There are so many incredible Asian and Pacific Islander (API) celebs we have to thank for our favorite movies, TV shows, and songs!
2.
Ken Jeong used to be a doctor! He was a pre-med major at Duke University. He went to UNC-Chapel Hill for medical school then practiced medicine for several years before going into acting full-time. Taking a drama class sophomore year inspired him to double major in drama, but he ultimately dropped the idea on his dad’s advice. However, his dad gave him an ultimatum — if he got into medical school, he’d “give him the opportunity to develop his hobby and go anywhere in the world to develop his hobby.” Ken continued doing college theater on the side, then during the summer between undergrad and medical school, his dad paid for him to take theater classes at UCLA.
During medical school, he got into stand-up comedy. It paid off — he won an important comedy contest during his residency at a New Orleans hospital. His medical experience actually helped him land his breakout role as Dr. Kuni in 2007’s Knocked Up. Around the time the movie premiered, he decided to pursue entertainment full-time.
3.
It’s been reported that Jason Momoa won Hawaii’s Model of the Year contest in 1999, but he actually “made that shit up.” He told Square Mile, “When I was in Hawaii, I went to a casting call for Baywatch Hawaii – it was basically like a cattle call for 1,300 people. I got there, and seven hours later, when I finally got to the front of the line, they said, ‘Oh, you’ve got to have a resume.’ I was like, ‘Oh yeah, well, I don’t have one.’ They were like, ‘Dude, have you ever acted?’ I was like, ‘No,’ and they were like, ‘Have you modeled?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’m a big model. I do Gucci and Louis Vuitton.”
He continued, “And I’m looking at my friend, and I’m like, ‘You did Prada, right?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, yeah, we did that in Japan.’ So we were just kind of making it up on the spot…Yeah, we just kind of bullshitted our way in, and then I met some managers down there; they kind of made up some stuff for me, like, ‘Hawaii Model of the Year’. We basically just did head shots of me and said, ‘Hey he’s the model of the year.’ We just made it up…Well, it kind of stayed on there. It’s like, when I finished Baywatch, all I had was Baywatch, and you’ve got to have something more credible. So we just left it on.”
4.
Lana Condor made a “no dating each other” pact with her To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before costar Noah Centineo. She told The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, “We had just got back from a hot yoga class, and we went to his apartment and we ordered pizza. And it’s kinda like, ‘Oh, hot yoga, pizza, what’s happening?’ It was right before we shot the movie — just getting to know each other. And I felt something…I said, ‘Noah, it’s not going to happen between us.’ Because I felt that, for the show to do well, we had to be best friend professionals…We kind of did what we did in To All The Boys, the movie. We made a contract and set boundaries. I’m so happy that we did that, because the movie turned out great.”
5.
In The Acolyte, Manny Jacinto’s secondary role, The Stranger, was originally meant to be significantly smaller. Showrunner Leslye Headland told Inverse, “This is an interesting tidbit: Originally, even up until shooting, The Stranger was not in a lot of the rest of the season. He was much more of a tee-up for a second season arc. But I saw Manny’s screen test early on in pre-production, and I just thought, ‘There will be riots in the streets if I don’t [go further]. Here we go. I guess I’m rewriting an episode.’ Manny was so impressive in every aspect.”
6.
Taika Waititi’s legal name is actually Taika Cohen. Cohen is his mother’s last name, and Waiti is his father’s. He told Cultural Daily, “It’s really because — both my parents are in the arts. My mother is a writer and a schoolteacher; my father is a painter. Growing up I was doing a lot of acting and stuff. And because Cohen is on my passport, I would use Cohen through school, and I was known as Taika Cohen. And then, when I went to live with my dad on that side of the family, I was known as Waititi. So I always used both names throughout my life according to where I was living.”
“As a painter, I often felt like that was more the Waititi side of myself; I would be Taika Waititi as the painter. And then, because I made my first short film in that area where I was known as Waititi, that was the name that was put on the film. And that film did really well and suddenly I had a career as a filmmaker, and now everyone knows me as Waititi. It’s not like I’m running away from Cohen or anything, it just happened. And I’m still Taika Cohen on all my of legal documents,” he said.
7.
Simone Ashley is a self-taught amateur tattoo artist. On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, she said, “I’ve tattooed myself. I’ve tattooed castmates I’ve worked with before.”
She followed an inmate’s YouTube tutorials for prison tattoos and gave herself this ankle tattoo of a sphynx cat:
8.
