hit film Better Luck Tomorrow...
, a Korea-born American actor, famously portrayed Hikaru Sulu
Hikaru Sulu
Hikaru Sulu is a character in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by George Takei in the original Star Trek series, Sulu also appears in the animated Star Trek series, the first six Star Trek movies, one episode of Star Trek: Voyager, and in numerous books, comics, and video games...
in the Star Trek reboot, as well as appearing in the primary American Pie series and the Harold & Kumar
Harold & Kumar
Harold & Kumar is the common name for a series of stoner comedy films starring John Cho and Kal Penn . The first film, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, was released on July 30, 2004 by New Line Cinema and spawned a sequel titled Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, released four years...
series along with popular Indian American actor Kal Penn
Kal Penn
Kalpen Suresh Modi , best known by his stage name Kal Penn, is an American film and television actor, producer, and civil servant....
, who in addition to playing one of Dr. House's four fellows in the medical drama House
House (TV series)
House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...
from 2007 to 2009, also starred in The Namesake
The Namesake
The Namesake is the second book by author Jhumpa Lahiri. It was originally a novella published in The New Yorker and was later expanded to a full length novel. It explores many of the same emotional and cultural themes as her Pulitzer Prize-winning short story collection Interpreter of Maladies...
, one of his favorite books, taught a course and seminar on images of Asian Americans in the media at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
as well as appearing as a terrorist on 24
24 (TV series)
24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...
.
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
is a Japanese-American actor.In addition to his extensive film work, he has appeared on television in Star Trek: The Next Generation - "Encounter at Farpoint" , Thunder in Paradise , Nash Bridges , Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding , and Heroes . He also provided the voice of Sin Tzu for the video game...
frequently fills film roles that require an Asian American star and has an extensive film and television appearance history. While often portraying a villain, such as the soul-stealing sorcerer Shang Tsung
Shang Tsung
Shang Tsung is a boss and player character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. A powerful and deadly sorcerer and a primary antagonist in the Mortal Kombat series, Shang Tsung is a shapeshifter who absorbs the souls of those he slays in order to maintain his youth and power...
in the film adaptation of the video game Mortal Kombat, he was interviewed in the documentary The Slanted Screen (2006), directed by Jeff Adachi
Jeff Adachi
Jeff Adachi is the elected Public Defender of San Francisco, pension reform advocate, and a former candidate for Mayor of San Francisco.-Early life and education:...
, about the representation of Asian and Asian-American men in Hollywood. Darren Criss
Darren Criss
Darren Everett Criss is an American actor, singer-songwriter, musician, composer, and a founding member and co-owner of the theater company StarKid Productions. He currently portrays Blaine Anderson, an openly gay high school student, on the FOX television series Glee...
is a half-Filipino actor who recently gained fame through the viral hit A Very Potter Musical and the popular TV show Glee
Glee (TV series)
Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues...
.
The international star Joan Chen
Joan Chen
Joan Chong Chen is a Chinese American actress, film director, screenwriter and film producer. She became famous in China for her performance in the 1979 film Little Flower and came to international attention for her performance in the 1987 Academy Award-winning film The Last Emperor...
(Chong Chen) was featured in numerous films from China, the US, Australia, and some other countries. She won quite a number of awards for her acting and has also directed a film.
Film directing
M. Night Shyamalan
Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan,known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, is an Indian-born American screenwriter, film director, and producer known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots that climax with a twist ending. He is also known for filming his movies in and around...
has directed a number of movies, including Signs
Signs (film)
Signs is a 2002 American science fiction horror film directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It was adapted from a screenplay also written by Shyamalan. Executive producers for the film comprised Shyamalan, Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy and Sam Mercer. The story focuses on a former preacher named Graham...
, The Village
The Village (2004 film)
The Village is a 2004 American fantasy-thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan about a end-of-the-19th-century village whose inhabitants live in fear of the creatures inhabiting the woods beyond it. The movie was shot in a recreation of a 19th-century village outside Philadelphia,...
, Unbreakable, and the Academy Award-nominated The Sixth Sense
The Sixth Sense
The Sixth Sense is a 1999 American psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The film tells the story of Cole Sear , a troubled, isolated boy who is able to see and talk to the dead, and an equally troubled child psychologist who tries to help him...
. Mira Nair
Mira Nair
Mira Nair is an Indian film director and producer based in New York. Her production company is Mirabai Films.She was educated at Delhi University and Harvard University. Her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay! , won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and also earned the nomination...
has acclaimed movies like Salaam Bombay, Monsoon Wedding
Monsoon Wedding
* Originally featured in the Hindi film Loafer * Originally featured in the Hindi film Biwi No.1 -Awards:The movie won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival...
and The Namesake
The Namesake
The Namesake is the second book by author Jhumpa Lahiri. It was originally a novella published in The New Yorker and was later expanded to a full length novel. It explores many of the same emotional and cultural themes as her Pulitzer Prize-winning short story collection Interpreter of Maladies...
to her credit. Ang Lee
Ang Lee
Ang Lee is a Taiwanese film director. Lee has directed a diverse set of films such as Eat Drink Man Woman , Sense and Sensibility , Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , Hulk , and Brokeback Mountain , for which he won an Academy...
is the much sought-after director of the critically acclaimed Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee. It is a film adaptation of the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx with the screenplay written by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry...
