Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month: Trailblazing Women in Entertainment
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, honoring the contributions of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders throughout U.S. history. We’re spotlighting influential AAPI women like Miyoshi Umeki and Ming‑Na Wen who’ve shattered barriers in Hollywood and beyond.
From Lucy Liu to Ming‑Na Wen, these AAPI heritage trailblazers have made significant contributions to the entertainment industry and the AAPI community. Join us in celebrating their accomplishments and the legacies they’re building every day.
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. From Miyoshi Umeki’s historic Oscar win to Lucy Liu’s impact on pop culture, we’re recognizing AAPI Heritage Month by spotlighting these amazing women.
This guide brings together 20 AAPI women whose work spans film, television, music, comedy, journalism and more, highlighting the milestones and “firsts” that changed what representation can look like.
- 1. Miyoshi Umeki – First Asian Oscar winner and Hollywood trailblazer in the 1950s
- 2. Ali Wong – Stand‑up icon and first Asian woman to win a Primetime Emmy for a lead acting role
- 3. Auliʻi Cravalho – Voice of Disney’s first Polynesian princess, Moana
- 4. Anna May Wong – Hollywood’s first Chinese American film star
- 5. Padma Lakshmi – Food‑TV host and creator spotlighting immigrant and Indigenous cuisine
- 6. Lucy Liu – Film and TV mainstay and Gold Legend Award honoree
- 7. Mindy Kaling – Creator behind a new wave of teen and young‑adult stories
- 8. Taimane Gardner – Ukulele virtuoso bringing Pacific sounds to global stages
- 9. Awkwafina – Golden Globe‑winning actress and rapper redefining Asian American comedy
- 10. Karrueche Tran – First AAPI lead acting Emmy winner in Daytime drama
- 11. Ming‑Na Wen – Disney Legend spanning Mulan, Marvel and Star Wars
- 12. Bessie Loo – Behind‑the‑scenes agent who championed Asian American talent
- 13. Jocelyne LaGarde – First Polynesian and Indigenous performer nominated for an Oscar
- 14. Keisha Castle‑Hughes – Young Oscar nominee for Whale Rider
- 15. Jeannie Mai – Television host and fashion commentator with global pageant reach
- 16. Norah Jones – Grammy‑winning crossover artist and one of the top jazz artists of the 2000s
- 17. Dinah Jane – Fifth Harmony member and solo artist of Pacific Islander heritage
- 18. Connie Chung – First Asian American to co‑anchor a major U.S. network evening news
- 19. Lana Condor – Netflix rom‑com lead giving Asian American teens center stage
- 20. Michelle Zauner – Japanese Breakfast frontwoman and bestselling memoirist
Miyoshi Umeki was the first Asian actor to win an Oscar.
In 1958, Japanese American singer and actor Miyoshi Umeki became the first Asian performer to win an Academy Award, taking home Best Supporting Actress for her role as Katsumi in Sayonara, opposite Red Buttons and Marlon Brando. She later starred in Flower Drum Song on Broadway and in the film adaptation, earning Tony and Golden Globe nominations, and became widely known on television as Mrs. Livingston in the sitcom The Courtship of Eddie’s Father.
A Time cover story noted that “the warmth of her art works a kind of tranquil magic.” After Flower Drum Song, she appeared in a handful of films including Cry for Happy (1961), The Horizontal Lieutenant (1962) and A Girl Named Tamiko (1963), before focusing more on TV work. From 1969 to 1972, she played Mrs. Livingston on The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, earning a Golden Globe nomination.
Like many actors of color at the time, Umeki often had to play roles that reinforced stereotypes or risk not working at all. Her son later recalled that when he asked why she agreed to speak in “pidgin English,” she answered simply: “I didn’t like doing it, but when someone pays you to do a job, you do the job, and you do your best.” She reportedly destroyed her Oscar statuette after the death of her husband, Randall Hood, in 1976, and died in 2007 at age 78.
Ali Wong is the first Asian woman to win a Primetime Emmy for a leading role.
Alexandra Dawn “Ali” Wong (born April 19, 1982) is an American stand‑up comedian, actress, writer, producer and director from San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood. She is best known for her Netflix stand‑up specials Baby Cobra (2016), Hard Knock Wife (2018) and Don Wong (2022), which turned her raw, hilarious takes on pregnancy, marriage and Asian American identity into global phenomena.
