John Cho is an American actor known for his roles as Harold Lee in the Harold & Kumar films, and Hikaru Sulu in the Star Trek rebooted film series, the Asian-American film Better Luck Tomorrow, the film Columbus, and Searching, which made him the first Asian American actor in history to headline a mainstream thriller film in Hollywood. He was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for his performance in Searching.
Grace Park is an American-born Canadian actress and model, known for her roles in the science-fiction series Battlestar Galactica, as Shannon Ng in the Canadian teen soap opera series Edgemont, as Officer Kono Kalakaua in the police procedural Hawaii Five-0, and as Katherine Kim in A Million Little Things.
James Hong is an American actor, producer and director. Known as one of the most prolific character actors of all time, he has worked in numerous productions in U.S. media since the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1950s. In 2022, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the American film and television industries.
Daniel Philip Henney is an American actor. He first came into international prominence with his television debut as Dr. Henry Kim on the Korean drama My Lovely Sam Soon (2005).
Randall Park is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Louis Huang in the ABC sitcom Fresh Off the Boat (2015–2020), for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series in 2016.
Asian Americans have been involved in the U.S. entertainment industry since the 19th century, when Afong Moy started a series of shows that evolved into essentially one-women shows. In the mid-19th century, Chang and Eng Bunker became naturalized citizens and were successful performers in the United States. Sadakichi Hartman, originally from Japan, was a successful playwright in the 1890s. 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 and industry that wanted to cast them as caricatures. Some, like actress Merle Oberon, hid their ethnicity to avoid discrimination by Hollywood's racist laws.
Jonathan Drew Groff is an American actor and singer. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he has received several awards including a Tony Award and a Grammy Award as well as a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award.
Yellow Face is a semi-autobiographical play by David Henry Hwang, featuring the author himself as the protagonist, DHH, mounting his 1993 play Face Value. The play's themes include questions of race and of the interaction between media and politics.
Colman Jason Domingo is an American actor, playwright, and director. Prominent on both screen and stage, he has received various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, and nominations for an Academy Award and two Tony Awards. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2024.
Kelly Ann Hu is an American actress, former fashion model and beauty queen who was crowned Miss Teen USA 1985 and Miss Hawaii USA 1993. Hu starred as Dr. Rae Chang on the American television soap opera Sunset Beach and as Michelle Chan on the American television police drama series Nash Bridges. She has starred in numerous films including The Scorpion King (2002) as Cassandra, Cradle 2 the Grave (2003) as Sona, X2 (2003) as Yuriko Oyama / Lady Deathstrike, The Tournament (2009) as Lai Lai Zhen, and White Frog (2012).
Harry Shum Jr. is an American actor and dancer. He is known for his roles as Mike Chang on the Fox television series Glee (2009–2015), Magnus Bane on the Freeform television series Shadowhunters (2016–2019), and Benson Kwan on the ABC television series Grey's Anatomy (2022–present). He was nominated for six Screen Actors Guild Awards for best ensemble performance in Crazy Rich Asians, Glee and Everything Everywhere All at Once, winning for the latter two. Shum won the award for The Male TV Star of 2018 in the E! People's Choice Awards for Shadowhunters.
Hawaii Five-0 is an American action police procedural television series that centers around a special police major crimes task force operating at the behest of the governor of Hawaii. It is a reboot of the 1968–1980 series Hawaii Five-O, which also aired on CBS. The series was produced by K/O Paper Products and 101st Street Television, initially in association with CBS Television Studios. The show received praise for its modern take on the original series.
Yeun Sang-Yeop, known professionally as Steven Yeun, is an American actor. Yeun initially rose to prominence for playing Glenn Rhee in the television series The Walking Dead (2010–2016). He earned critical acclaim for starring in the thriller Burning (2018) and the drama Minari (2020). The latter earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor, making him the first Asian American actor to be nominated. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2021. In 2023, he starred in the dark comedy series Beef (2023), for which he won two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award.
Johnny Gat is a fictional character from Volition's Saints Row series of action-adventure video games. Voiced by American actor Daniel Dae Kim, the character was originally introduced in 2006's Saints Row as a lieutenant of the Third Street Saints, a street gang operating out of the Saint's Row district in the fictional city of Stilwater. He continued to make recurring appearances in the series as the loyal though trigger-happy right-hand man and best friend of the gang's leader, the player character. In 2015, Gat received the leading role for the first time in the series in Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell, a standalone expansion to 2013's Saints Row IV.
Leslie Lloyd Odom Jr. is an American actor, singer and songwriter. He made his acting debut on Broadway in 1998 and first gained recognition for his portrayal of Aaron Burr in the musical Hamilton, which earned him a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in the same year. His performance was captured in the Disney+ live stage recording of Hamilton which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Leading Role in a Limited Series or Movie nomination.
Chloe Auliʻi Cravalho is an American actress and singer. She made her acting debut at the age of 16 as the voice of the title character in the Disney animated musical film Moana (2016). She went on to star in the NBC drama series Rise (2018), the Netflix drama film All Together Now (2020), the supernatural comedy Darby and the Dead (2022), the Amazon Prime Video sci-fi series The Power (2023), the Disney Channel animated series Hailey's On It!, and the 2024 film adaptation of the Mean Girls musical.
The Good Doctor is an American medical drama television series remake of the 2013 South Korean series of the same name that aired on ABC from September 25, 2017, to May 21, 2024, lasting seven seasons and 126 episodes. The series stars Freddie Highmore as Shaun Murphy, a young autistic surgical resident at the fictional San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital. Christina Chang, Richard Schiff, Will Yun Lee, Fiona Gubelmann, Paige Spara, Noah Galvin and Bria Samoné Henderson also star in the show. Nicholas Gonzalez, Antonia Thomas, Chuku Modu, Beau Garrett, Hill Harper, Tamlyn Tomita, Jasika Nicole, Osvaldo Benavides and Brandon Larracuente used to also star or had recurring roles in the show, but their characters were written out of the storyline as the series progressed. Modu, however, reprised his role in the sixth season and became a series regular once again in the seventh season.
Kim Young-dae is a South Korean actor. He first gained recognition for the MBC high school drama Extraordinary You (2019). More recently, he appeared in the SBS television series The Penthouse: War In Life (2020–2021) and the KBS2 television series Cheat on Me If You Can (2020). Kim took on his first leading role in tvN television series Shooting Stars (2022), and later appeared in sageuk The Forbidden Marriage (2022–2023).
The Lenkov-verse is a media franchise that consists of a group of three interconnected television reboots that share a fictional universe, and their related media. All three of the television series, Hawaii Five-0, MacGyver, and Magnum P.I., were developed by Peter M. Lenkov who also served as the showrunner on the series. They are each American crime dramas that aired on CBS. Hawaii Five-0 revolves around a task force, led by Steve McGarrett, that investigates crimes in Hawaii. MacGyver centers around Angus MacGyver who uses nonviolent methods to keep the world safe, with the help of a team of undercover government agents. Magnum P.I. follows private investigator Thomas Magnum, who solves crimes in Hawaii with the help of his friends. The universe is also connected to the so-called Bellisario-verse, which consists of the entire NCIS franchise and JAG, via two direct crossovers between Hawaii Five-0 and NCIS: Los Angeles.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is an American adventure fantasy television series developed by Albert Kim for Netflix. It is a live-action adaptation of the animated television series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko for Nickelodeon. The series stars an ensemble cast including Gordon Cormier, Kiawentiio, Ian Ousley, Dallas Liu, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Ken Leung, and Daniel Dae Kim.