Michelle Yeoh’s Oscar-winning role in Everything Everywhere All at Once was originally written for Jackie Chan. She told CNN, “It was written for a man when [directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert] set out to do this. They wrote it that way, with Jackie, and me as the wife. So, the roles were completely reversed. I remember Jackie texting me and saying, ‘Congratulations! You know your boys came to see me first. I’m like, ‘Thank you, bro, you did me a huge favor.'”
9.
When Jackie Chan was a kid, his parents fled to Hong Kong, abandoning him and his siblings in mainland China. Through research for the documentary Traces of a Dragon: Jackie Chan and His Lost Family, he discovered that his dad had been a gang leader and Nationalist spy, and his mom had been a well-known gambler, opium smuggler, and part of Shanghai’s underworld. As part of the documentary, he got to meet his dad, who told him that he met his mom when he arrested her for drug smuggling. Jackie also learned of his two half-brothers and two half-sisters.
10.
Unlike her The Suite Life of Zack and Cody character, Brenda Song is super smart in real life — in fact, she got into Harvard at only 15! However, she turned it down to take the role of London Tipton. She told W Magazine, “My mom got breast cancer for the first time, I booked Suite Life, and I was accepted into the college I’d always wanted to go to. My dad, who’s a schoolteacher, sat me down and said, ‘Here’s the thing. You have an amazing opportunity if acting is what you want to do. Education is the most important thing. You go to college to figure out what you want to do, but if this is what you want to do, you have an opportunity to do it.”
11.
On The Ellen Show, Simu Liu shared that, long before he was cast as the lead in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, his first job involved dressing up as another Marvel hero — Spider-Man!
Here’s the full clip, with this part starting at the nine-minute mark:
View this video on YouTube
A Very Good Production / Telepictures Productions / Warner Bros. Television / Via youtube.com
12.
In 2022, KJ Apa was designated the matai title Savae of Moata’a, the Samoan village where his family is from. He followed the legacy of his father and grandfather, who also held the chief title. When KJ appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! back in 2021, he discussed the possibility of one day holding a matai title. At the time, he said, “I would think it’s a huge responsibility. I don’t really feel adequate, to be honest, but I doubt myself in almost everything that I do.”
13.
Saweetie has a famous cousin — Gabrielle Union! Specifically, Saweetie’s dad is Gabrielle’s first cousin. Saweetie told Us Weekly, “Honestly, I didn’t really connect with her until I was older, but I have to say, when I was a young girl, I would be so shy around her because she’s always been so beautiful. So bright…She’s always just had this really bright light about herself, so I’m happy to call her my cousin.”
Saweetie is also related to MC Hammer. He’s her first cousin once removed. She told Billboard that he’s “inspired [her] to be a hard worker” because he’s “put [his] years in.” She said, “So hopefully, I can follow in their path and make a legacy of my own.”
14.
Mindy Kaling goes by her middle name, which was inspired by Robin Williams’s breakout TV show. She told the Improper Bostonian, “No one’s ever called me Vera [her first name]. I’ve been Mindy since I was born. When my Mom was pregnant, my parents were living in Nigeria and wanted a cute American name, because they were moving here, and they knew Mindy from Mork & Mindy. Vera isn’t just an old Russian lady’s name, it’s an incarnation of a Hindu goddess. But they never called me it.”
15.
Jade Thirlwall’s Little Mix bandmate Perrie Edwards famously dated Zayn Malik, but Jade had her own romantic liaison with another One Direction member! Jade told The Louis Theroux Podcast that she and Harry Styles “went on like one date” when they were about 16. It was around the time he was put in One Direction on The X Factor. They “kept in touch” until he ghosted her.
She said, “Then the minute they went on live shows, he didn’t message me back, and I thought, ‘That’s it now, he’s gone, he’s made it.’ And then I made it [on The X Factor] the next year, and then I saw him in the room after, and he was like, ‘I’m really sorry that I ignored you.’..I was so young, it didn’t really matter. But he was always very, very lovely.”
16.
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan learned how to play the harp for Never Have I Ever, so when the series wrapped, she took the instrument home! She told People, “Well, I took the harp. I picked it up, put it in the plane, flew it back to Canada. No, no, no. Thankfully, production was really helpful in helping me take the harp home.”
17.
On The Jennifer Hudson Show, Nicole Scherzinger revealed that the worst thing that’s ever happed to her while performing was when she split her pants seconds before performing on The X Factor with Justin Bieber.
