20 groundbreaking AAPI women who changed the entertainment industry
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- May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month.
- AAPI women have been highly influential in improving representation in entertainment.
- In 2024, Ali Wong became the first Asian woman to win a Primetime Emmy for a leading role.
AAPI women have made incredible contributions to the entertainment industry, bringing characters like Lara Jean Covey to life, getting songs like "How Far I'll Go" stuck in our heads, and advocating for authentic representations of women of color.
AAPI Heritage Month is held every May to reflect on and celebrate the work and impact of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders throughout history.
In honor of AAPI Heritage Month, here are 20 groundbreaking AAPI women in entertainment you need to know about.
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In 1958, Miyoshi Umeki, a Japanese-American singer and actor, became the first Asian actor to win an Academy Award. She won best supporting actress for her role as Katsumi in "Sayonara," and starred alongside Red Buttons and Marlon Brando.
After her win, she starred in "Flower Drum Song" on Broadway and in film adaptations, earning a Tony and a Golden Globe nomination, respectively. She was also known for her supporting role as Mrs. Livingston in the sitcom "The Courtship of Eddie's Father."
Like many other actors of color at the time, Umeki was forced to either play roles that reinforced stereotypes or not act at all. Her son, Michael Hood, told Entertainment Weekly in 2018 that he'd asked her why she agreed to speak in "pidgin English."
"Her answer was very simple: 'I didn't like doing it, but when someone pays you to do a job, you do the job, and you do your best,'" he said.
Umeki famously destroyed her history-making Oscar after the death of her husband, Randall Hood, in 1976, Entertainment Weekly reported. She died in 2007 at the age of 78.
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In January 2024, Ali Wong became the first Asian woman to win a Primetime Emmy for a leading role, thanks to her work as Amy Lau in "Beef."
She brought home the Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a limited or anthology series or movie, as well as the award for best limited series as one of the show's executive producers.
The dark comedy was hailed by The New York Times' television critic James Poniewozik for its complex portrayals of anger, which are at odds with the "model minority" myth typically pushed onto Asian Americans.
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Auli'i Cravalho was only 14 when she was cast as Moana, Disney's first Polynesian princess. The 2016 film was a box-office smash, earning over $640 million worldwide, per Box Office Mojo.
The Hollywood Reporter reported that Cravalho spoke about how the role impacted her life at the second annual Pasifika Entertainment Advancement Komiti Conversations panel in May 2024.
"Receiving that role when I was 14, I didn't fully realize how much would be put on my shoulders," she said.
"For me to be a representative of all the Pacific is simply incorrect, so I look forward to seeing more faces in the crowd, and, importantly, more faces behind the camera, in the writers' room, as showrunners, as producers, as industry leaders, because having to answer everyone's questions is too much," Cravalho added.
In addition to "Moana," she has starred in the 2024 adaptation of "Mean Girls" and "Darby and the Dead," and she'll reprise her role in "Moana 2" later this year.
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With films like "The Toll of the Sea," "Daughter of the Dragon," and "Daughter of Shanghai," Anna May Wong was widely considered the first Chinese American movie star.
However, she often played secondary, stereotypical roles that didn't fully showcase her abilities as a performer, as starring roles — even those depicting Asian characters — would be given to white actors.
In a 1933 interview, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, Wong said she was "so tired" of the parts she was forced to play.
"Why is it that the screen Chinese is nearly always the villain of the piece, and so cruel a villain — murderous, treacherous, a snake in the grass. We are not like that," she added.
In 1960, for her contributions to Hollywood, Wong became the first Asian actress to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was also one of five women featured in the inaugural year of the American Women Quarters Program in 2022.
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Padma Lakshmi is an Indian-American television host, model, author, and activist best known for her work on Bravo's "Top Chef."
She hosted and executive produced the beloved reality cooking competition from 2006 to 2023 and received a total of 15 Emmy nominations, per the Emmys.
"I'm really proud of the legacy I helped build in all these countries around the world and for two generations of young people," Lakshmi told Harper's Bazaar in 2024.
Since leaving "Top Chef," she has focused on hosting and executive producing "Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi," which highlights dishes created by immigrant and indigenous groups across the US. Lakshmi received a 2023 Emmy nomination for outstanding hosted nonfiction series or special.
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In 2019, Lucy Liu became the second Asian woman to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Best known for her roles in "Ally McBeal," "Kill Bill," "Charlie's Angels," "Kung Fu Panda," and "Elementary," Liu has been influential in representing Asian Americans on screen for over two decades.
She was honored with the Gold Legend Award at 2024's Gold Gala, which Gold House organizes to celebrate AAPI leaders across industries.
