Allen Kelsey Grammer is an American actor, comedian, and producer. He gained fame for his role as the psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the NBC sitcom Cheers (1984–1993) and its spin-off Frasier. At more than 20 years on-air, this is one of the longest-running roles played by a single live-action actor in primetime television history. He has received numerous accolades including a total of six Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Tony Award.
Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga, is a Filipino singer and actress. Known primarily for her work in theatre, she has starred in musicals on Broadway and in the West End. Her accolades include a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award, in addition to nominations for two Grammy Awards. She was conferred with the Presidential Medal of Merit in 1990 and the Order of Lakandula in 2007, and she was honored as a Disney Legend in 2011.
Stephen Root is an American actor. He has starred as Jimmy James on the NBC sitcom NewsRadio (1995–1999), as Milton Waddams in the film Office Space (1999), and voiced Bill Dauterive and Buck Strickland on the animated series King of the Hill (1997–2010).
Ming-Na Wen is an American actress and model. She is best known for playing Melinda May / The Cavalry in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013–2020). Wen made her breakthrough in The Joy Luck Club (1993) as June Woo. She voiced the eponymous character in the animated film Mulan, its sequel Mulan II, and in the video game. Additionally, Wen made a cameo appearance in the live-action remake of Mulan (2020).
Terrance Quinn, known professionally as Terry O'Quinn, is an American actor. He is best known for his Primetime Emmy Award-winning performance of John Locke on the TV series Lost (2004–2010). In film, he is best known for playing the title role in The Stepfather (1987) and Howard Hughes in The Rocketeer (1991), with roles in other films such as Heaven's Gate (1980), Silver Bullet (1985), Young Guns (1988), Blind Fury (1989), Tombstone (1993), and Primal Fear (1996).
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 and filmmaker. 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.
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). Her breakthrough role was that of China White/Chen Na Wei in The CW series Arrow.
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.
Whitewashing is a casting practice in the film industry in which white actors are cast in non-white roles. As defined by Merriam-Webster, to whitewash is "to alter...in a way that favors, features, or caters to white people: such as...casting a white performer in a role based on a nonwhite person or fictional character." According to the BBC, films in which white actors have played other races include all genres. African-American roles and roles of Asian descent have been whitewashed, as well as characters from the ancient world in the genre of classical and mythological films.
Chloe Auliʻi Cravalho is an American actress. 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.
Hellboy is a 2019 superhero film based on the Dark Horse Comics character of the same name, created by Mike Mignola. A reboot of the Hellboy film series, it is the third live-action entry in the franchise; directed by Neil Marshall, the film stars David Harbour in the title role, alongside Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim, and Thomas Haden Church. The film draws inspiration from the comic books Darkness Calls, The Wild Hunt, The Storm and the Fury, and Hellboy in Mexico. In the film, Hellboy struggles with his psyche while preventing a resurrected sorceress from conquering the world.
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).
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.
