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Tara Erica Moore is of East Indian and English descent. She had a multi-continental upbringing - born in South Africa and raised bouncing between a transitional post-apartheid South Africa and a small college town in Connecticut. In addition, she has lived in Korea, Singapore, and France. She comes from a family of academics, her parents are Professors of Economics and Political Science. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a BA in Psychology and holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson.- Actress
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Tang Wei was born on 7 October 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 12 July 2014. They have one child.- Pom Klementieff (born 3 May 1986) is a French actress. She was trained at the Cours Florent drama school in Paris and has appeared in such films as Loup (2009), Sleepless Night (2011) and Hacker's Game (2015). She plays the role of Mantis in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
Pom Klementieff was born in Quebec City, Canada, to a Korean mother and French-Russian father, who was working there as a consul with the French government. Her grandfather was painter Eugène Klementieff. Her parents chose the name "Pom" because it is similar in pronunciation to the Korean words for both "spring" and "tiger". Klementieff lived in Canada for one year before her family traveled extensively due to her father's job. They lived in Japan and the Ivory Coast, before settling in France.
Klementieff's father died of cancer when she was 5, and her mother had schizophrenia and was unable to care for children, so Klementieff was raised by her paternal uncle and aunt. Her uncle, whom she described as "like [her] second father", died on her 18th birthday, and her older brother committed suicide just seven years later, this time on her 25th birthday. Klementieff briefly attended law school after her uncle's death to appease her aunt but did not find the career path appealing. She also worked as a waitress and saleswoman in France. She started acting at age 19 at the Cours Florent drama school in Paris. A few months into her education, she won a theater competition that awarded her free classes for two years with the school's top teachers.
Klementieff's first professional acting job was the French independent film Après lui (2007), portraying the stepdaughter of the protagonist played by Catherine Deneuve. Filming for her scenes took three days. During one scene, Klementieff was supposed to push someone down a set of stairs but accidentally fell down the stairs herself, and director Gaël Morel kept that shot in the final film. Her first leading role was in Loup (2009), a French film about a tribe of reindeer herders in the Siberian mountains. During filming, Klementieff stayed in a camp, hours from the nearest village, where temperatures dropped well below zero. During filming she befriended nomads who lived there, worked with real wolves, rode reindeer, and swam with a horse in a lake.
Klementieff made her Hollywood debut in Spike Lee's Oldboy (2013), a remake of the South Korean film of the same name. She portrayed Haeng-Bok, the bodyguard of the antagonist played by Sharlto Copley. A fan of the original film, Klementieff heard about the part through Roy Lee, a producer with the remake, and took boxing lessons after learning the role involved martial arts. After showcasing her boxing skills during her audition, Lee asked her to go home and come back wearing a more feminine outfit and make-up, like her character in the film. She contributed some of her own clothes to the character's wardrobe, and trained three hours a day for two months for an on-screen fight with star Josh Brolin. Klementieff came up with the name Haeng-Bok, Korean for "happiness", herself after Lee asked her to research possible names for the character.
Klementieff moved to Los Angeles after Oldboy was filmed and began pursuing more Hollywood auditions. She continued taekwondo after the film, and has a purple belt as of the summer of 2014. Her next acting role was the film Hacker's Game (2015), in which she plays a hacker she compared to Lisbeth Salander from the novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Klementieff used her boxing skills again in the film, and due to the movie's low budget, she had to do her own make-up and choose her own wardrobe. It was her idea to dye her hair purple for the role, to which the directors first objected but later acquiesced. She joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the role of Mantis in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) and appeared in the same role in the film Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). - Actress
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Camille Chen was born on 1 September 1979 in Taipei, Taiwan. She is an actress and producer, known for Game Night (2018), Spy Kids 3: Game Over (2003) and Renfield (2023). She has been married to Christian Anderson since 4 March 2017.- Actress
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Drea Castro was born in the Philippines. She is an actress and director, known for Act of Valor (2012), Paulina (2012) and I Think I Love My Wife (2007).- Actress
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Kim Hye-Soo is a South Korean actress and one of the most popular teen stars of the 1980s and 1990s. She is known for her headstrong independence and regularly playing strong-willed, sophisticated women. During the height of her fame, Kim was referred to as the "Pencil Board Star" of the 1980s due to the popularity of pencil boards printed with her image. She has also been named a part of the "Troika of the 1990s" in Korea along with her contemporaries Kim Hee-Sun and Shim Eun-Ha for their nationwide fame. In 1993, Kim led the main role in the film First Love and gained critical acclaim for her portrayal of the archetypal innocent girl, winning a Blue Dragon Film Award for Best Leading Actress and earning her the title "Nation's First Love" although the film was a box-office failure.
