It’s hard to break into Hollywood, and it’s doubly hard when one is Asian and a female. But these female Asian stars have made it, and we want to continue to see their stars shine bright and brighter as they pave the way for more diversity in Tinseltown.
Priyanka Chopra
Name: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, 39 years old
Trivia:
- Before winning pageants, being crowned Miss World and becoming an actress, Priyanka dreamed of being an aeronautical engineer
- She moved to the USA when she was 12 and admitted that she got bullied during her high school days
- Married American singer-actor Nick Jonas on December 1, 2018
- Started her own production company, Purple Pebble Pictures, along with her mother Madhu Chopra in 2015
- After starring in numerous Bollywood films, Priyanka started gaining recognition in Hollywood when she first performed at the National Football League (NFL)
Michelle Yeoh
Name: Michelle Yeoh Choo-kheng, 59 years old
Trivia:
- Ever since she got her first start in Hong Kong’s martial arts films, Michelle still continues doing her own stunts even when she’s already in her 50s
- In 1983, at the age of 21, Michelle won the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant, and represented Malaysia at the Queen of the Pacific 1983 in Australia and the 1983 Miss World in London
- The turning point in her career was when she played the highly-capable Bond girl Wai Lin on 1997’s “Tomorrow Never Dies”
- She studied ballet since the age of 4, but an injury prevented her from becoming a professional ballet dancer
Claudia Kim
Name: Kim Soo-hyun, 36 years old
Trivia:
- Born in Seoul, South Korea, Claudia grew up wanting to be an international lawyer and a TV anchor
- Became the first Korean actress to attend the annual “Women in Film Gala”
- Married Korean-American businessman Cha Min-geun on December 14, 2019 and blessed with a daughter
- Claudia came to Hollywood because it was willing to offer her more diverse roles than she could get in her native South Korea
Lana Condor
Name: Lana Therese Condor, 24 years old
Trivia:
- Born in Vietnam, she lived her first months in an orphanage in Cần Thơ under the name Tran Dong Lan
- Adopted and renamed by her American parents Mary Carol Condor and Bob Condor
- Before she got her first big film credit, Lana was an accomplished ballet dancer and a competitive equestrian
- Lana and boyfriend Anthony De La Torre have been together since 2015, and their relationship is nothing short of romantic
Rinko Kikuchi
Name: Yuriko Kikuchi, 40 years old
Trivia:
- The first Japanese actress to be nominated for an Academy Award in 50 years, for her work in “Babel”
- Rinko revealed that she improved her English by watching the famous American reality singing competition “The Voice”
- Dated director Spike Jonze for two years, now married to Japanese actor Shōta Sometani since 2014
- Besides acting, she works behind the scenes as a director and is also a skilled sword-fighter, which she channeled out in Guillermo del Toro’s “Pacific Rim”
Shiva Kalaiselvan
Name: Shiva Shobitha Kalaiselvan, 37 years old
Trivia:
- Plays Leyla Shinwari in the hit American medical-drama TV series “New Amsterdam”
- Made her debut on an American TV series based on the characters from DC’s Batman comics, “Gotham”, in the episode “The Dark Knight: One Of My Three Soups”
- She had also starred in another TV series; “Charmed”
- Shiva graduated in 2015 with a Masters in Fine Arts in Acting in Columbia University, New York, but before that, she studied in the Assunta Girls Secondary School in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