She co‑wrote, produced and starred in the Netflix romantic comedy Always Be My Maybe (2019), and in 2023 led the Netflix dark comedy limited series Beef, for which she won two Golden Globes and two Primetime Emmys, becoming the first Asian woman to win an Emmy for a lead acting role. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in 2020 and again in 2023.
On television, Wong has been a cast member on American Housewife and appeared on Inside Amy Schumer, Black Box and Are You There, Chelsea?. Behind the scenes, she wrote for the first three seasons of Fresh Off the Boat, and she voices Roberta “Bertie” Songthrush on Tuca & Bertie and a version of herself, Ali, on Big Mouth.
At just 14, Auliʻi Cravalho brought the voice of Disney’s first Polynesian princess, Moana, to life.
Chloe Auliʻi Cravalho (born November 22, 2000) is an American actress who made her acting debut as the voice of the title character in Disney’s animated musical Moana (2016). Cast at only 14, she led a film that went on to earn over 640 million dollars worldwide.
Cravalho has since starred in the NBC drama series Rise (2018), the Netflix film All Together Now (2020), the supernatural comedy Darby and the Dead (2022), the Prime Video sci‑fi series The Power (2023), the Disney Channel animated series Hailey’s On It! and the 2024 film adaptation of Mean Girls. She is set to reprise her role in Moana 2.
Speaking at the Pasifika Entertainment Advancement Komiti Conversations panel in 2024, she emphasized that she cannot represent all of the Pacific alone and called for more Pacific Islander voices behind the camera, in writers’ rooms and as industry leaders.
Anna May Wong was the first Asian actress to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Wong Liu Tsong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961), known professionally as Anna May Wong, is considered the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood and the first Chinese American actress to achieve international recognition. Born in Los Angeles to second‑generation Taishanese Chinese American parents, she began acting as an extra in The Red Lantern (1919) and gained fame in silent films such as The Toll of the Sea (1922) and The Thief of Bagdad (1924).
A fashion icon and early adopter of the flapper look, she was voted “world’s best dressed woman” by New York’s Mayfair Mannequin Society in 1934. Frustrated by limited, stereotypical roles, Wong left for Europe in 1928 and headlined films and stage productions, including Piccadilly (1929). She later appeared in sound films such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931), Shanghai Express (1932), Java Head (1934) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937).
In 1951 she starred in The Gallery of Madame Liu‑Tsong, the first U.S. television series with an Asian American lead, and in 1960 she became the first Asian American actress to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2022 she was also featured on an American Women quarter, cementing her place in U.S. cultural history.
Padma Lakshmi’s Taste the Nation highlights the cuisine of Indigenous and immigrant communities across the U.S.
Padma Parvati Lakshmi (born September 1, 1970) is an Indian American author, model, activist and television host. Born in India and raised in the United States, she began her career as a model before transitioning into food television.
She hosted Bravo’s cooking competition Top Chef from 2006 to 2023, earning multiple Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program. She later created, hosted and executive‑produced the Hulu docuseries Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi, which explores food and culture in immigrant and Indigenous communities across America and has won a Gotham Award for Breakthrough Series and a Critics Choice Real TV Award for Best Culinary Show.
Lakshmi has written two cookbooks (Easy Exotic and Tangy, Tart, Hot & Sweet), The Encyclopedia of Spices & Herbs, the memoir Love, Loss, and What We Ate, and the children’s book Tomatoes for Neela. In 2023, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Lucy Liu received the Gold Legend Award at Gold House’s 2024 Gold Gala and in 2019 became the second Asian American woman with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Lucy Alexis Liu (born December 2, 1968) is an American actress and director born in New York City to Chinese immigrant parents. After early stage work, she broke through as Ling Woo on the TV series Ally McBeal (1998–2002), a role specifically rewritten for her.
She has starred in the Charlie’s Angels films (2000, 2003), Shanghai Noon (2000), Chicago (2002), Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003), and the CBS series Elementary (2012–2019), where she played a gender‑flipped Dr. Joan Watson. Liu has also voiced characters such as Master Viper in the Kung Fu Panda films and Silvermist in Disney’s Tinker Bell series.
