Asian and Asian-American Actors & Actresses
by kotenzekotenze | created - 23 Jan 2016 | updated - 29 May 2017 | PublicThe list is in no particular order
1. Will Yun Lee
Actor | Altered Carbon
Will Yun Lee was born in Arlington, Virginia, to Jung Ja Lee and Soo Won Lee, who had recently emigrated from Korea. He was raised by both immediate and extended family and moved often, exposed to life on the tough Bronx streets and idyllic Hawaiian beaches. By his teens he was living in the San ...
2. Michelle Yeoh
Actress | Everything Everywhere All at Once
Michelle Yeoh was born in Ipoh, Malaysia. She's the daughter of Janet Yeoh & Kian Teik Yeoh. She's of Hokkien descent, speaking English and Malay before Chinese. A ballet dancer since 4, she moved to London to study at the Royal Academy as a teen. After a brief dance career, she won the Miss ...
3. Jason Scott Lee
Actor | Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
Of Hawaiian and Chinese descent, Jason Scott Lee was born in Los Angeles, California, but raised in Hawaii from the age of two. His interest in acting began while studying in high school. It blossomed further when he enrolled in Fullerton College, where he studied under acting coach Sal Romeo. His ...
4. Daniel Wu
Actor | San ging chaat goo si
Daniel Wu, is a renowned Hong Kong- American actor, director, and producer. With a career spanning over twenty five years, Wu has made significant contributions to the Asian film industry, and gained recognition for his roles in martial arts and action films as well as drama, showcasing both his ...
5. Lucy Liu
Actress | Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Born to immigrants in New York City, Lucy Liu has always tried to balance an interest in her cultural heritage with a desire to move beyond a strictly Asian-American experience. Her mother, Cecilia, a biochemist, is from Beijing & her father, Tom Liu, a civil engineer, is from Shanghai. Once ...
6. Maggie Q
Actress | Divergent
Margaret Denise Quigley was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to a father of Polish and Irish descent (originally based in New York) and a Vietnamese mother. Her parents met during the Vietnam War. Maggie has two older half-siblings from her mother's previous marriage, and two older sisters. The family ...
7. John Cho
Actor | Star Trek
John Yohan Cho was born in Seoul, South Korea, and moved to Los Angeles, California as a child. His father was a Christian minister. Cho was educated at Herbert Hoover High School at Glendale, before moving on to the University of California at Berkeley, where he studied English literature. Upon ...
8. Sandra Oh
Actress | Killing Eve
Sandra Oh was born to Korean parents in the Ottawa suburb of Nepean, Ontario, Canada. Her father, Oh Junsu, a businessman, and her mother, Oh Young-Nam, a biochemist, were married in Seoul, Korea. They both attended graduate school at the University of Toronto. Sandra began her career as a ballet ...
9. Ken Jeong
Actor | The Hangover
Ken Jeong is an American actor, comedian, and physician. He is known for his roles as Ben Chang on the critically acclaimed NBC/Yahoo! sitcom Community (2009) and gangster Leslie Chow in The Hangover (2009) Trilogy. He appeared in Michael Bay's Pain & Gain (2013), as Johnny Wu, a motivational ...
10. BD Wong
Actor | Jurassic Park
BD Wong was born and raised in San Francisco, California. He made his Broadway debut in "M. Butterfly." He is the only actor to be honored with the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Clarence Derwent Award, and Theater World Award for the same performance. He starred in the ...
11. Sung Kang
Actor | Furious 6
Sung-Ho Kang is a Korean-American actor and producer from Clarkston, Georgia who is widely known for playing Han Lue from the Fast & Furious series of films and Better Luck Tomorrow. He also acted in Raya and the Last Dragon, Pearl Harbor, Ninja Assassin and Obi-Wan Kenobi. He is married to Miki ...
12. Ki Hong Lee
Actor | The Maze Runner
Ki Hong Lee was born on September 30, 1986 in Seoul, South Korea. He is an actor and writer, known for The Maze Runner (2014), Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) and Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018). He has been married to Ha Young Choi since March 7, 2015.
13. BoA
Actress | BoA: No.1
Kwon Boa, commonly stylized and known by her stage name BoA, which is a backronym for Beat of Angel, is a South Korean singer and actress active in South Korea, Japan, and the United States. She is referred to as the Queen of Korean Pop.
BoA was born and raised in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. She was ...