n 1985, Kim was featured in a commercial for Nestlé Milo and as well as the first K-pop music video, Cho Yong-Pil's title song Empty In The Air. In 1986, Kim made her film debut on Kambo when she was a first-year high school student. She also won Best New Actress for Kambo at the 23rd Baeksang Arts Awards. Kim went on to play the leading roles in the television series Samogok (1987), Sun Shim-Yi (1988), and Senoya (1989). She co-starred with Roh Joo-Hyun in When The Flowers Bloom And The Birds Cry (1990). In 1991, she landed the main role in Lost Love.
Over two decades, she amassed a massive filmography of leading and supporting roles, notably in the television series Did We Really Love? with Bae Yong-Joon and Revenge and Passion with Ahn Jae-Wook, as well as the film Tie a Yellow Ribbon (1998). In the 2000s, Kim focused more on her career in film rather than television, featuring in Kick the Moon, YMCA Baseball Team, and Three. At this time, she reinvented her image as a glamorous and confident Femme Fatale in Hypnotized (2004).- Kae Alexander was born on 31 August 1985 in Kobe, Japan. She is an actress, known for Game of Thrones (2011), Fleabag (2016) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019).
- Raised by Theatre and now adopted indefinitely by Film/Television/Commercial, Josephine brings her dark matter woven skills pouch to every project, happily striving to please and grow. Skills pouch include: Language chip in Mandarin, Cantonese, and basic Japanese. Dance data in Ballroom, Argentine Tango, and Bellydance. Mezzo-soprano voice box. Tunable biotech in emotional expressions, compartments for tears, and an extra box of smiles.
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Misa Shimizu was born on 25 September 1970 in Tokyo, Japan. She is an actress, known for Okoge (1992), Mirai no omoide: Last Christmas (1992) and Sumo Do, Sumo Don't (1992). She has been married to Charles Bulkley since 26 November 1998. They have two children.- Actress
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Michelle Krusiec is an award winning Taiwanese American director, writer and actor whose lengthy career has proven to be a versatile and influential presence in the industry. Michelle writes and directs in genre, weaving in personal narrative and comedy. She's an alumnae of the AFI Directing Workshop for Women. Her work has screened at top genre, Canadian and US Academy Qualifying festivals: Fantasia, Beyondfest, Brussels Fantastic, Calgary, Palm Springs, Hawaii FF, LAAPFF, among many others.
Michelle's short film NIAN was commissioned for Hulu's Bite Size Halloween. Nian's awards include Best Midnight Short at Palm Springs, Mark Braunstein Maverick Nomination at Woodstock, Young Audience Award at Court Metranges, Honorable Mention at Female Eye. Michelle is attached to write and direct NIAN as a feature for Worthen/Brooks formerly 20th Digital Studio.
Krusiec's work as an actress and advocate for API causes has been honored by The White House, State of California and Museum of Chinese America.- Actress
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Steffinnie Phrommany was born on 2 October 1978 in Laos. She is an actress and costume designer, known for Maniac (2012), Teeth and Blood (2015) and Superman Unplugged (2006). She is married to Ryan Postas.- Actress
- Costume Designer
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Lovely, slender, and sensuous raven-haired knockout Laurette Marcia Gemser was born on October 5, 1950 in Java, Indonesia. In 1955 Gemser left Indonesia at age four and moved with her parents to the Netherlands. Laura grew up in the Dutch city of Utrecht and attended Mulo Regentesseschool high school. She studied fashion design at the Artibus Art School in Utrecht. Gemser first gained public recognition with her nude modeling in various men's magazines in Belgium and the Netherlands. The exotic dark-haired beauty moved to Italy in the mid-1970's and made her film debut as Janine in the obscure Amore libero - Free Love (1974). However, it was Laura's small, but memorable role as a masseuse in Emmanuelle II (1975) that really launched her career in racy soft-core exploitation fare. Gemser achieved her greatest enduring international cult popularity with her incredibly erotic and uninhibited portrayals of the titular hedonistic and sexually adventurous globe-trotting photojournalist in the steamy "Black Emanuelle" series that were often directed by the notorious Joe D'Amato and frequently co-starred Gemser's real-life actor husband Gabriele Tinti. Other notable parts include charismatic cult leader the Divine One in Divine Emanuelle (1981), evil sorceress Indun in Ator, the Fighting Eagle (1982), and compassionate mutant telepath Lilith in Endgame - Bronx lotta finale (1983). Outside of acting, Laura also worked on a handful of movies as a costume designer. Gemser quit the motion picture business in the early 1990's and still lives in Italy.- Actress
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Shelby Rabara was born on 5 October 1983 in Orange County, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Goliath (2016), Steven Universe (2013) and 17 Again (2009). She has been married to Harry Shum Jr. since 22 November 2015. They have one child.- Actress
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Karen Ann "Karencitta" Cabrera A.K.A. Karedad is an actress, recording musician, lyricist and internet sensation hailing from Cebu City, Philippines and is now based in Los Angeles, California signed to Capitol Records. Only July 22, 2018, she was the Judge of Miss Philippines U.S.A. 2018.