Her accolades include a Critics’ Choice Television Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Seoul International Drama Award, plus a Primetime Emmy nomination. In 2019 she became only the second Asian American woman to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2024 Gold House honored her with its Gold Legend Award.
With Never Have I Ever and The Sex Lives of College Girls, Mindy Kaling is changing what young women of color look like on screen.
Vera Mindy Chokalingam (born June 24, 1979), known as Mindy Kaling, is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer. She began as the only woman and only person of color in the writers’ room on NBC’s The Office, where she also played Kelly Kapoor and earned an Emmy writing nomination.
Kaling created, produced and starred in The Mindy Project (2012–2017), then co‑created and executive‑produced shows including Champions, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Netflix’s Never Have I Ever and HBO Max’s The Sex Lives of College Girls. Her film work ranges from Despicable Me and Inside Out to A Wrinkle in Time, Ocean’s 8 and Late Night, which she also wrote and produced.
She has two Screen Actors Guild Awards, six Primetime Emmy nominations and a Tony Award as a producer of the musical A Strange Loop, and she founded Kaling International in 2012. Time named her to its 100 most influential people list in 2013, and President Joe Biden awarded her the National Medal of Arts in 2022.
Taimane Tauiliili Bobby Gardner (born February 13, 1989), known as Taimane, is a Hawaiʻi‑based American ukulele virtuoso and composer of Samoan and mixed heritage. She became a popular performer on the Waikīkī circuit as a teenager and released her debut album Loco Princess in 2005.
Her albums include Life – The Art & Beauty of Being Human (2008), Ukulele Dance (2012), We Are Made of Stars (2015), Elemental (2018) and Hawaiki (2022). We Are Made of Stars was nominated for Ukulele Album of the Year at the 2016 Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards.
In 2019, she won Favorite Entertainer of the Year at the Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards, often called Hawaiʻi’s Grammys, and in 2020 she became the first artist from Hawaiʻi to perform a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR.
Awkwafina was the first Asian woman to win a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
Nora Lum (born June 2, 1988), known as Awkwafina, is an American actress and rapper. She first gained attention when her rap song “My Vag” went viral on YouTube in 2012, leading to her debut album Yellow Ranger and a stint on MTV’s Girl Code.
She appeared in Neighbors 2, Ocean’s 8, Crazy Rich Asians and Jumanji: The Next Level, before starring in Lulu Wang’s The Farewell (2019). For The Farewell, she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, becoming the first woman of Asian descent to win in that category.
Awkwafina co‑created, writes, produces and stars in Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens and plays Katy in Marvel’s Shang‑Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. She has voiced characters in Storks, Raya and the Last Dragon, The Bad Guys, The Little Mermaid, Migration, Kung Fu Panda 4 and IF, and was named Kore Asian Media’s Female Breakout of the Year in 2017.
In 2021, Karrueche Tran became the first AAPI actress to win an Emmy for a leading role.
Karrueche Tran (born May 17, 1988) is an American actress from Los Angeles, California. She was raised by a Vietnamese mother and Jamaican godmother; her father is African American, and she identifies as Blasian.
Tran is best known for playing Vivian Johnson in the digital soap The Bay and Virginia Loc in TNT’s Claws. At the 2021 Daytime Emmy Awards she won Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Daytime Fiction Program for The Bay, becoming the first person of Asian Pacific American descent to win any Emmy — Daytime or Primetime — for a lead acting role. She also shares in two earlier Daytime Emmy wins for The Bay as part of its producing ensemble.
Ming‑Na Wen is a certified Disney Legend with a prolific, decades‑long career.
Ming‑Na Wen (born November 20, 1963) is an American actress born in Macau and raised in the United States. She broke through as June Woo in The Joy Luck Club (1993), one of the first major Hollywood films with a predominantly Asian cast. She later voiced Fa Mulan in Disney’s Mulan and its sequel, a role that cemented her as a Disney icon.