14. Dev Patel
Actor | Slumdog Millionaire
Dev Patel was born in Harrow, London, to Anita, a caregiver, and Raj Patel, who works in IT. His parents, originally from Nairobi, Kenya, are both of Gujarati Indian descent. His first role was in the UK TV series Skins (2007). His breakout role was in the Oscar winning film Slumdog Millionaire (...
15. Priyanka Chopra Jonas
Actress | Barfi!
Priyanka Chopra Jonas (née Chopra) was born on July 18, 1982 in Jamshedpur, India, to the family of Capt. Dr. Ashok Chopra and Dr. Madhu Chopra, both Indian Army physicians. She had a very varied upbringing. She started her education at La Martinière Girls College in Lucknow as a resident student; ...
16. Vincent Rodriguez III
Actor | Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Vincent Rodriguez III was born on August 10, 1982 in San Francisco, California, USA. He is an actor, known for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015), Mortal Kombat 1 (2023) and Raya and the Last Dragon (2021). He has been married to Gregory Wright since August 2015.
17. Takeshi Kaneshiro
Actor | Shi mian mai fu
The 1/2 Taiwanese and 1/2 Japanese Takeshi Kaneshiro may have started out as a puerile teen idol in the Chinese entertainment scene, but he's since become a proper film star in his own right. Whether by his own design or not, the boyishness that marked his first steps into showbiz has evolved into ...
18. Jackie Chan
Actor | Ngo si seoi
Hong Kong's cheeky, lovable and best-known film star, Jackie Chan endured many years of long, hard work and multiple injuries to establish international success after his start in Hong Kong's manic martial arts cinema industry.
Jackie was born Kong-sang Chan on April 7, 1954, on Hong Kong's famous ...
19. Salman Khan
Actor | Sultan
Abdul Rashid Salim Salman Khan was born on December 27, 1965, in Mumbai to legendary screenwriter Salim Khan, who penned many super-hits in the yesteryear's like Sholay (1975), Deewaar (1975), and Don (1978). Khan started his acting career by doing a supporting role in the movie Biwi Ho To Aisi (...
20. Godfrey Gao
Actor | The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
Godfrey Gao was born on September 22, 1984 in Taiwan. He was an actor, known for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013), The Jade Pendant (2017) and Toy Story 3 (2010). He died on November 27, 2019 in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China.
21. Lee Byung-hun
Actor | Dalkomhan insaeng
Lee Byung-hun was born in 1970 in Seoul, South Korea, and grew up in a wealthy family, thanks to his father, who was a successful businessman. He never dreamed of pursuing acting until a friend of his mother's suggested it. He auditioned for the KBS television network in 1991 and was accepted. His ...
22. Lee Min-ho
Actor | Kkotboda namja
Lee Minho is one of South Korea's most influential artists. He is an actor, producer, and creative director. With a combined 95 million social media followers on Instagram, Facebook and Weibo, he has a remarkable global reach. The Korean government's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has ...
23. Akshay Kumar
Actor | Hera Pheri
Rajiv Hari "Akshay Kumar" Om Bhatia was born on September 09, 1967, in Amritsar, Punjab to Aruna Bhatia and Hari Om Bhatia. He is an Indian actor, film producer, former model, and television personality. He went to Bangkok to learn how to use a sword and also worked as a waiter in a restaurant. He ...
24. Dennis Oh
Actor | The Good Doctor
Dennis Oh was born on August 29, 1981 in the USA. He is an actor, known for The Good Doctor (2017), Big Shot (2021) and Get Christie Love (2018).
25. Daniel Henney
Actor | Big Hero 6
Daniel Henney was born on November 28, 1979 in Carson City, Michigan, USA. He is an actor, known for Big Hero 6 (2014), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and The Last Stand (2013).
26. Nan Xing Li
Actor | C.L.I.F.
Nan Xing Li was born on November 7, 1964 in Singapore. He is an actor and producer, known for C.L.I.F. (2011), The Ultimate Winner (2011) and The Tutor II: League of Kings (2018). He was previously married to Emily Yeo.
27. Chow Yun-Fat
Actor | Wo hu cang long
Chow Yun Fat is a charismatic, athletically built and energetic Asian-born film star who first came to the attention of western audiences via his roles in the high-octane/blazing guns action films of maverick HK director John Woo.
Chow was born in 1955 on the quiet island of Lamma, part of the ...