, Eat Drink Man Woman
Eat Drink Man Woman
Eat Drink Man Woman is a Taiwanese film directed by Ang Lee and starring Sihung Lung, Yu-wen Wang, Chien-lien Wu, Kuei-mei Yang. Many of the cast had starred in Ang Lee's previous film, The Wedding Banquet with Sihung Lung and Ah Lei Gua once more playing central elderly figures, and Winston Chao...
, Sense and Sensibility
Sense and Sensibility
Sense and Sensibility, published in 1811, is a British romance novel by Jane Austen, her first published work under the pseudonym, "A Lady." Jane Austen is considered a pioneer of the romance genre of novels, and for the realism portrayed in her novels, is one the most widely read writers in...
, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a 2000 wuxia film. An American-Chinese-Hong Kong-Taiwanese co-production, the film was directed by Ang Lee and featured an international cast of ethnic Chinese actors, including Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, and Chang Chen...
. Director Justin Lin
Justin Lin
Justin Lin is a Taiwanese American film director, best known for his work on Better Luck Tomorrow, The Fast and the Furious franchise and the television show, Community.-Life and career:...
brought attention to the experiences of Asian Americans through his movie Better Luck Tomorrow
Better Luck Tomorrow
Better Luck Tomorrow is a 2002 crime-drama film directed by Justin Lin. The movie is about Asian American overachievers who become bored with their lives and enter a world of petty crime and material excess...
, which included an almost exclusively Asian-American cast. He has since directed The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is a 2006 street racing action film directed by Justin Lin. It is the third installment in the The Fast and the Furious film series and currently the sixth in terms of series chronology...
, its prequel Fast & Furious and Fast Five.
Writing
Major films have been based on Asian American novels, such as Jhumpa Lahiri's The NamesakeThe Namesake
The Namesake is the second book by author Jhumpa Lahiri. It was originally a novella published in The New Yorker and was later expanded to a full length novel. It explores many of the same emotional and cultural themes as her Pulitzer Prize-winning short story collection Interpreter of Maladies...
(2007) and Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club
The Joy Luck Club
The Joy Luck Club is a best-selling novel written by Amy Tan. It focuses on four Chinese American immigrant families in San Francisco, California who start a club known as "the Joy Luck Club," playing the Chinese game of mahjong for money while feasting on a variety of foods...
. Others have been created on stories about Asian American communities.
Film and TV Production
Wah ChangWah Chang
Wah Ming Chang was a Chinese American designer, sculptor, and artist. He is known primarily for his sculpture and the props he designed for Star Trek , including the tricorder, and communicator...
was the designer for many of the props on the Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
series as well as The Time Machine
The Time Machine
The Time Machine is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895 for the first time and later adapted into at least two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations. It indirectly inspired many more works of fiction...
, which received an Academy Award for special effects.
Theater
Flower Drum SongFlower Drum Song
Flower Drum Song was the eighth stage musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. It was based on the 1957 novel, The Flower Drum Song, by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. The piece opened in 1958 on Broadway and was afterwards presented in the West End and on tour...
is based on the 1957 novel, The Flower Drum Song, by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee
C. Y. Lee (author)
Chin Yang Lee is a Chinese American author best known for his 1957 novel The Flower Drum Song, which inspired the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Flower Drum Song and writer for his 2006 film "10,000 Apologies" with May Wang.-Biography:...
. which in turn is based on the San Francisco nightclub Forbidden City
Forbidden City (nightclub)
The Forbidden City was a Chinese-themed nightclub and cabaret in business from the late 1930s to the late 1950s, on the second floor of 363 Sutter Street in San Francisco between Chinatown and Union Square...
that was popular for military men in transit during World War II. Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
adapted it into a musical that was produced on Broadway in 1958 and on film in 1961. Largely remembered for the hit song "I Enjoy Being A Girl", it would not be produced with an all-Asian-American cast until a 2002 Broadway revival.
In 1965, frustrated with the limited opportunities given to them, actors Mako
Mako (actor)
, born , was an Oscar- and Tony-nominated Japanese actor. Many of his acting roles credited him simply as Mako, omitting his surname. -Early life:...
, James Hong
James Hong
James Hong is an American actor and former president of the Association of Asian/Pacific American Artists . A prolific acting veteran, Hong's career spans over 50 years and includes more than 350 roles in film, television, and video games.-Early life:Hong was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His...
, Beulah Quo, Pat Li, and June Kim, together with Guy Lee and Yet Lock, formed East West Players
East West Players
East West Players is an Asian American theatre organization in Los Angeles, founded in 1965. As one of the nation's first Asian American theatre organizations, East West Players today continues to produce works and educational programs that give voice to the Asian Pacific American...
(EWP), a Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
-based Asian American theater company – the first of its kind. They produced their own shows to allow Asian American actors the opportunity to perform a wide range of leading roles. As the need still exists, EWP continues today. Dozens of other Asian American theater companies have since formed in major cities throughout the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, providing similar outlets elsewhere.