"I love that we are all here tonight because there is no ceiling," Liu said in her acceptance speech, per Deadline. "I share this award with you because you have lifted me up, given me strength. You have made me so proud," she added.
"It's hard when you're the first person in the room; when you're the only person that is different. And we are here now and we are collectively special because of that," Liu said.
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Kaling started her career on "The Office" when she was 24 as the only woman and person of color on the writing team. When the show was nominated for an Emmy early in her career, Kaling had to go through extra hoops to be included.
"I had to get letters from all the other male, white producers saying that I had contributed, when my actual record stood for itself," she told Elle in 2019.
Kaling went on to create, write, and star in a primetime sitcom, "The Mindy Project," becoming the first woman to do so, Elle reported. The show ran for six seasons from 2012 to 2017.
A formidable presence in the entertainment industry, Kaling has continued to bring new representations of women of color to the screen with successful shows like "Never Have I Ever" and "The Sex Lives of College Girls."
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Born in Honolulu, Taimane Gardner (also known as Taimane) is a musical artist of Samoan descent best known for her ukulele playing and vocals.
In 2019, she won favorite entertainer of the year at the Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards, Hawaii's equivalent of the Grammys. The following year, she became the first Hawaii artist featured on NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series.
She told Hawai'i Public Radio in 2022 that her experience on NPR "was a huge deal."
"I really wanted to make Hawai'i proud and show what the 'ukulele can do," Taimane added.
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Although best known for her comedy, Awkwafina flexed her dramatic muscles for "The Farewell." The 2019 film, directed by Lulu Wang, focuses on Billi (played by Awkwafina) and her family returning to Changchun, China, to say goodbye to the family matriarch, Nai-Nai, who doesn't know she's dying, but everyone else does.
In addition to "The Farewell," Awkwafina has also been in "Crazy Rich Asians," and "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," two movies with primarily Asian-led casts that helped showcase how movies with minority leads could succeed at the box office.
"Crazy Rich Asians" grossed $239 million worldwide, while "Shang-Chi" grossed $432 million, Box Office Mojo reported.
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Tran is the first actress of AAPI descent to win an Emmy — Daytime or Primetime — for a leading role, Essence reported.
In 2021, she won the Daytime Emmy for outstanding performance by a lead actress in a daytime fiction program for her role as Vivian Johnson-Garrett in "The Bay."
Throughout her career, Tran has spoken about her identity as a biracial woman who is Black and Vietnamese. In 2018, she told Ebony that growing up, she felt she "was always somewhere in the middle" and described it as a "weird" and "confusing" place to be.
"Thankfully, it wasn't a huge struggle for me, but it was something I dealt with," she added.
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Ming-Na Wen has had a prolific, decades-long career in Hollywood.
Her breakout role was in the 1993 Disney adaptation of "The Joy Luck Club" playing June Woo — the film was the first in Hollywood to star a predominantly Asian cast. In 2023, she told Variety that the movie "opened up a whole other world that I didn't realize existed, let alone was available."
"Everything from meeting all these other incredible Asian actors to this community that I didn't even know about. I was living the dream," Wen added.
She continued her Disney run by voicing Mulan, Disney's first princess of Asian descent, in 1998. Reflecting on the character's impact on its 20th anniversary in 2018, Wen said, "I am ecstatic to have played a character with such long-lasting influence."
"It's the magic of Disney to be able to translate a Chinese story and make it relatable to everyone for all generations," she added.
She's also appeared in "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." and several "Star Wars" projects.
In 2019, she was honored as a Disney Legend, and in 2023, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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Although she began her career in Hollywood as an actress, Bessie Loo is best known for her work as a talent agent.
She founded The Bessie Loo Talent Agency in the 1930s and was the leading agent for Asian American talent, representing stars like James Hong, Robert Ito, and Joan Chen.
Hong spoke with the Television Academy Foundation in 2010 about her impact on his career and said, "She did Hollywood a great service."
She died in 1998 at the age of 95.
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Native Tahitian actress Jocelyne LaGarde is the first Indigenous and Polynesian person to be nominated for an Academy Award.
She earned the nomination for best supporting actress for her first and only acting role in 1966's "Hawaii," starring Julie Andrews. For her portrayal of Queen Malama Kanakoa, LaGarde also won the Golden Globe for best performance by an actress in a supporting role in any motion picture.
She died in 1979 at the age of 55 and remains the only actor to have been nominated for an Academy Award for their only film appearance, IMDb reported.
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Also an Oscar nominee for her debut film, Australian-New Zealand actress Keisha Castle-Hughes was honored for her role as Paikea "Pai" Apirana in 2003's "Whale Rider."