On television, Wen played Dr. Jing‑Mei “Deb” Chen on ER and Agent Melinda May (“The Cavalry”) on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. She also portrays mercenary Fennec Shand in The Mandalorian, The Bad Batch and The Book of Boba Fett. Her other genre roles include Chun‑Li in Street Fighter, Detective Ellen Yin in The Batman, and Camile Wray in Stargate Universe.
In 2019 she was named a Disney Legend, and in 2023 she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Bessie Loo was a behind‑the‑scenes icon for Asian American representation in Hollywood.
Bessie Loo (December 30, 1902 – October 28, 1998) was an American actress, casting director and talent agent of Chinese descent. After small film roles in the 1930s, including The Good Earth (1937) and Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939), she became one of Hollywood’s only Asian and female casting directors.
She ran the Bessie Loo Talent Agency for over 40 years, representing many Asian American actors, including James Hong, at a time when few agents advocated for them. Loo also led community organizations such as the China Society of Southern California and the Los Angeles Chinese Women’s Club, served on the California State Economic Development Commission, and was a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Her career was honored by the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California and the Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles, and she appears in Arthur Dong’s documentary Hollywood Chinese.
Jocelyne LaGarde’s first and only film role, Hawaii, earned her an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe.
Jocelyne Bredin LaGarde (April 24, 1924 – September 12, 1979) was a Native Tahitian woman cast as Queen Malama Kanakoa in the 1966 epic Hawaii, adapted from James A. Michener’s novel. She had no prior acting experience and spoke only Tahitian and French, but was coached in English for the role.
Her commanding presence and emotional authenticity stood out among a star‑studded cast led by Julie Andrews and Max von Sydow. For Hawaii, LaGarde received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress — the only acting nomination for the film — making her the first Polynesian and first Indigenous person ever nominated for an Oscar. She also won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture.
Keisha Castle‑Hughes became one of the youngest Best Actress nominees in Oscars history for Whale Rider.
Keisha Castle‑Hughes (born March 24, 1990) is an Australian‑born New Zealand actress of Māori and European ancestry. She made her acting debut as Paikea “Pai” Apirana in Whale Rider (2002), a role she took with no prior experience after being cast from her school in Auckland.
Her performance earned widespread acclaim and a Best Actress nomination at the 76th Academy Awards, making her, at 13, the youngest nominee in the category at the time and a rare Indigenous actor honored in a lead role. She later starred in The Nativity Story (2006) and Hey, Hey, It’s Esther Blueburger (2008), and has appeared in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, HBO’s Game of Thrones (as Obara Sand), CBS’s FBI: Most Wanted (as Hana Gibson), and voiced Dr. Emerie Karr in Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
Jeannie Mai is a TV host and fashion expert known for How Do I Look?, The Real and Miss Universe broadcasts.
Jeannie Camtu Mai (born January 4, 1979) is an American television personality and stylist. She began as a MAC Cosmetics makeup artist at 18, eventually working with celebrities and on shows like Total Request Live and Good Day Sacramento.
She broke into hosting with the Asian American magazine show Stir and later hosted her own music countdown on the California Music Channel before landing primetime roles on USA’s Character Fantasy and the Style Network’s makeover series How Do I Look?. Mai went on to co‑host the daytime talk show The Real and has appeared frequently as a fashion expert on Today, Extra and Entertainment Tonight.
She has also worked extensively with Miss Universe, serving as a correspondent in 2011–2013, co‑hosting the pageant in 2022 and 2023, and being announced as a host for Miss Universe Philippines 2024. During the COVID‑19 pandemic she spoke publicly against rising anti‑Asian hate, using her platform to call attention to racism and violence.
Norah Jones is a nine‑time Grammy winner who has sold more than 50 million records worldwide.
Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer‑songwriter and pianist, and the daughter of Indian sitar legend Ravi Shankar and producer Sue Jones. Billboard named her the top jazz artist of the 2000s decade.
Her debut album Come Away with Me (2002), a blend of jazz, folk, country and pop, has sold tens of millions of copies worldwide and was certified diamond, with estimates around or above 27 million. It earned her five Grammys, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Best New Artist, making her one of the most decorated newcomers in Grammy history and a prominent artist of South Asian descent on the global stage.
Subsequent albums Feels Like Home (2004), Not Too Late (2007) and The Fall (2009) all went platinum and received strong reviews. Jones also made her film acting debut in Wong Kar‑wai’s My Blueberry Nights (2007).