In 1988, playwright David Henry Hwang
David Henry Hwang
David Henry Hwang is an American playwright who has risen to prominence as the preeminent Asian American dramatist in the U.S.He was born in Los Angeles, California and was educated at the Yale School of Drama and Stanford University...
's Broadway hit M. Butterfly
M. Butterfly
M. Butterfly is a 1988 play by David Henry Hwang loosely based on the relationship between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, a male Peking opera singer....
won a Tony Award for Best Play, among other awards. Singer and actress Lea Salonga
Lea Salonga
Lea Salonga-Chien is a mezzo-soprano singer and actress from the Philippines well known for originating the lead role of Kim in the musical Miss Saigon, for which she won the Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Theatre World awards.She was the first Asian to play the roles of Éponine and...
, who broke out in the lead role in the musical Miss Saigon
Miss Saigon
Miss Saigon is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby, Jr.. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover...
, was also the first Asian to play the roles of Éponine and Fantine in the musical Les Misérables on Broadway, and is still active on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
.
Margaret Cho
Margaret Cho
Margaret Cho is an American comedian, fashion designer, actress, author, and recording artist. Cho is best known for her stand-up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially those pertaining to race and sexuality. She has also directed and appeared in music...
won the American Comedy Award for Best Female Comedian in 1994. Comedian Byron Yee's show Paper Son was awarded "Outstanding Solo Show" at the New York International Fringe Festival.
Architecture
Louvre Pyramid
The Louvre Pyramid is a large glass and metal pyramid, surrounded by three smaller pyramids, in the main courtyard of the Louvre Palace in Paris. The large pyramid serves as the main entrance to the Louvre Museum...
(I.M. Pei), the World Trade Center (Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki
was a Japanese-American architect, best known for his design of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, buildings 1 and 2. Yamasaki was one of the most prominent architects of the 20th century...
), and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a national memorial in Washington, D.C. It honors U.S. service members of the U.S. armed forces who fought in the Vietnam War, service members who died in service in Vietnam/South East Asia, and those service members who were unaccounted for during the War.Its...
(Maya Lin
Maya Lin
Maya Ying Lin is an American artist who is known for her work in sculpture and landscape art. She is the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Personal life:...
). In commercial architecture, Gyo Obata
Gyo Obata
Gyo Obata is a significant American architect, the son of renowned painter Chiura Obata and his wife, Haruko Obata, a floral designer. In 1955, he co-founded global architectural firm HOK . He lives in St. Louis, Missouri and still works in HOK's St. Louis office...
is a founding partner of HOK (formerly Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum)
Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum
HOK is a global architecture, interiors, engineering, planning and consulting firm. HOK is the largest U.S.-based architecture-engineering firm and the "No. 1 role model for sustainable and high-performance design." HOK also is the second-largest interior design firm...
, which designed the National Air and Space Museum
National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution holds the largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft in the world. It was established in 1976. Located in Washington, D.C., United States, it is a center for research into the history and science of aviation and...
in Washington D.C. and the Taipei World Trade Center. Fazlur Rahman Khan designed the John Hancock Center
John Hancock Center
John Hancock Center at 875 North Michigan Avenue in the Streeterville area of Chicago, Illinois, is a 100-story, 1,127-foot tall skyscraper, constructed under the supervision of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, with chief designer Bruce Graham and structural engineer Fazlur Khan...
and the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower), both in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.
Fashion design
Many Asian Americans have made their mark in the fashion world. Vera WangVera Wang
Vera Ellen Wang is a Chinese American fashion designer based in New York City and former figure skater. She is known for her wide clientele of couture bridesmaid gowns and wedding gown collections.-Personal life:...
, friend to Anna Wintour
Anna Wintour
Anna Wintour, OBE is the British-born editor-in-chief of American Vogue, a position she has held since 1988. With her trademark pageboy bob haircut and sunglasses, Wintour has become an institution throughout the fashion world, widely praised for her eye for fashion trends and her support for...
, and Anna Sui
Anna Sui
Anna Sui is an American fashion designer. Her luxury brand retails globally in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Her clothing, fragrance, cosmetic, and accessories lines sell at Anna Sui stores in over 50 countries and are also widely distributed at leading department stores...
have been working as highly accomplished and awarded fashion designers for years. Philippines-born
Filipinos
Filipinos is the brand name for a series of biscuit snacks made by Kraft Foods. In Spain and Portugal they are produced and sold under the Artiach brand name. Under license to United Biscuits, in the Netherlands they are sold and produced locally under the Verkade brand...
Monique Lhuillier
Monique Lhuillier
Diane Monique Lhuillier is a fashion designer most prominently known for bridal wear. She owns a couture fashion house based in Los Angeles, California....