She established her hit-maker credentials in November of 2017 with a Sinulog Electronic-Dance-Pop smash hit "Cebuana" (Top 1 Most Viral Music on Spotify) on November 27th, 2017 and music video had more than one million views in twenty-four hours.
Born on October 5th, 1995, she exhibited a certain star quality as a young child, often winning beauty and talent contests. At four years old, she made her first live television appearance on Little Miss Philippines, Eat Bulaga (G.M.A.) and was a Grand Finalist as Little Miss Friendship 2000. After releasing her first mix-tape "So Help Me God Vol. 1" in 2014, the Hip-Hop community began to recognize her as Abra's only Femcee during his Grand Concert, ABRA2013. She joined the ABRA2013 Tour with LDP, Loonie, Ron Henley, Mike Swift, J- Hon, and many more.
In 2015, she landed her leading role in Omri Dorani's "Funny Man" which is her feature film debut. In November of 2016, she uploaded short-form comedy skits on Facebook and was an instant internet sensation. She now has over 5,000,000 views from short-form comedy skits. She has over 700,000 internet followers.
Scheduled to film a movie in the Philippines called 'Indak' with co-stars Yassi Pressman and Ella Cruz in Summer 2018.
ENDORSEMENTS: Globe, Pepsi, and Sheena Beaute Centre.- Lydia Lei was born on 15 October 1952 in the USA. She is an actress, known for Vice Squad (1982), Hammett (1982) and Cannonball Run II (1984).
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Joy made her feature film debut in a movie called, what else, The Debut. The film is one of the first Filipino American stories to be told on the big screen and was filmed in 1997. In the movie she plays Annabelle Manalo, the love interest to Dante Basco's Ben. Joy enjoyed working opposite Dante, because Dante is an inspiration to Filipino Americans, and she knows Dante's earlier work in Hook. Joy was in a club promoting for a friend, that's where the casting people found her for The Debut. After the Debut, she had a small role in Ghost World as part of 3 rappers at the high school graduation early in the film (she played the Asian rapper Jade). She was then cast in 2001 as Ashley in Not Another Teen Movie, a parody of various teen movies from the 80s/90s/2000. Her role of Ashley is a parody of the Asian cheerleader in Bring It On played by Nicole Bilderback. Joy then decided to try television and she was cast as Casey Leong(a ghost character who returned) in the General Hospital spin off Port Charles. She then played Casey's twin sister Marisa. This time this role was permanent and she was featured in the opening credits. Joy then played Casey again for while before the show got canceled. Joy did the narration of the amateur independent movie called Lumpia. This was made in 1996 before The Debut.- Jennifer L. Yen was born on 15 October 1975. She is an actress, known for Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue (2000), Power Rangers Time Force (2001) and Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue - Titanium Ranger: Curse of the Cobra (2000).
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Stephy Tang was born on 15 October 1983 in Hong Kong, China. She is an actress, known for The Empty Hands (2017), My Prince Edward (2019) and Twelve Days (2021).- Actress
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Michaela Dietz is an actress, singer and voice actress whose professional career started in 2005. She is known for playing the role of Riff on the PBS children's television series Barney & Friends, the voice of Amethyst on the Cartoon Network television series Steven Universe and as the voice of Danelda on the Cartoon Network series Mighty Magiswords.- Actress
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Danube Hermosillo is a television, feature film, commercial, and voice-over actress based in Los Angeles, CA. She has booked a variety of leading and supporting roles in network television, studio feature films, and more. Notable highlights of her career include a memorable guest appearance on the Netflix hit series "Julie and the Phantoms" and her role as Darlita on the long-running CBS soap opera "The Bold and the Beautiful." She delivered a standout performance in the film "Everything, Everything" as Rosa. Recently, she garnered acclaim for her portrayal of Pepa Delgado in the critically acclaimed Showtime Networks series "Shameless." Hermosillo is filming the highly anticipated feature film "Atypical Pirate," starring alongside Mira Sorvino and Joseph Sikora.- Actress
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Annie Lee was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She first got the acting bug at the age of 9 and studied at UCLA's Young Performer's Workshop. During high school she worked to pursue the medical field, but fate let her back to entertainment and she was scouted to do some modeling, print work, runway, commercials, and music videos. During college she found her love for performing again through Children's Theatre and eventually trained with renowned acting coaches in Hollywood such as Brian Reise, David Kagen, Catlin Adams, and Doug Warhit.
Graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from UCLA, she began tackling the production & distribution end of Entertainment through companies like First Look Pictures, and working with producers such as Doug Claybourne (North Country, The Fast and the Furious) while pursuing acting.
Annie can currently be seen starring in a Christian Film titled, "Rose of Sharon," directed by Elliot Hong. Beautiful scenery from Israel, the Holy Land, was captured in this heartfelt story. It is to be released in April 2006 in Korea & later in the US. Her feature film debut was in "Close Call," which was released in the US April 2004.
As a filmmaker, she produced a short film titled Tomato and Eggs (2002), directed by Shawn Chou starring Lisa Lu (The Joy Luck Club), Michelle Krusiec (HBO's Mind of a Married Man), Keiko Agena (WB's Gilmore Girls), and Sab Shimono (The Big Hit), which won the Audience Award for Best Asian-American Short Film at the Big Bear Film Festival.
Her recent endeavors include acting, producing and keeping busy with involvement in many independent projects. She has coached children at the LA Performing Arts Center for children, volunteered at the Korean Youth Community Center with the Teen Theatre department, and is a member of the award-winning Lodestone Theatre Ensemble. As an entrepreneur she also owns a retail clothing store named CHIC Collection. Ms. Lee continues to study the craft of acting & filmmaking. With a strong passion for films, she is aspiring to be a producer and director.- Actress
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Starting out as a commercial model in tropical Singapore, Jilly Tan has made a living as a professional performer since 1999, carving out a career in Singapore television, the main media in her local industry. Besides a multitude of lead episodic, guest and recurring roles on all the local network channels, she has also landed series regular roles on four different TV dramas and comedies, three in the English language (Channel i's Durian King, Kids Central's Kids Rock, Channel News Asia's Bertha's Nest) and one in Mandarin (Channel U's Hu Jia). Fortunate enough not to be stereotyped as any particular character type or specific Asian race, she has taken on various challenging roles from the start to develop versatility in her craft. Though local feature films are independent and rare, she played lead and supporting roles in three in 2007. Jilly has always supported new ideas and short films as she believes that the industry is ever evolving. Therefore she is also constantly learning and growing as an performer. She can also be seen in local plays and musicals, be it for the literary or corporate stage. Grateful for her stage debut as "Oberon" in Action Theatre's A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by the Dennis Tan, under Krishen Jit's supervision, her stage credits now include Hemang Yadav's Stage, Lionel Chok's Adultery, and Elangovan's Oh!. She has also served as a production manager, writer, youth theatre trainer, host and singer, most often in the genre of jazz. Having worked in and for Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, the USA, and of course Singapore, Jilly now intends to build a respectable acting career all over the world. Full of energy, enthusiasm, positivity, a strong sense of justice, and a corny sense of humor, Jilly relishes in the joy of just being a simple low-maintenance team player in the magical process of storytelling.- Kagurazaka Megumi was born in the southwestern prefecture of Okayama on 28.09.1981. She was a gravure model in 2005, 2006 and 2007. She appeared in the television serial Fantasma in 2004, season two of Keitai Deka Zenigata Kai in 2007 and the school movie Gakko No Kaidan also in 2007. During this period she was the subject of adult photography, magazines and nude photo books. While she remained active in adult and bikini modelling for the next several years it was her appearance in Sono Sion's Cold Fish as a seductive and sexually liberated murderess that set a tone for her. As of this writing she had starred in ten of Sono's movies which, on certain years, consumed her entire professional energy. No wonder that the shapely actress and the risque director married in 2011. Kagurazaka has come to be known for her sexual appeal and attraction and, perhaps coincidentally, has not shied away from taking on avant-garde, offbeat and suggestive roles. She has appeared on stage at TIFF and other festivals and won awards for her work on films like the aforementioned Cold Fish or Guilty Of Pleasure. Kagurazaka was seen on the cover of Kenji Endo's 2014 album Koi No Uta aghaemi.
