Lela Lee
Encyclopedia
Lela Lee is an American actress and cartoon
ist, and the creator of the animated cartoons the Angry Little Asian Girl, Five Angry Episodes and the comic strip
Angry Little Girls.
. She developed the character after attending Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation with a friend. In an interview, she said, "I came out of there, I was really mad. 'I did not enjoy any of those cartoons. They were sexist
and racist." Her college friend challenged her to make a cartoon about herself, so she did. That same night after getting home from the animation festival, Lee stayed up drawing with typing paper and Crayola markers and made the first episode "Angry Little Asian Girl, the First Day of School".
Four years after initially creating the first episode of the Angry Little Asian Girl, she created four more, and sent the five episodes titled Angry Little Asian Girl, Five Angry Episodes to festivals where they were well-reviewed by critics. Audience members came up to her after screenings saying that ALAG spoke for them and that they too had similar experiences growing up in America. She realized she had hit a nerve. She had a crazy idea to make a batch of t-shirts. She quickly sold out by word-of-mouth prompting her to launch a shop on the website www.angrylittleasiangirl.com in 1997. She packed the shirts herself and mailed the orders every morning from the neighborhood post office. She also kept shirts in the back of her station wagon with a cash box and a card table and sold shirts wherever she could. The shirts sold out many times over.
This experience of taking the shirts out on the road proved to be invaluable. She met many people, particularly females of all ages and ethnicities who responded to the anger that ALAG unleashed. She observed how women did not feel that they were allowed to be angry, but somehow, her character let them tap into their own anger in a funny and "harmless" way. During this time, people kept referring to the video as a "comic strip." Instead of correcting them, she took it as a suggestion and decided to expand ALAG to include other girls of different backgrounds and personalities. She took two years to teach herself how to draw comics with books checked out from the library.
During this trial and error time, she submitted her comic strips to syndicates in hopes of getting syndicated in newspapers. But after numerous rejection letters and realizing her work would never fit in the mainstream, she decided to buck the system and draw whatever she was inspired to. With the newly created characters, including Deborah the disenchanted princess, Maria the crazy little Latina, Wanda the fresh little soul sistah, and Xyla the gloomy girl, Lee turned it into a weekly comic strip self-published on her website www.angrylittlegirls.com. After finding her true voice, a publishing deal came quickly thereafter. In 2005, the first book of collected Angry Little Girls strips was published by Harry N. Abrams. In 2008, Lee has 5 Angry Little Girls books published as well as numerous merchandise licensees.
film Yellow
and the 2002
film Better Luck Tomorrow
. She was a series regular in the short-lived Sci Fi Channel
series Tremors, and had a recurring guest role on NBC
's Scrubs
. Lee made a guest appearance in the first episode of Season Four of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm
, ironically playing an angry Asian woman, who launches a physical and verbal attack on star Larry David
after he suggests 'Tang
' is a common Chinese name.
, and cites her traditional Korean upbringing while growing up in an area with few other Asian American
s as a central influence in her work.
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
ist, and the creator of the animated cartoons the Angry Little Asian Girl, Five Angry Episodes and the comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
Angry Little Girls.
Angry Little Girl
Angry Little Girls was developed from Kim, the Angry Little Asian Girl, a character she developed in 1994 when she was a sophomore at UC BerkeleyUniversity of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. She developed the character after attending Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation with a friend. In an interview, she said, "I came out of there, I was really mad. 'I did not enjoy any of those cartoons. They were sexist
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
and racist." Her college friend challenged her to make a cartoon about herself, so she did. That same night after getting home from the animation festival, Lee stayed up drawing with typing paper and Crayola markers and made the first episode "Angry Little Asian Girl, the First Day of School".