's dresses are on the Hollywood red carpet and Vietnamese-American Chloe Dao
Chloe Dao
Chloe Dao , is an American fashion designer of Vietnamese ancestry who lives and works in Houston, Texas. She was the winner of the second season of the reality show Project Runway with a collection of women's evening wear...
won Project Runway
Project Runway
Project Runway is an American reality television series on Lifetime Television, previously on the Bravo network, which focuses on fashion design and is hosted by model Heidi Klum. The contestants compete with each other to create the best clothes and are restricted in time, materials and theme...
in spring 2006. Other designers include Phillip Lim, 2006 CFDA Emerging Talent Award Winner Doo-Ri Chung
Doo-Ri Chung
Doo-Ri Chung is a Korean-American fashion designer.-Training and work experience:Chung graduated from The New School university's Parsons division with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fashion in 1995. After receiving her degree, Chung worked for Geoffrey Beene for six years, rising to the position of...
, and 2005 Winner Derek Lam
Derek Lam
Derek Lam is an American fashion designer. He was born in San Francisco, California and is of Chinese American parentage. Lam is the youngest of three children in his fourth-generation family. His parents had a business that imported clothes from Asia, and his grandparents ran a successful garment...
; all three have been featured in Vogue magazine several times. At the Fashion Institute of Technology
Fashion Institute of Technology
The Fashion Institute of Technology, generally known as FIT, is a State University of New York college of art, business, design, and technology connected to the fashion industry, with an urban campus located on West 27th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of...
, 23 percent of the nearly 1,200 students now enrolled are either Asian or Asian-American.
Internet
With the advent of YouTubeYouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, young Asian Americans have become more prominent, gaining large followings through filmmaking, comedy, or music. This includes video bloggers/comedians like Kevin Wu (kevjumba) and the filmmaking group Wong Fu Productions
Wong Fu Productions
Wong Fu ProductionsShort films by Wong Fu Productions prior to the group's graduation from the University of California, San Diego, included a logo with the Chinese characters for "Wong Fu" . The last film to feature this logo was License Plate, released on August 18, 2006. Films produced after the...
. The latter's growing influence is evident especially in Wong Fu Productions' annual concert series, International Secret Agents (ISA), which often sell out, and in which many popular Asian American guest performers appear, like Far East Movement
Far east movement
Far East Movement is an Asian American electro hop quartet based in Los Angeles. The group formed in 2003 and consists of Kev Nish , Prohgress , J-Splif , and DJ Virman...
or Poreotics
Poreotics
Poreotics, also known as Poreotix, is an American all-male dance crew from Westminster, California. The crew was formed in 2007 by "Dumbo" Nguyen and specializes in popping, choreography and robotics, hence the name Po-reo-tics...
. Kevin Wu's recent appearance on the 17th season of The Amazing Race
The Amazing Race (U.S. TV series)
The Amazing Race is an American reality game show in which teams of two or four race around the world against other teams, with the first-place team winning $1,000,000. As the original version of the Amazing Race franchise, the CBS program has been running since 2001 and is airing its nineteenth...
marked another significant venture into mainstream media. These along with other rising Asian American talents have shared and documented their journey among Asian American blogs including TheOtherAsians, and more recently Hyphen magazine
Hyphen (magazine)
Hyphen is an American magazine, produced three times a year by a volunteer staff; it is a not-for-profit organization. It was founded in 2002 by a group of San Francisco Bay Area journalists, activists, and artists including Melissa Hung, a former reporter for the Houston Press and East Bay...
.
Literature
Asian American writers have received numerous top awards in fiction and nonfiction writing. Women writers have been particularly prominent for their work of telling a wide range of stories of immigrant experience, changing cultures and aspects of Asian American imagination, spanning continents, eras and points of view. Maxine Hong KingstonMaxine Hong Kingston
Maxine Hong Kingston is a Chinese American author and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated with a BA in English in 1962. Kingston has written three novels and several works of non-fiction about the experiences of Chinese immigrants living in the United...
won the National Book Critics Circle
National Book Critics Circle
The National Book Critics Circle is an American tax-exempt organization for active book reviewers. Its flagship is the National Book Critics Circle Award....
award in 1976 for her memoir The Woman Warrior
The Woman Warrior
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts is a memoir by Maxine Hong Kingston, published by Vintage Books in 1975. Although there are many scholarly debates surrounding the official genre classification of the book, it can best be described as a work of creative non-fiction.Throughout...
. Bharati Mukherjee
Bharati Mukherjee
Bharati Mukherjee is an award-winning Indian-born American writer. She is currently a professor in the department of English at the University of California, Berkeley.-Background:...
won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1988 for her short story collection The Middleman and Other Stories
The Middleman and Other Stories
The Middleman and Other Stories, is a collection of short stories by Bharati Mukherjee. Stories from this volume are frequently anthologized, particularly Orbiting, A Wife's Story, and The Middleman...
. Jessica Hagedorn
Jessica Hagedorn
Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn is a Filipino-American playwright, writer, poet, storyteller, musician, and multimedia performance artist.-Biography:...
won a 1990 American Book Award
American Book Award
The American Book Award was established in 1978 by the Before Columbus Foundation. It seeks to recognize outstanding literary achievement by contemporary American authors, without restriction to race, sex, ethnic background, or genre...
for her novel Dogeaters. Chang-Rae Lee
Chang-Rae Lee
Chang-rae Lee is a Korean American novelist and a professor of creative writing at Princeton University, where he has served as the director of Princeton's Program in Creative Writing.-Early life:...
received the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award
Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award
The Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award is awarded annually to a novel or book of short stories by an American author who has not previously published a book of fiction. The award is named after Ernest Hemingway and funded by the Ernest Hemingway Foundation, which has been administered by the Hemingway...
for his novel Native Speaker
Native Speaker
Native Speaker is Chang-Rae Lee’s first novel. In Native Speaker, he creates a man named Henry Park who tries to assimilate into American society and become a “native speaker.”-Plot summary:...