28. Kelly Hu
Actress | The Scorpion King
On February 13th, 1968, a girl of Chinese, English, and Hawaiian ancestry was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her father, Herbert, was a salesman and her mother, Juanita, worked many odd jobs to help support the family. She has one older brother, Glenn. She is a former Miss Teen USA, and modeled in Japan...
29. Margaret Cho
Producer | Margaret Cho: PsyCHO
Margaret Cho was born on December 5, 1968 in San Francisco. Her grandfather was a Methodist minister who ran an orphanage in Seoul during the Korean War. Ignoring the traditions of her patriarchal culture, her mother bravely resisted an arranged marriage in Korea & married Margaret's father, who ...
30. Anna May Wong
Actress | The Toll of the Sea
Anna May Wong, the first Chinese-American movie star, was born Wong Liu Tsong on January 3, 1905, in Los Angeles, California, to laundryman Wong Sam Sing and his wife, Lee Gon Toy. A third-generation American, she managed to have a substantial acting career during a deeply racist time when the ...
31. Julia Ling
Actress | Tactical Girl
Most widely known for her work on prime time television on shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, House (FOX), ER, Grey's Anatomy, The OC, 8 Simple Rules (Disney), The Deep End (ABC), the critically acclaimed Aaron Sorkin series, Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip (NBC), Julia Ling starred as the popular "...
32. Joan Chen
Actress | Judge Dredd
Born into a family of doctors and educated in China at the Shanghai Film Academy and the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Languages, Joan Chen was discovered by veteran Chinese director Jin Xie while observing a filming with a school group. Her performance in Xiao hua (1979) (A.K.A. "The Little Flower...
33. Lynn Chen
Actress | Grey's Anatomy
At the age of five, Lynn Chen began singing on the stage of The Metropolitan Opera House. She has been performing ever since. Her feature film debut was in Sony Pictures Classics' Saving Face, a role that won her the title of "Outstanding Newcomer" at the 2006 AXAwards. She has been a fixture on ...
34. Keiko Agena
Actress | Prodigal Son
Keiko Agena was born on October 3, 1973 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. She is an actress, known for Prodigal Son (2019), Gilmore Girls (2000) and Better Call Saul (2015). She has been married to Shin Kawasaki since December 19, 2005.
35. Tamlyn Tomita
Actress | The Day After Tomorrow
Tamlyn Tomita was born on January 27, 1966 in Okinawa, Japan. She is an actress and writer, known for The Day After Tomorrow (2004), The Karate Kid Part II (1986) and The Eye (2008). She is married to Daniel Blinkoff.
36. Elizabeth Sung
Actress | Tango & Cash
Raised in Hong Kong, Elizabeth Sung is fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin. She holds a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School and was a member of The Alvin Ailey Dance Company. Elizabeth studied acting with Sanford Meisner and Milton Katselas. She was in the Directing Workshop for Women at the ...
38. Constance Wu
Actress | Crazy Rich Asians
Constance Wu was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. Her mother is a computer programmer and her father is a college professor. Both are immigrants from Taiwan. Constance grew up in Richmond performing in the local community theater scene. At 16, she moved to New York City to study at the famed ...
39. Melise
Actress | The Shannara Chronicles
Malese Jow, originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, has developed into an actress, songstress, and entertainer.
Malese began her acting career in 1999 with McDonald's commercials when the head of advertising heard her sing and booked her in several spots and jingles. Then in 2002, at the ripe age of 11, ...
40. Jamie Chung
Actress | Big Hero 6
Jamie Chung was born and raised in California, the daughter of Korean parents. She studied Economics at the University of California, Riverside. Chung's break came in 2004, when she was working in a sports bar. MTV held auditions for The Real World (1992) there, she tried out, and was successful, ...
41. Li Jun Li
Actress | Babylon
Li Jun Li was born in Shanghai and at the age of six, moved to Bogotá, Colombia where Spanish became her second language. She then relocated to New York City, where she attended Fiorello LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts as a Dance major. This is where she discovered her ...
42. Rila Fukushima
Actress | The Wolverine
Rila Fukushima is known for The Wolverine (2013), Ghost in the Shell (2017) and Arrow (2012).
43. Arden Cho
Actress | Teen Wolf
Arden Cho was born on August 16, 1985 in Amarillo, Texas, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Teen Wolf (2011), Chicago Med (2015) and The Honor List (2018).
44. Bae Doona
Actress | Cloud Atlas
Doona Bae was born in Seoul, South Korea. Her mother, Hwa-Young Kim, is a stage actress. Bae started out as a model. She soon moved to T.V. and movies, and it proved the right move. Her first movie was The Ring Virus (1999). Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000) (aka "Barking Dogs Never Bite") and Take ...