Thankfully, her talented seamstress was able to do a super quick repair.
18.
Ms. Marvel star Iman Vellani has written for the Ms. Marvel comics. She made her comics debut co-writing the miniseries Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant with Sabir Pirzada, who also penned an episode of the TV show.
19.
Mitski loves ghost stories. She told Dazed, “I’ve loved them since I was a kid. When I was a kid, I used to collect them, and then I would go to my classmates and be like, ‘Do you wanna hear a ghost story?’ And they’d be like, ‘No.’ The one that scared me the most was ‘Toire no Hanako-san,’ which is — Hanko is a Japanese girl’s name, and it’s just about the girl in the toilet. It’s never explained why there is a girl ghost in the bathroom, and she just haunts the toilet. And it’s really scary when you’re a kid, and you’re going to the bathroom alone. And you’re just alone in the toilet stall and thinking, ‘There’s gonna be a ghost!’ I used to think, like, a hand would come out of the toilet bowl and just grab my butt. I don’t know what it would do once it grabbed my butt, but I was afraid of the grabbing.”
20.
Randall Park learned how to do the card trick in Wandavision himself. He told Polygon, “Oh, no, that was not movie magic. That was me. I learned it. It took a couple of days, I believe. But I learned how to do it, and I think I mastered it at the time. I don’t think I botched too many takes. Maybe a couple, maybe a couple here and there, but for the most part, I think I nailed it.”
21.
Vanessa Hudgens believes she has the ability to see and hear the paranormal. On The Kelly Clarkson Show, she said, “I’ve accepted the fact that, like, I see things and I hear things.”
22.
H.E.R. — whose real name is Gabi Wilson — kept her true identity a secret at the start of her career. However, the day after her debut album was released, Genius uncovered her real name by finding a cover of “Jungle” by Drake — which was on the album — that she’d previously released as Gabi Wilson. But RCA Records didn’t confirm her identity until Forbes reached out a year later.
23.
When Henry Golding was 21, he left his job as a hairdresser in the UK so could try to make it in the TV industry in Malaysia. As a presenter, he hosted shows like The 8TV Quickie, Welcome to the Railworld Malaysia, and The Travel Show. Though he had no prior acting experience, he knew an accountant who was working in the Malaysian production department of Crazy Rich Asians. When director Jon M. Chu struggled to find a leading man, she recommended Henry as the perfect person.
24.
Constnce Wu has a pet bunny named Lida Rose. She told Refinery 29, “Bunnies are kind of like cats: They groom themselves. But you don’t want them to swallow too much hair because, unlike a cat, the bunnies don’t have hairballs, they can’t spit it up. I’ll brush her with a flea comb, not because she has fleas, but just because it gets the excess hair out. She pretty much keeps herself clean. I might give her a bath once every six months or so, but she’s pretty low-maintenance in terms of cleanliness…. She’s got a litter box and everything — just like a cat.”
25.
Nico Santos’s audition for Mateo in Superstore changed the way the character was written. He told Oregon Live, “It was written as a straight Latino guy, a thug. Then they saw me for the role, and now we’re here!” Landing the role also led to interesting fan interactions. He said, “People stop me at Target, and they’re like, ‘Are you here for research?’ No, girl! I’m here for dish soap and paper towels.”
26.
At the beginning of her career, Drew Afualo worked for the NFL, creating social media content meant to appeal to women. She told Onward State, “I emphasized sports [in college] because I wanted to be one of the few women to go into sports journalism. Specifically, I was trying to re-gentrify the space.” However, she was allegedly let go because they thought she couldn’t bring in a large following — which obviously couldn’t be more wrong! Drew said, “Man, I love being right, but even in that specific instance, it was ironic because I really was meant to target women, and I clearly know how to target women.”
27.
When Mean Girls (2024) was released, Avantika, who played Karen Shetty, watched it in theaters on her own so she could see what other people thought of it. She told Vogue India, “I’m going for a 7.30 p.m. show all by myself because I want to know how the audience reacts to my role in real-time.”
28.
Ambika Mod sleeps with her eyes open. On The Graham Norton Show, she said, “Mostly, it’s not fully. It’s usually just like…” then she demonstrated. She said that she’s slept that way since she was a baby.
29.
In a YouTube video, Bretman Rock and Bella Poarch revealed that they’re cousins.
30.