(1995). Amy Tan
Amy Tan
Amy Tan is an American writer whose works explore mother-daughter relationships. Her most well-known work is The Joy Luck Club, which has been translated into 35 languages...
has received popular acclaim for her work and had a novel produced as a film. Jhumpa Lahiri
Jhumpa Lahiri
Jhumpa Lahiri is a Bengali American author. Lahiri's debut short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies , won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and her first novel, The Namesake , was adapted into the popular film of the same name. She was born Nilanjana Sudeshna, which she says are both...
received a 2000 Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for Fiction for her short story collection The Interpreter of Maladies. Kiran Desai
Kiran Desai
Kiran Desai is an Indian author who is a citizen of India and a permanent resident of the United States. Her novel The Inheritance of Loss won the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award...
won the British Man Booker Prize
Man Booker Prize
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and...
(2006) and National Book Critics Circle Award
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle to promote the finest books and reviews published in English....
(2006) for her second novel The Inheritance of Loss
The Inheritance of Loss
The Inheritance of Loss is the second novel by Indian author Kiran Desai. It was first published in 2006. It won a number of awards, including the Man Booker Prize for that year, the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award in 2007, and the 2006 Vodafone Crossword Book Award.It was written over a...
. Her mother Anita Desai
Anita Desai
Anita Mazumdar Desai is an Indian novelist and Emeritus John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
has also been nominated for major awards for her novels. Naomi Hirahara won a 2007 Edgar Award
Edgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...
for her novel Snakeskin Shamisen.
Graphic artists
Jim LeeJim Lee
Jim Lee is a Korean-American comic book artist, writer, editor and publisher. He first broke into the industry in 1987 as an artist for Marvel Comics, illustrating titles such as Alpha Flight and Punisher War Journal, before gaining a great deal of popularity on The Uncanny X-Men...
is considered to be one of the most popular comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
artists and is one of the founders of Image Comics
Image Comics
Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...
. Adrian Tomine
Adrian Tomine
Adrian Tomine , a popular contemporary cartoonist, is best known for his ongoing comic book series Optic Nerve and his periodical illustrations in The New Yorker.- Biography :...
's cartoons are featured in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
.
Hip hop and R&B
Asian-Americans are increasingly enjoying success in mainstream hip hopHip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
and R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
. A few notable examples are multi-racial Amerie
Amerie
Amerie Mi Marie Rogers , known professionally as Amerie or Ameriie, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She debuted in 2002 with the album All I Have, primarily co-written and produced by Rich Harrison, and was well-received in the urban market...
, Cassie, Ne-Yo
Ne-Yo
Shaffer Chimere Smith, Jr. , better known by his stage name Ne-Yo, is an American pop and R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, dancer and actor. Beginning his career as a songwriter, Ne-Yo penned the hit "Let Me Love You" for singer Mario...
, who is one-quarter Chinese, Filipino-American Apl.de.ap
Apl.de.ap
Allan Pineda Lindo, Jr. better known as apl.de.ap , is a Filipino-American rapper, record producer, and occasional drummer who is best known as a member of The Black Eyed Peas.-Early life:Pineda was born in Belfast...
of The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas are an American pop group , formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1995. The group includes rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, and Taboo, and singer Fergie. Since the release of their third album Elephunk in 2003, the group has sold an estimated 56 million records worldwide...
, and Jin
Jin (rapper)
Jin Au-Yeung , who performs under the stage name MC Jin, is a Hong Kong hip hop rapper, songwriter, and actor. Growing up in the Miami, Florida area, and later living in New York City, he decided to reside permanently in his motherland, Hong Kong...
. There are many more Asian-Americans represented in local hip-hop scenes, including rising acts like the Blue Scholars
Blue Scholars
Blue Scholars is a hip hop duo based in Seattle, Washington, created in 2002 while the members, DJ Sabzi and MC Geologic, were students at the University of Washington....
. In 2010 and 2011, half-Filipino
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
singer-songwriter Bruno Mars
Bruno Mars
Peter Gene Hernandez , better known by his stage name Bruno Mars, is an Filipino-American singer-songwriter and record producer. Raised in Honolulu, Hawaii by a family of musicians, Mars began making music at a young age...
broke into the Top 10 with his singles "Just the Way You Are
Just the Way You Are (Bruno Mars song)
"Just the Way You Are" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bruno Mars, and is the lead single from his debut studio album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans. It was released in the United States on July 20, 2010. It has also received airplay from AOL Radio's New Pop First station. The song was written by...
" and "Grenade
Grenade (song)
"Grenade" is a song performed by American singer-songwriter and producer Bruno Mars from his debut studio album Doo-Wops & Hooligans. Initially released as a promotional single on September 28, 2010, it was later announced to be the album's second single...