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At fourteen years old, Q'orianka Kilcher emerged into the front ranks of young actresses with her portrayal of Pocahontas opposite Colin Farrell and Christian Bale in Terrence Malick's 'The New World', an epic about the encounter between English and North American societies in the early 1600s. Her performance won her the National Board of Reviews best breakthrough performance of 2006 and the 2006 Alma Award for best Latin American actress in a feature film, as well as numerous nominations and rave reviews.
Kilcher was born in Schweigmatt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany to a Peruvian indigenous father of Quechua-Huachipaeri background and an Alaskan-born mother of Swiss-German origin. She was raised in Kapa'a, Hawaii. Having started her performing arts career at six years old, she is not only an award-winning actress with critical acclaim, but an amazing singer, lyricist, and expert dancer. Kilcher is also a committed human rights and environmental activist, as well as a fearless, powerful, young force who uses her voice as tool to bring the need for universal dignity, compassion, environmental justice, and basic Human Rights to the attention of the international community.
Traveling frequently to speak at youth events, colleges, and universities, Kilcher has been invited as a featured keynote speaker and workshop facilitator at many international conferences and events for organizations such as Amnesty International, the I.F.G. (International Forum on Globalization), and Amazon Watch I.F.I.P. (International Funders for Indigenous Peoples). She was a panelist on the "Indigenous Peoples: Human Rights, Dignity and Development with Identity in collaboration with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples" United Nations panel. She also lends her energy as spokeswoman, collaborator, and supporter to several international and national NGOs.
In her free time, Kilcher is an accomplished singer/song-writer, and recently launched her own youth driven human rights and environmental organization on Q Initiative, heading campaigns to connect young Hollywood with youth-activist leaders and projects from around the world.
Through her production company, IQ-Films, Kilcher is also producing several cause-driven documentaries and youth-programming projects.- Actress
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Angie Chiu became an air stewardess for Japan Airline after graduating from high school in Hong Kong. In 1973 she entered the first Miss Hong Kong Pagent by Hong Kong's TVB, and was the first runner up. This introduced her to the entertainment industry. In the late 70's she was one of the four hottest actresses for TVB. Her works included mostly kung fu TV series opposite Adam Cheng. Then came 'The Bund' (aka Shang Hai Tan or Shanghai Beach) opposite Chow Yun-Fat (1980), where she portrayed Fung Ching Ching, considered her classic role. She also made TV series in Taiwan. Her latest work is Bai Nian Chen Fu in 1997 with mainland China, a TV series that is centered around the return of Hong Kong to China.- Uchida Yuki was born in Tokyo. She attended Fujimura Women's High School and fenced as an activity. Like most Japanese female celebrities she has modelled, acted, sang and represented companies in commercials and advertisements. She began working at age sixteen in 1991 and subsequently skipped finishing school. She began acting in serials and did modelling emphasizing a masculine look with short hair. She would later grow her hair slightly. She had a radio show as well, which lasted until shortly after the turn of the century. Her first single, Tenca Wo Torou!, which also acted as a theme for a serial called Hanjyoku Tamago in which she participated landed at position one in the Japanese charts. There were several concert videos and photo books of her in this period. She began her own acting workshops. She retired upon marriage to fellow actor Hidetaka Yoshioka in 2002. However she returned in 2006 following her 2005 divorce and became active on television again. Mizuno Miki was the mainstay actress in the Odoru Daisosasen TV serials and movies, but was not cast again in 2010. Reports emerged that she was blacklisted after departing Burning Productions in 2005, which is yakuza owned, and as such was replaced by that agency's actress Uchida Yuki.
- Park Han-byeol was born on 17 November 1984 in Seoul, South Korea. She is an actress, known for I Have a Lover (2015), One Well-Raised Daughter (2013) and Wishing Stairs (2003).
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Born in Beverly Hills, Ashley Mei Eriksen is half Chinese, half Swedish.
The daughter of two software engineers who found love in the fast-paced environment of a technology startup, Ashley's early years were marked by the departure of her biological father when she was just four. Faced with the challenges of single parenthood, her mother is Lilian Gong-Koiso, who had dreams of her own in the acting world, made a selfless choice to leave the limelight behind and ensure a stable upbringing for Ashley.
In a poignant turn of fate, Ashley found herself embraced by Thomas Koiso, her Japanese-American stepfather, a certified public accountant, through legal adoption, solidifying the bonds of family and providing her with the support needed to navigate the tumultuous waters of Hollywood.