Jameela Jamil’s first “big splurge” was a three-day trip to Paris with her roommate — but she made a surprising fashion choice. She told Elle, “But sadly, at the time, I had agreed for charity to wear a chicken costume for 30 days…For every £1,000 I raised, I was gonna wear a chicken suit for that £1,000. And so, unfortunately, on my first, like, trip to Paris, I had to go dressed fully as a chicken. And they could not be snobbier. Like, they couldn’t be, like, less up for a chicken suit in, like Paris.”
31.
Olivia Munn was born in the US, but she spent the majority of her childhood and teen years in Tokyo because she was in a military family. She told Rogue Magazine, “I was there from age 8 to about 16. The hardest thing for me was going from Japan to Oklahoma. I was so used to my life. In Japan, we lived on a military base, but I spent my youth running around the streets of Tokyo with my brothers and sisters and friends, from Roppongi to Harajuku.”
32.
Bella Hadid is actually a natural blonde, but she dyed her hair brunette, partially to separate herself from her famous sister, Gigi. In 2016, she told Allure, “I just have a darker personality. And my sister being blonde and me being brunette, it’s a good separation. I put a blonde wig on and think it would be fun to go back, but I’m happy with my hair. Blondes are so angelic. My sister can get away with anything.”
However, Bella has gone back to blonde on multiple occassions.
33.
Dev Patel’s film Monkey Man was largely filmed on an island in Indonesia with the crew in a “bubble” during the pandemic. Such a location challenged him to do a lot of creative problem solving, such as occasionally using GoPros and his cellphone to film. He also attached a camera to a rope to swing it over a crowd. On the day he used the rope, a studio exec was visiting set, so Dev tasked Jomon Thomas, his producing partner, with distracting him. Dev told Rolling Stone, “[It] wasn’t something that I think that person would have signed off on.”
34.
Accepting the role of Eliza Schuyler in Hamilton led Phillipa Soo to meet her husband, Steven Pasquale. He’s close friends with Hamilton writer Lin-Manuel Miranda. Phillippa met Steven while in rehearsals for the musical. They got married in 2017.
35.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was born in the US, but, as a kid, he lived in New Zealand alongside his mom’s family, where he attended primary school and played rugby. He also reportedly got dual Canadian citizenship in 2009 through his dad, who’s from Nova Scotia.
36.
When Ali Wong first moved to New York City to pursue a stand-up comedy career, she regularly performed up to NINE TIMES in a single night. Between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m., she’d do her set, head to the next venue, then repeat.
37.
Hayley Kiyoko’s parents have really interesting jobs! Her mom, Sarah Kawahara, is a figure skater-turned-ice skating choreographer. She won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Choreography – the first in 1997 for Scott Hamilton: Upside Down, and the second in 2002 for the Opening Ceremony of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. She was also Margot Robbie’s skating coach for I, Tonya. Hayley’s dad, Jamie Alcroft, is an actor/comedian who was one-half of the comedy duo Mack & Jamie. He’s also known for his voice acting works in video games, TV, and movies.
38.
On Call Her Daddy, Zayn Malik said he has “a lot of animals” — three turtles, six chickens, three cats, and three dogs. He also said that he adopted the first chickens he had to rescue them from being slaughtered.
39.
When Barbie made Fifth Harmony dolls, Dinah Jane’s doll was the first modern Polynesian Barbie. On the Real Gems With Erin Ashley Simon podcast, she said, “All my first cousins, all my girl cousins, were like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have a Dinah Jane Barbie. I wanna be Dinah!’ And just hearing that made me so proud to be Tongan, just to be an Islander. I knew it wasn’t just me, but other younger Islander girls who were proud to be like, ‘That’s me.’ Just to see that for myself and hear it for myself, it made me realize, ‘Damn. I definitely have responsibility here, and I’m sticking to it.'”
40.
And finally, despite being allergic to cats, Auli’i Cravalho has a rescue cat named Rocco, whom she walks on a leash. She told Just Jared Jr., “I take road trips with my cat Rocco. I adopted Rocco from a publicist friend of mine who found him under her house! After nearly a year of him climbing my curtains and eating everything he could (carpet, clothing, shoe strings, plants, paper, etc.), I realized he needed more stimulation and exercise than just the toys at home. Now we go to the park, he walks on a leash, and he travels across state (and international) lines with me! And, most importantly, he sleeps through the night – lol.”
Check out more AAPI-centered content by exploring how BuzzFeed celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! Of course, the content doesn’t end after May. Follow BuzzFeed’s A*Pop on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to keep up with our latest AAPI content year-round.