". In October 2010, Far East Movement
Far east movement
Far East Movement is an Asian American electro hop quartet based in Los Angeles. The group formed in 2003 and consists of Kev Nish , Prohgress , J-Splif , and DJ Virman...
became the first Asian-American band to break into the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
with their single "Like a G6
Like a G6
"Like a G6" is a song from Far East Movement's 2010 album Free Wired. The track features female vocals by Dev and male vocals by Far East Movement. It was written and produced by The Cataracs. It was number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks ending November 6, 2010, and then again for...
", which eventually reached No. 1.
Popular
In popular musicPopular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
, Asian-Americans are a sizable influence, including pop divas such as part-Filipino
Filipinos
Filipinos is the brand name for a series of biscuit snacks made by Kraft Foods. In Spain and Portugal they are produced and sold under the Artiach brand name. Under license to United Biscuits, in the Netherlands they are sold and produced locally under the Verkade brand...
Vanessa Hudgens, Utada Hikaru
Utada Hikaru
, known by her stage name Utada in America and Europe, is a Japanese-American singer, song writer, arranger, and producer. Since the release of her Japanese debut album First Love, which went on to become the best-selling album in Oricon history, Utada has had three of her Japanese studio albums...
, Lea Salonga
Lea Salonga
Lea Salonga-Chien is a mezzo-soprano singer and actress from the Philippines well known for originating the lead role of Kim in the musical Miss Saigon, for which she won the Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Theatre World awards.She was the first Asian to play the roles of Éponine and...
and Nicole Scherzinger
Nicole Scherzinger
Nicole Prescovia Elikolani Valiente Scherzinger is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, record producer, model, and actress. Scherzinger is perhaps best known for being the lead vocalist of the Pussycat Dolls....
. Folk singer-songwriter and Christian Dawn Xiana Moon was the first to blend traditional Chinese music with Americana, pop, and jazz, and Vienna Teng
Vienna Teng
Cynthia Yih Shih , better known by her stage name Vienna Teng, is a Taiwanese American pianist and singer-songwriter based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Teng has released four studio albums: Waking Hour , Warm Strangers , Dreaming Through the Noise , and Inland Territory...
is notable for a folk/pop sound without the Eastern influences.
Asian-Americans play in a handful of "all-American" bands, including quarter-Indonesian
Indonesians
Indonesians may be:*any nation or ethnic group of Indonesia**see Demographics of Indonesia**see Overseas Indonesians**see Ethnic groups in Indonesia**see Native Indonesians...
Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
, James Iha
James Iha
James Yoshinobu Iha b. March 26, 1968 in Chicago, Illinois) is a Japanese American rock musician. He is best known as having been a guitarist and co-founder of the alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins and for his eclectic musical projects of recent years, most notably being a permanent...
of The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins are an American alternative rock band that formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1988. Formed by Billy Corgan frontman and James Iha , the band has included Jimmy Chamberlin , D'arcy Wretzky , and currently includes Jeff Schroeder Mike Byrne , and Nicole Fiorentino The Smashing...
, Keralan Indian Kim Thayil
Kim Thayil
Kim Thayil is an American guitarist best known as the lead guitarist of the Seattle-based grunge band Soundgarden, which he cofounded with singer Chris Cornell and bassist Hiro Yamamoto in 1984...
of Soundgarden
Soundgarden
Soundgarden is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1984 by singer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto...
, part-Filipino Kirk Hammett
Kirk Hammett
Kirk Lee Hammett is the lead guitarist and a songwriter in the heavy metal band Metallica and has been a member of the band since 1983. Before joining Metallica he formed and named the band Exodus. In 2003, Hammett was ranked 11th on Rolling Stones list of The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...
of Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
, Indian-English Tony Kanal
Tony Kanal
Tony Kanal is an English musician, record producer and songwriter. Kanal is the bassist for the American rock band No Doubt...
of No Doubt
No Doubt
No Doubt is an American rock band from Anaheim, California that formed in 1986. The ska-pop sound of their first album No Doubt , failed to make an impact...
, Richard On of O.A.R.
O.A.R.
O.A.R. is an American rock band composed of Marc Roberge , Chris Culos , Richard On , Benj Gershman , and Jerry DePizzo...
, Joey Santiago
Joey Santiago
Joey Santiago is a Filipino-American guitarist and composer. Active since 1986, Santiago is best known as the lead guitarist for the American alternative rock band Pixies. After the band's breakup in 1993, Santiago produced musical scores for film and television documentaries, and he formed The...
of Pixies, Kenny Choi
Kenny Choi
Kenny Choi, age 24, is a Korean American vocalist and rhythm guitarist from Kent, Washington for the indie rock band Daphne Loves Derby. Kenny has also worked on 5 known solo projects: Desperado Revenge, Sorry About the Fire, Camerafone, Wolftron, and Des Rev. Wolftron is Choi's latest side...
of Daphne Loves Derby
Daphne Loves Derby
Daphne Loves Derby is an American Indie rock band that formed in Kent, Washington, in 2001. They have released three studio albums, the third in 2007 titled Good Night, Witness Light, peaked at number 30 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart...