The healing power of children's theater became Ashley's sanctuary, mending wounds left by early abandonment trauma and a speech impediment triggered by a harrowing kidnapping experience. It was in this creative haven that she discovered her love for acting and honed her skills under the mentorship of acclaimed filmmaker Bennett Jones, who cast her in her first critically acclaimed film at the tender age of five.
High school brought a new set of challenges, prompting Ashley to embark on a homeschooling journey to assist her mother in raising four siblings. Undeterred by the lack of a conventional high school experience, she balanced auditions and familial responsibilities with unwavering determination. The family's support was so profound that, before she could even drive, they would patiently wait at McDonald's while Ashley auditioned across the street.
Ashley's artistic influence extended to her sisters, Kelly and Emma Gong-Koiso, both child actors, creating a family legacy in the entertainment industry.
In her quest for a semblance of tradition, Ashley ventured into teenage beauty pageants under the Miss Universe Organization. Describing each experience as "going to prom every time," she donned crowns and sashes, using her platform to champion causes close to her heart. Crowned as Miss Los Angeles Teen, Ashley continued her advocacy by campaigning for Gavin Newsom and sharing her Asian American pageant journey at the Japanese American Museum in Little Tokyo, LA. She placed first runner-up at Miss Teen Hollywood and won Miss Teen Santa Monica.
Ashley's journey took an exciting turn with her recent role in Mindy Kaling's hit HBO Max show, "The Sex Lives of College Girls," where she portrayed the ditzy sorority girl "Ashleye." Prior credits include the Stockholm syndrome victim Charisma in Lionsgate's "Clown Fear" and the compelling Mallory in "Morbid Stories," a film anthology where she not only acted but also contributed her original story and directing skills.
Looking ahead, Ashley is set to redefine her generation by stepping into the realm of producing original stories. Her belief in the enduring power of cinema and its ability to impact society underscores her commitment to both arts and technology.
In Ashley Mei Eriksen, we find not just an actress but a trailblazer, breaking barriers, bridging cultures, and leaving an indelible mark on the world of entertainment.- Actress
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Ming-Na ("enlightenment") was born on the island of Macau, forty miles from Hong Kong. Her mother, Lin Chan Wen, divorced her father when Ming-Na was only a toddler. She has an older brother named Jonathan. After the divorce, they moved to Hong Kong where her mother became a nurse. There her mother met Soo Lim Yee, a U.S. businessman. They soon married, and at four years, Ming-Na moved with her family to Queens, New York. Five years later, they transferred to Yee's hometown of Pittsburgh where his family runs the Chinatown Inn restaurant. Jonathan and half-brother, Leong, now manage this restaurant. Struggling to fit in at school, she changed her name to Maggie & Doris. She found a love for acting while appearing in a third grade Easter play, where she played a klutzy bunny. Her mother was not excited about her desire to pursue acting, She preferred that she go into medicine. Nonetheless, Ming-Na graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in theatre. She got her first acting job in 1988 on the soap As the World Turns (1956). Her big break came when she was cast in The Joy Luck Club (1993). When she needed a ride to the premiere of the film, her acting instructor sent one of his students, Eric Michael Zee. The two started dating in 1994 after Ming-Na moved permanently to Los Angeles and married in 1995, dropping her last name, Wen, at that time. She says she is now like Ann-Margret. Zee is a screenwriter and, with Ming-Na, manages At Last, a boy band.- Actress
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Shin Min-A, born April 5th, 1984 with birth name Yang Min-A, is a popular South Korean actress & model. Her family consists of a father, mother, older sister & brother. In middle school, Min-A took a picture with her friends on a school picnic and sent the photo to teen magazine KiKi. From that picture she was chosen as a model for the magazine. Afterwards she would first appear in commercials and music videos. In 2001, Min-A made her acting debut in the movie "Volcano High" and would appear again two years later in "Madeleine". Her breakout performance would occur in the 2005 gangster film "A Bittersweet Life". Her character, Hee-soo, displayed a mixture of purity and maturity that captivated South Korean audiences. Since that time, Shin Min-A has received an assortment of acting offers from top Korean directors and expanded her acting repertoire by selecting various types of roles: from martial-arts comedy "My Mighty Princess" to 70's go-go dancer "Go Go 70s" to smaller independent film "Sisters on the Road".