Dinah Jane was one‑fifth of the award‑winning girl group Fifth Harmony and is now a solo artist.
Dinah Jane Milika Ilaisaane Hansen (born June 22, 1997) is an American singer of Tongan heritage. She auditioned as a solo act on The X Factor USA in 2012 and was grouped with Camila Cabello, Normani, Lauren Jauregui and Ally Brooke to form Fifth Harmony.
Fifth Harmony released three albums and became one of the best‑selling girl groups of the 21st century, winning multiple Teen Choice Awards, MTV VMAs, an American Music Award and Billboard’s Women in Music Group of the Year. After their hiatus, Dinah Jane signed with HitCo Entertainment and released her debut solo single “Bottled Up” in 2018, followed by her EP Dinah Jane 1 in 2019.
Raised in a musical family, she began singing in public at age seven and has continued to develop her solo career, with recent releases including the 2024 single “Ocean Song” and a planned EP Forever Summer.
In 1993, Connie Chung became the first Asian woman and only the second woman ever to co‑anchor a major U.S. network’s nightly news.
Constance Yu‑Hwa Chung (born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist who has anchored and reported for ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC. On June 1, 1993, she joined Dan Rather as co‑anchor of the CBS Evening News, becoming the first Asian American and second woman to hold such a position.
Known for a generally gentle interview style punctuated by sharp questions, she conducted high‑profile interviews with figures such as Claus von Bülow, Congressman Gary Condit and Magic Johnson. For many Chinese and other Asian immigrant families in the late 1970s–1990s, Chung’s presence on national news made her a rare and powerful role model, inspiring some to name their daughters Connie.
She has won three Emmy Awards, including two for outstanding interview work, as well as an Amnesty International Human Rights Award and a George Foster Peabody Award.
Lana Condor led Netflix’s hit rom‑com franchise To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.
Lana Therese Condor (born May 11, 1997) is a Vietnamese‑born American actress and YouTuber. Born in Cần Thơ under the name Trần Đồng Lan, she spent her first months in an orphanage before being adopted by American parents and raised in the U.S.
She made her film debut as Jubilee in X‑Men: Apocalypse (2016) and appeared in Patriots Day (2016) and High School Lover (2017). Her breakout came as Lara Jean Covey in Netflix’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018) and its sequels, a role that put an Asian American teen at the center of a mainstream rom‑com and earned her a Teen Choice Award nomination.
Condor has also starred in Syfy’s Deadly Class, appeared in Alita: Battle Angel, and voiced the title character in DreamWorks’ Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (2023).
Musician and author Michelle Zauner was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2022.
Michelle Chongmi Zauner (born March 29, 1989) is an American musician and writer best known as the lead vocalist of the indie pop project Japanese Breakfast. Raised in Eugene, Oregon, she fronted the band Little Big League before releasing Japanese Breakfast’s debut Psychopomp (2016), followed by Soft Sounds from Another Planet (2017) and Jubilee (2021), which reached the Billboard 200 and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album.
Her memoir Crying in H Mart (2021) spent more than a year on The New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestseller list and is being adapted into a feature film, for which she will provide the soundtrack. Zauner has directed many of Japanese Breakfast’s music videos and has been published in Glamour, The New Yorker and Harper’s Bazaar. Time included her on its 2022 Time 100 list in the Innovators category.
This list brings together 20 women whose work shows just how broad AAPI influence is across film, television, comedy, music, journalism and behind‑the‑scenes power centers. From Miyoshi Umeki’s breakthrough Oscar win in the 1950s to Ali Wong’s historic lead‑acting Emmy, each milestone chips away at the idea that AAPI talent belongs only on the margins.
AAPI Heritage Month exists to recognize these contributions and to confront the long history of erasure, stereotyping and xenophobia that AAPI communities have faced, while affirming that Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are integral to the story of the United States. Profiles like these don’t just celebrate individual careers; they help younger generations see what’s possible, whether that means anchoring a national newscast like Connie Chung, fronting a band and writing a bestseller like Michelle Zauner, or remaking prestige television in their own image like Mindy Kaling and Ali Wong.
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