Four years after initially creating the first episode of the Angry Little Asian Girl, she created four more, and sent the five episodes titled Angry Little Asian Girl, Five Angry Episodes to festivals where they were well-reviewed by critics. Audience members came up to her after screenings saying that ALAG spoke for them and that they too had similar experiences growing up in America. She realized she had hit a nerve. She had a crazy idea to make a batch of t-shirts. She quickly sold out by word-of-mouth prompting her to launch a shop on the website www.angrylittleasiangirl.com in 1997. She packed the shirts herself and mailed the orders every morning from the neighborhood post office. She also kept shirts in the back of her station wagon with a cash box and a card table and sold shirts wherever she could. The shirts sold out many times over.
This experience of taking the shirts out on the road proved to be invaluable. She met many people, particularly females of all ages and ethnicities who responded to the anger that ALAG unleashed. She observed how women did not feel that they were allowed to be angry, but somehow, her character let them tap into their own anger in a funny and "harmless" way. During this time, people kept referring to the video as a "comic strip." Instead of correcting them, she took it as a suggestion and decided to expand ALAG to include other girls of different backgrounds and personalities. She took two years to teach herself how to draw comics with books checked out from the library.
During this trial and error time, she submitted her comic strips to syndicates in hopes of getting syndicated in newspapers. But after numerous rejection letters and realizing her work would never fit in the mainstream, she decided to buck the system and draw whatever she was inspired to. With the newly created characters, including Deborah the disenchanted princess, Maria the crazy little Latina, Wanda the fresh little soul sistah, and Xyla the gloomy girl, Lee turned it into a weekly comic strip self-published on her website www.angrylittlegirls.com. After finding her true voice, a publishing deal came quickly thereafter. In 2005, the first book of collected Angry Little Girls strips was published by Harry N. Abrams. In 2008, Lee has 5 Angry Little Girls books published as well as numerous merchandise licensees.
Acting career
She is also a film and television actress, with roles in the 19981998 in film
-Events:* February 14 - Sharon Stone marries Phil Bronstein.* Former child star Gary Coleman is charged with assaulting a young female bus driver at a California shopping mall.-Top grossing films:...
film Yellow
Yellow (1998 film)
Yellow is a 1998 film directed by Chris Chan Lee. The film is about the harrowing graduation night of eight Korean-American high school youths in Los Angeles that culminates in a violent crime that will forever change their lives....
and the 2002
2002 in film
The year 2002 in film involved some significant events. The first significant releases of sequels took place between The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Men in Black II, Analyze That, Spy Kids 2: The Island of...
film 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...
. She was a series regular in the short-lived Sci Fi Channel
Sci Fi Channel (United States)
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
series Tremors, and had a recurring guest role on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Scrubs
Scrubs (TV series)
Scrubs is an American medical comedy-drama television series created in 2001 by Bill Lawrence and produced by ABC Studios. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced screenplay, slapstick, and surreal vignettes...
. Lee made a guest appearance in the first episode of Season Four of HBO's 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...
, ironically playing an angry Asian woman, who launches a physical and verbal attack on star Larry David
Larry David
Lawrence Gene "Larry" David is an American actor, writer, comedian and producer. He is best known as the co-creator , head writer, and executive producer of the television series Seinfeld from 1989 to 1996, and for creating the 1999 HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, a partially improvised sitcom in...
after he suggests 'Tang
Tang
-Chinese name:* Tang Dynasty , Chinese dynasty* Later Tang Dynasty , Turkic dynasty in ancient China* King Tang of Shang , the Shang dynasty ruler, who lived around 1660 BCE...
' is a common Chinese name.
Personal life
Lee, the youngest of four children, spent her earliest years being raised on a chicken farm by her grandparents in Korea. A few years later, she joined her family in Van Nuys before they moved to San DimasSan Dimas, California
San Dimas is a city located in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 33,371. The city historically took its name from San Dismas Canyon in the San Gabriel Mountains above the northern section of present day San Dimas...
, and cites her traditional Korean upbringing while growing up in an area with few other Asian American
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
s as a central influence in her work.