More recently in 2009, Shin Min-A participated in the project "Miracle Blue," which is a collaboration between herself, the Korean alternative band Loveholic and fashion design company Calvin Klein. In the music video "Miracle Blue," in which Min-a Shin sings, she performs as various characters displaying child-like innocence to sexy blonde haired singer.- Actress
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Park Min-Young was born on 4 March 1986 in Seoul, South Korea. She is an actress, known for Seven Day Queen (2017), The Good the Bad the Weird (2008) and Sungkyunkwan Scandal (2010).- Michiko Nishiwaki is a multi-talented lady. An actress, martial artist, stunt woman, fight choreographer, and Japan's first Woman's Bodybuilding and Power lifting Champion. She held these titles for 1980, 1981 and 1982. While still keeping her femininity and not bulking up with the aid of anabolic steroids or other drugs, Michiko created a bodybuilding boom all over Japan and was in constant demand for personal and television appearances, and executive personal training. All this while operating two successful gyms. Michiko forever changed the stereotype of the submissive and docile Japanese woman by being a strong role model. She now lives in the U.S. with her Husband and Son.
- In addition to dominating her own country, Song Hye-Kyo has left a lasting impression on the global scene thanks to her stunning beauty, extraordinary acting abilities, and captivating presence. As a model who transitioned into acting, Song has become one of Asia's most well-known and significant actors thanks to her gifts, attractiveness, and contributions to Korean entertainment. Over the years, she has established herself as one of South Korea's most attractive women and even gained recognition as the pinnacle of beauty in the nation of South Korea as a whole.
Song Hye Kyo was born on November 22, 1981, in Daegu, South Korea. She grew up in a middle-class family with her parents and older brother. Her parents divorced when she was a young girl and her mother raised her. They moved from her birthplace in Daegu to the Gangnam District in Seoul, where she trained as a figure skater in elementary school, but quit when she was in the eighth grade. From a young age, Song was interested in the arts, particularly in acting. In 1996, she began her career in modeling at the tender age of 14 as Song, who was back then a third-year junior high school student, won first place in the SunKyung Smart Model Contest, and she made her entertainment debut as a model for the school uniform company. This opportunity would lead to her being cast in a small role in her first television drama, First Love (1997).
Song Hye Kyo would go on to star in several different sitcoms and dramas, most notably "Soonpoong Clinic (1998)." But the actress wouldn't become well-known until 2000 when she co-starred with Song Seung-Hun and Won Bin in the lead part of the well-liked KBS drama "Autumn in My Heart (2000)." Because of the romantic melodrama's widespread appeal, Song became well-known in Korea and throughout Asia. The show was a big hit at the time and is now frequently regarded as a classic, setting off a trend in Korean melodramatic television that is now known as the "Korean Wave" and helping to pioneer the genre. In 2003, her popularity continued to climb when she played a leading role alongside Lee Byung-Hun in the gambling drama "All In (2003)", which drew solid viewership ratings nationwide throughout its run with a peak viewer rating of 47.7 percent. The following year, she co-starred with singer Rain in the hit romantic comedy series "Full House (2004)." The drama achieved pan-Asia success and established Song as one of the most well-known Korean actresses in Asia.
In early 2005, She went to San Francisco to study English and later traveled to Seattle. Song took time off to recharge herself after Full House. "I have had a good rest. It was a good opportunity to reflect on myself," said Song. She returned to Korea on March 5, 2005. The same year, She made her big-screen debut in My Girl and I (a Korean remake of Crying Out Love in the Center of the World), which was panned by audiences and critics alike. Vocal about her dissatisfaction with typecasting in the roles she was being offered, she took on different roles the following year.
She made her TV comeback in late 2008 with the Korean Drama "The World That They Live In (2008)" (also known as Worlds Within), a series set at a broadcast station in which Song and Hyun Bin played drama PDs who work together and fall in love. In 2010, she starred in "Kamelia (2010)", an omnibus pic made up of three short films directed by three Asian directors. Each episode is set in the past, present, and future of the city of Busan. In the film's final segment 'Love for Sale', Song and Gang Dong-won play former lovers who forget their memories about each other which later leads them to a fatal destiny.
Song then played a documentary filmmaker who finds the strength to forgive the 17-year-old boy who killed her fiancé but instead of redemption, only finds greater tragedy in A Reason to Live, which was released in October 2011 after several delays. Song was a huge fan of director Lee Jung-Hyang and had actively sought her out. Though she had difficulty getting into character, she said she fell in love with the script and felt her acting had matured. She considers the film "a turning point" in her life.
In 2011, she became the first Asian actress to sign a contract with the French global agency Effigies, paving the way for her possible entry into the European market. She released a photo essay book in 2012 titled It's Time for Hye-Kyo.