At 13 years old, Castle-Hughes became the youngest person nominated for best leading actress at the Academy Awards. (This record was later broken by Quvenzhané Wallis who was nominated at age 9.)
Some of her other roles have included Hana Gibson on CBS's "FBI: Most Wanted," Obara Sand on "Game of Thrones," and the voice of Dr. Emerie Karr in "Star Wars: The Bad Batch."
She is of Māori descent.
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Mai hosted the award-winning daytime talk show "The Real" alongside Tamera Mowry-Housley, Adrienne Houghton, and Loni Love from 2013 to 2022.
"I talk to people about my problems, and I want to encourage all of America to do that as well. I think part of how we stay healthy is to connect and to have empathy with one another," Mai said in a 2018 interview for Oprah Daily following the show's Daytime Emmy win for outstanding entertainment talk show host, beating shows like "The View" and "The Talk."
In March 2020, Mai wrote a powerful op-ed for People condemning anti-Asian hate fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Let us NOT repeat the mistakes of our pasts to turn an entire race of people against one another. Let us stand up for and with each other in these dark times. Hate will get you sick, even if the virus doesn't," she wrote.
Mai now hosts the game show "Raid the Cage" with Damon Wayans Jr.
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Born Geetali Norah Shankar in 1979, Norah Jones launched her career in 2002 with the album, "Come Away With Me." The project, which featured the hit song "Don't Know Why," earned her five Grammy awards, including best new artist, album of the year, record of the year, best female pop vocal performance, and best pop vocal album.
Jones has received a total of 19 Grammy nominations and nine wins, and she has sold over 50 million records around the world, Blue Note reported.
In addition to music, she hosts the podcast "Norah Jones Is Playing Along," where she speaks with other artists. Her most recent episode, with Laufey, was released in November 2023.
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Singing alongside Lauren Jauregui, Camila Cabello, Normani, and Ally Brooke, Dinah Jane was one-fifth of the groundbreaking girl group Fifth Harmony.
After forming on "The X Factor" in 2012, the group released three albums, becoming one of the best-selling girl groups of the 21st century. Although they disbanded officially in 2018, Fifth Harmony won 10 Teen Choice Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, an American Music Award, and the first-ever Billboard Women in Music group of the year award. Like her former bandmates, Jane has since pursued a solo career in music.
In 2023, Jane, who is Tongan, spoke with Teen Vogue about her career and identity as a Polynesian woman.
"I feel like I've always been in this race trying to figure it out by myself as a Polynesian woman in the mainstream world," she said.
"This is who I am. I'm a Polynesian girl and I'm not afraid to hide it, and I'm not afraid to speak my voice, and I'm not afraid for you to hear my voice," she added.
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In 1993, Chung became the first Asian woman — and just the second woman ever — to co-anchor a major news network's nightly news broadcast, per the Chinese American Museum. She led "CBS Evening News" with Dan Rather for two years before moving on to other news networks.
Throughout her career, she has won three Emmy Awards, including two for outstanding interview in 1989 and 1990. Chung has also received the Amnesty International Human Rights Award and a George Foster Peabody Award.
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As the lovably awkward hopeless romantic Lara Jean Covey, Lana Condor captured hearts and attention for her leading performance in 2018's "To All the Boys I've Loved Before."
"Obviously, we're making a lot of great leaps and bounds, but when I was growing up, you really only saw one specific person being given the opportunity to fall in love on camera, and they were typically white," Condor told Harper's Bazaar in 2021.
Producer and author of the trilogy Jenny Han told Variety in 2021 that Covey's identity as an Asian-American teen needed to be represented in the film despite not being at the forefront of her character's story.
"It was really important for me to have elements of her cultural identity, just in small, everyday kind of ways," she said. "I was like, we have to make sure there's a rice cooker in the house and they have to take their shoes off in the house, like things like that," Han added.
However, the character of Lara Jean Covey is Korean while Condor is Vietnamese, highlighting the issue in Hollywood where differences in Asian identities often are ignored.
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Michelle Zauner is a multitalented artist best known for her work in the Grammy-nominated band Japanese Breakfast and her debut memoir, "Crying in H Mart," which spent more than 60 weeks on The New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestseller list.
The book details Zauner's experience struggling with her identity as a biracial Korean American woman, particularly after the death of her mother, with whom she had a complicated relationship.
"Suddenly, I sort of felt like that part of my identity was kind of at risk, and it was sort of a different process of grieving, and I found myself in a Korean grocery store, in an H Mart, crying, and I just was like 'Why are you doing that?'" Zauner told the "Today" show in 2023.
Variety reported in 2023 that "Crying in H Mart" will also become a film, with Zauner leading the adapted screenplay and contributing to the music.
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