45. Christina Chong
Actress | Johnny English Reborn
Christina Chong is an international television and film actress who stars in the CBS series "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" as series regular 'La'an Noonien-Singh,' alongside Anson Mount and Rebecca Romijn. The series expanded on the iconic franchise, with six new crew members on the USS Enterprise...
46. Pisay Pao
Actress | Velvet Buzzsaw
Pisay Pao is a Cambodian American actress best known for playing Cassandra on the Syfy series "Z Nation." She was born in Thailand after her parents escaped Cambodia at the end of their country's civil war. Pisay's family were eventually sponsored to the US and settled in Seattle, Washington. Here,...
47. Tao Okamoto
Actress | The Wolverine
Tao Okamoto born in Chiba, Japan on May 22, 1985, known professionally as Tao, is a Japanese actress and model. In 2009, she was one of the faces of Ralph Lauren. She made her film debut in 2013 as Mariko Yashida, the female lead, in The Wolverine (2013). She also had recurring roles in the ...
48. Bingbing Fan
Actress | X-Men: Days of Future Past
Bingbing Fan was born 16 September 1981. She is a Chinese actress, television producer and pop singer.
Fan rose to fame in Asia in 1998-1999 with the mega-hit TV series My Fair Princess. In 2003, she starred in Cell Phone, which became the highest-grossing Chinese film of the year, winning a Hundred...
49. Ziyi Zhang
Actress | Yi dai zong shi
Ziyi Zhang is a Chinese actress and model. She is best known for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Rush Hour 2 (2001), Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004), and Memoirs of a Geisha (2005).
She made her feature film debut in The Road Home (1999).
For her work in Memoirs of a Geisha she was...
50. Ashley Park
Actress | Rosewood
Ashley Park is an actress and producer in Los Angeles. She has worked on shows for FOX, ABC, NBC, Netflix, Amazon and PopTV, to name a few. Ashley is the producer of the award-winning film Surviving Theater 9 (Official Tribeca Film Festival Selection). She is also an MBA graduate and recipient of ...
51. Liza Lapira
Actress | 21
Liza Lapira is a film, television, and theater actress. She was raised in Queens, N.Y. In New York, she acted on stage and in independent films. She moved to Los Angeles to pursue work in television. Her first theatrical film appearance was in the romantic drama Autumn in New York and since then ...
52. Danni Wang
Actress | The Morning Show
Danni Wang was born in Shenyang, China. She is known for The Morning Show (2019), Magnum P.I. (2018) and Strange Angel (2018).
53. Randall Park
Actor | WandaVision
Randall Park is an American actor, comedian, writer, and director. He was born in Los Angeles, California, to Korean parents, and graduated from the Humanities Magnet Program at Hamilton High School. Park went on to receive a Bachelor's degree in English and Creative Writing and a Master's degree ...
54. Grace Huang
Actress | The Man with the Iron Fists
With 14 feature films and 6 television series to her name, Grace represents the best of East meets West. Fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese, Grace has acted in all three languages on screen in award winning films and blockbusters in the Asia Pacific region and was honored with the Best ...
55. Ami Haruna
Actress | Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Ami Haruna was born on October 25, 1984 in Tokyo, Japan. She is an actress, known for Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011), The Last Man Standing (2010) and Swipe Left (2018).
56. Claudia Kim
Actress | Avengers: Age of Ultron
Claudia Kim, is a South Korean actress and model. She has appeared in the television series Queen of the Game (2006-2007) and Marco Polo (2014-2016), as well as the films Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), The Dark Tower (2017), and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018).
57. Jessika Van
Actress | Seoul Searching
Jessika Van started in music as a classically-trained pianist and singer. As a child, she won dance competition titles and music awards that led to her performing for local Philharmonic Society events and the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson.
As an actress, Jessika broke onto the Hollywood scene in ...
58. Rinko Kikuchi
Actress | Babel
Rinko was born Kikuchi Yuriko in Hadano just south of Tokyo. The town is known mainly for its green tea and public baths. She is the youngest of three siblings. After being scouted on the street, she began modeling in her hometown and subsequently began acting under her birth name before switching ...
59. Shiva Negar
Actress | American Assassin
Shiva Negar is a Canadian Actress, Model, and Producer, who rose to prominence starring as Annika Ogden in CBS Films/Lionsgate Blockbuster Movie "American Assassin" and made the short list of Variety Magazine's "10 Canadians to watch".