Hoobastank
Hoobastank
Hoobastank is an American rock band, best known for their 2004 hit "The Reason" and other hits "Crawling in the Dark" and "Running Away". They formed in 1994 in Agoura Hills, California, with singer Doug Robb, guitarist Dan Estrin, drummer Chris Hesse, and original bassist Markku Lappalainen. They...
's Doug Robb and former member Derek Kwan, and Linkin Park
Linkin Park
Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. Formed in 1996, the band rose to international fame with their debut album, Hybrid Theory, which was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2005 and multi-platinum in several other countries...
's Mike Shinoda
Mike Shinoda
Michael "Mike" Kenji Shinoda is an American musician, record producer, and artist. He is best known as the rapper, principal songwriter, keyboardist, vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the rock band Linkin Park, along with his co-frontman and lead singer Chester Bennington, and as a solo rapper in...
and Joseph Hahn
Joe Hahn
Joseph "Joe" Hahn , better known by his stage name, Mr. Hahn, is an American turntablist and director best known as the DJ and sampler for the band Linkin Park.-Personal Biography:...
, a Korean-American. The famous surf rock guitarist and pioneer of the electric guitar Dick Dale
Dick Dale
Dick Dale is an American surf rock guitarist, known as The King of the Surf Guitar. He experimented with reverberation and made use of custom made Fender amplifiers, including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier.-Early life:Dale was born in South Boston, Massachusetts and lived in nearby...
is also Asian American, he is of Lebanese descent. Mike Park
Mike Park
Mike Park is a Korean American musician and progressive activist. His musical ventures include Skankin' Pickle for whom he both played the saxophone and sang, The Chinkees, The Bruce Lee Band, and most recently an acoustic solo project under his own name...
is prominent in the independent music sphere as a member of Skankin' Pickle
Skankin' Pickle
Skankin' Pickle was an American ska punk band formed in San Jose, California that was active from 1989 to 1996.-Biography:Skankin' Pickle first formed in December 1988, made up of students from Westmont High School and Los Gatos High School. The band played their first show on April 28, 1989,...
, The Bruce Lee Band
The Bruce Lee Band
The Bruce Lee Band is the name given to the releases of Mike Park and his backing band which has so far included Less Than Jake and the Rx Bandits....
, and The Chinkees
The Chinkees
The Chinkees are an American ska punk band fronted by Mike Park . The group debuted with 1998's The Chinkees Are Coming!, and followed with 1999's Peace Through Music and 2002's Searching for a Brighter Future before a greatest hits album was released in 2003...
, as well as being the founder of Asian Man Records
Asian Man Records
Asian Man Records is a small, DIY record label run by Mike Park in Monte Sereno, California. Park started a record label and began releasing music in 1989 under the name Dill Records, with the Asian Man label established May 1996.-Artists:...
.
Don Ho
Don Ho
Donald Tai Loy "Don" Ho was a Hawaiian and traditional pop musician, singer and entertainer.-Life and career:Ho, of Chinese, Hawaiian, Portuguese, Dutch, and German descent, was born in the small Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako, but he grew up in Kāneohe on the windward side of the island of Oahu...
was a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-winning Hawaiian pop singer and entertainer. Tia Carrere
Tia Carrere
Tia Carrere is an American actress, model, voice artist, and singer, perhaps most widely known for her role as Cassandra Wong in the feature films Wayne's World and Wayne's World 2, Queen Tyr'ahnee in Duck Dodgers, and as Sydney Fox in the TV series Relic Hunter.-Early life:Carrere was born in...
is a Hawaiian singer, actress, and former model best known as Cassandra Wong in the Wayne's World
Wayne's World
Wayne's World was originally a recurring sketch from the NBC television series Saturday Night Live. It evolved from a segment titled "Wayne's Power Minute" on the CBC Television series It's Only Rock & Roll, as the main character first appeared in that show...
movies with a recurring role on Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American comedy television series produced and broadcast by HBO, which premiered on October 15, 2000. As of 2011, it has completed 80 episodes over eight seasons. The series was created by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, who stars as a fictionalized version of himself...
; her album Hawaiiana was nominated for an Grammy. Singer-songwriter Norah Jones
Norah Jones
Norah Jones is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actress.In 2002, she launched her solo music career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album Come Away With Me, which was certified a diamond album in 2002, selling over 20 million copies...
is also very successful. Nadia Ali
Nadia Ali
Nadia Ali is a Pakistani-American singer-songwriter, born in Libya and raised in Queens, New York. She gained attention as the frontwoman and songwriter of the band iiO, after their 2001 hit "Rapture" reached No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart. The song also charted across several countries in Europe...
, singer-songwriter and the former front-woman of iiO
IiO
iiO was a New York City-based house music act composed of singer-songwriter Nadia Ali and producer Markus Moser. The group gained prominence for its 2001 single "Rapture", which reached number two on the UK Singles Chart and Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. Following the success of "Rapture",...
is prominent in the electronic dance music
Electronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
genre, with her work having attained both critical and commercial success.