Shiva can be seen on numerous Films and Network Television shows...
60. Becktoria
Actress | Westworld
Becktoria is a singer, songwriter and actress whose hometown is in London, England.
Having the ability to sing before she could walk she found herself on stage at her 1st birthday. This early interest turned into a passion and led to her classical training at the age of 11. From there, she went on ...
61. Teresa Daley
Actress | Transformers: Age of Extinction
Teresa Daley was born on June 1, 1989 in the USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014), Days We Stared at the Sun (2010) and Sweet Relationship (2007).
62. Mindy Kaling
Actress | The Office
Vera Mindy Chokalingam is an Indian-American actress, comedienne, producer, writer and director from Cambridge, Massachusetts known for playing Kelly Kapoor from The Office, Disgust from Inside Out and creating The Mindy Project. She also acted in Wreck-It Ralph, Despicable Me, The 40-Year-Old ...
63. Gemma Chan
Actress | The Creator
Gemma Chan (born 29 November 1982) is a British film, television, and theatre actress and former fashion model. She played Charlotte in season four of the Showtime and ITV2 series Secret Diary of a Call Girl (2007); Ruth in Channel 4's Fresh Meat (2011); Mia Bennett in Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars...
64. Michelle Ang
Actress | Fear the Walking Dead
Michelle is well known around the world from her early work as a regular cast member on the Australian show "Neighbours" and the hit teen shows "The Tribe" and "Underemployed".
Emmy-nominated for her role of Alex in "Fear the Walking Dead; Flight 462", she won "Best Actress in A Feature Film" at the...
65. Ally Maki
Actress | Toy Story 4
Born in Seattle, Washington, Ally Maki moved to Los Angeles when she was 14 after being scouted by a talent agent. Upon her arrival in L.A., she was signed to Columbia Records in the all-girl band "The Valli Girls". In 2009, Maki was cast as "Dawn" on the ABC Family series "10 Things I Hate About ...
66. Jessica Lu
Actress | Awkward.
Jessica Lu was born and raised in a northwest suburb of Chicago, Illinois, to artistic parents who grew up in more practical times. Her parents are from South Korea, with her father being Chinese and Japanese, and her mother being Chinese. They speak English, Mandarin and Korean at home. Despite ...
67. Nicole Bonifacio
Actress | Wolves
Nicole Bonifacio was born in the East Bay Area, California to Araceli Bonifacio (Mendoza) and Noel Bonifacio, both from Pampanga, Philippines. Bonifacio is of Filipino descent, and grew up with two brothers, Collen and Nealen.
As a kid, Bonifacio loved music and pursued her act as a singer, ...
68. Celina Jade
Actress | The Man with the Iron Fists
Celina Horan, professionally known as Celina Jade, is a Chinese American actress, model, singer/songwriter and martial artist most known for her work as "Shado" in the CW series Arrow. Jade's acting career started in Hong Kong in 2007. She was cast as the leading lady in her first film, Legendary ...
69. Sumire
Actress | The Shack
Sumire Matsubara, better known for her stage name Sumire, is a Japanese actress, singer and fashion model known for The Shack (2017). She was born on July 15, 1990 and is the daughter of entertainers Junichi Ishida and Chiaki Matsubara. Sumire attended Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii and ...
70. Ran Wei
Actress | Learning English
Ran Wei is an American actress and fashion model. She was born in China and moved to California as a teenager and started an acting and modeling career after being discovered while working in a clothing store in San Francisco. Her career quickly took off with international campaigns for Apple which...
71. Kimiko Glenn
Actress | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Kimiko Elizabeth Glenn was born and raised in Phoenix, AZ, where she grew up with her sister Amanda, and parents Mark and Sumiko. She started doing theater when she was ten years old at Valley Youth Theatre and there, began developing her love for performing.
Halfway through her freshman year of ...
72. Tang Wei
Actress | Se, jie
Tang Wei was born on October 7, 1979 in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. She is an actress, known for Lust, Caution (2007), Decision to Leave (2022) and Blackhat (2015). She has been married to Kim Tae-yong since July 12, 2014. They have one child.
73. Anna Akana
Actress | Jupiter's Legacy
Anna Akana was born on August 18, 1989 in Monterey, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Jupiter's Legacy (2021), Let It Snow (2019) and Ant-Man (2015).
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