Internationally, US-born Leehom Wang is a well-known musician in mainland China and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, and also played a part in Ang Lee's 2007 film Lust, Caution
Lust, Caution
Lust, Caution is an 2007 Chinese espionage thriller film directed by Ang Lee, based on the novella of the same name published in 1950 by Chinese author Eileen Chang. The story is mostly set in Hong Kong in 1938 and in Shanghai in 1942, when it was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army and ruled by...
. In the heavy metal genre, Aja Kim
Aja Kim
Aja Kim is an American female singer and songwriter.- Biography :Born in Fayetteville, NC and raised in Philadelphia, PA Aja Kim first came to public attention when she collaborated with rock and roll saxophonist, Clarence Clemons on the 1995 Japan-only CD release Aja and the Big Man - Get It On...
, has achieved notoriety as lead vocalist in the role of Bruce 'Lee' Chickinson for the tribute band
Tribute band
A tribute act is a music group, singer, or musician who specifically plays the music of a well-known music act - sometimes one which has disbanded, ceased touring or is deceased. Probably the largest class of tributes acts are Elvis impersonators, individual performers who mimic the songs and style...
, The Iron Maidens.
Classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, cellist Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...
and conductor Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of western classical music. He is the Music Director for Life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.-Biography:...
are examples of significant Asian American figures. The classical violinists Sarah Chang
Sarah Chang
Sarah Chang is a Korean American violinist. Her debut came in 1989 with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Shortly thereafter, Chang was recognized as a child prodigy. She enrolled at Juilliard School to study music, graduating in 1999 and continuing university studies...
and Midori Gotō
Midori Goto
is a Japanese American violinist. She made her debut at the age of 11 in a last-minute change of programming during a concert highlighting young performers by the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. When she was 21, she formed the philanthropic group Midori and Friends to help bring music to...
have each been awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize
Avery Fisher Prize
The Avery Fisher Prize is an award given to American musicians for outstanding achievement in classical music. Founded by philanthropist Avery Fisher in 1974, it is regarded as one of the most significant awards for American instrumentalists. The award is decided by members of the Avery Fisher...
, as has Ma. The composer Bright Chang has received extensive recognition for his work, including being invited to be composer-in-residence at the New York City Ballet. Hunan, China-born New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
resident Tan Dun
Tan Dun
Tan Dun is a Chinese contemporary classical composer, most widely known for his scores for the movies Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero.-Early life in China:...
is a contemporary classical composer, well known for his Grammy and Oscar-award winning scores for the movies Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero.
Jazz
Asian American jazzAsian American jazz
Asian American jazz is a musical movement in the United States begun in the 20th century by Asian American jazz musicians.Although Asian Americans had been performing jazz music almost since that music's inception, it was not until the late 20th century when a distinctly Asian American brand of...
is a musical movement in the United States begun in the 20th century by Asian American jazz musicians that has produced a number of very prominent musicians.
Painting
Indian-American Faris McReynoldsFaris McReynolds
Faris McReynolds is a Los Angeles-based artist and musician. His paintings have been shown in Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York City, Berlin, Padua, Antwerp, and Kortrijk including numerous solo exhibitions...
is a Los Angeles-based artist and musician. Sueo Serisawa
Sueo Serisawa
Sueo Serisawa was a Japanese American who became a modernist of the Los Angeles school.-Theme/style:Serisawa's painting genres included Impressionism, Modernism, Regionalism, Expressionism, and Abstraction...
helped establish the California Impressionist style of painting. Los Angeles-based artists James Jean
James Jean
James Jean is a Taiwanese-American visual artist, known for both his commercial work and fine art gallery work. He is known in the American comics industry as a cover artist for various books published by DC Comics, as well as for his work for Prada, ESPN and Atlantic Records...
and David Choe
David Choe
David Choe is an American painter, muralist, graffiti artist and graphic novelist of Korean descent. He achieved art world success with his "dirty style" figure paintings—raw, frenetic works which combine themes of desire, degradation, and exaltation...
have received domestic and international recognition within the Lowbrow
Lowbrow (art movement)
Lowbrow, or lowbrow art, describes an underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California, area in the late 1970s. Lowbrow is a widespread populist art movement with origins in the underground comix world, punk music, hot-rod street culture, and other subcultures. It is also...
art scene.
See also
- Asian American theatreAsian American theatreAsian American theater is theater written, directed or acted by Asian Americans.- Background :Asian American theater emerged in the 1960s and the 1970s with the foundation of four theatre companies: East West Players in Los Angeles, Asian American Theatre Workshop in San Francisco, Theatrical...
- Asian American Dance TheatreAsian American Dance TheatreAsian American Dance Theatre was a not-for-profit community arts organization based in the New York Chinatown from 1974 to 1993. As one of the oldest Asian American community organizations, AADT was notable for its early development and pioneer promotion of contemporary Asian American dance...
- Asian American Arts CentreAsian American Arts CentreThe Asian American Arts Centre is a non-profit organization located in Chinatown in New York City. Founded in 1974, it was one of the earliest Asian American community organizations in the United States. The Arts Centre presents the ongoing synthesis of contemporary American and Asian art forms,...
- List of Asian Academy Award winners and nominees