Song reunited with the writer and director of Worlds Within in "That Winter, the Wind Blows (2013)", a 2013 remake of the 2002 Japanese drama Ai Nante Irane Yo, Natsu ("I Don't Need Love, Summer"). She played a blind heiress in the melodrama, opposite a con man pretending to be her long-lost brother (played by Jo In-Sung). That Winter, the Wind Blows placed number one in its time slot during most of its run, and Song and Jo were praised for their performances. Song won the Daesang (or "Grand Prize"), the highest television award, at the 2nd APAN Star Awards.
In 2014, Song reunited with Gang Dong-Won in My Brilliant Life (2014), E J-Yong's film adaptation of Kim Ae-Ran's bestselling novel "My Palpitating Life", about a couple who watched their son suffering from Progeria, grow old prematurely. - Actress
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Chien-Na Lee was born on 22 November 1984 in Nantou, Taiwan. She is an actress, known for Juliets (2010), The Teenage Psychic (2017) and Ex-boyfriend (2011). She has been married to Shang-Ho Huang since 5 October 2023. They have three children.- Actress
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Charlene Choi (born 22 November 1982) is a Hong Kong-Canadian actress and singer. She is a member of Cantopop group Twins, along with Gillian Chung. Choi was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She moved with her family to Hong Kong a few years later. She was educated at a number of institutions. She is fluent in Cantonese, English, and Mandarin. After graduating from Rosaryhill School, where many other would-be pop stars had attended, she started working full-time as a model in Hong Kong. She was scouted by Emperor Entertainment Group (EEG), and was then linked with Gillian Chung to form the Cantopop group Twins. Choi's first acting gig was a starring role in the 2000 television drama Youth Y2K. Then, Choi made her first film debut in 2001 in Funeral March (filmed prior to Twins' debut), which drew rave reviews from critics and earned her a Best New Artist nomination at the 21st Hong Kong Film Awards. Choi's next big acting break was in 2003 with her earnest and pretence-free portrayal of a young girl who battles through all odds in hopes of becoming a singer in Diva - Ah Hey.- Actress
Sei Ashina was born on 22 November 1983 in Koriyama, Japan. She was an actress, known for Silk (2007), Kamen Rider Hibiki (2005) and Nanase: The Psychic Wanderers (2010). She died on 14 September 2020 in Tokyo, Japan.14 Sept 2020- Grace Park (born March 14, 1974) is an American-Canadian actress. She gained recognition as Lt. Sharon 'Boomer' Valerii and Lt. Sharon 'Athena' Agathon on Battlestar Galactica (2004), as well as Shannon Ng in the Canadian television series teen soap Edgemont (2000). From 2010 to 2017, Park starred as Officer Kono Kalakaua in the CBS television series Hawaii Five-0 (2010), which debuted on September 20, 2010. Born in Los Angeles, Park moved with her family to Canada when she was 22 months old. She was raised in the Vancouver neighborhood of Kerrisdale. Park is of Korean heritage. She graduated from Magee Secondary School in 1992 and holds a degree in psychology from the University of British Columbia.
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Alexie Agdeppa was born on 13 December 1983 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress and cinematographer, known for Aleta: Vampire Mistress (2019), Boundaries (2018) and Side Effects (2013).- Actress
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Crystal Liu, better known by her stage name Liu Yifei, was born in Wuhan, on August 25, 1987. She began modeling at 8. She was trained in singing, dancing & the piano. She moved to the U.S. at 10 w/ her mom, where she lived for 4 years. She returned to China in June 2002 to pursue a modeling & acting career.
In September 2002, she was accepted into the Performance Institute of Beijing Film Academy at 15. Her first TV role was in The Story of a Noble Family. Shortly after, she was chosen to portray the role of Wang Yuyan in Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, a drama based on the same-titled novel by the acclaimed martial arts writer, Jinyong.
In October 2003, she made her 1st appearance on the big screen w/ May Day, the well-known Taiwanese rock band, in the movie Love of May. Her fame & popularity went up even further due to her role in the 2004 drama series adaptation of the video game, The Legend of Sword and Fairy. Upon her graduation from the Beijing Film Academy in July 2006, she starred in another TV production based on another book by Jinyong, The Return of the Condor Heroes. This was very well received in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan & Japan.
She made her first foray into a music career in August 2005, when she secured a recording contract w/ Sony Music Entertainment Japan. After taking up singing & dance lessons for a year, her album Liu Yifei was released in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong & Southeast Asia in August 2006, featuring a diverse music repertoire that included rap &soft rock. That same year, she also released a Japanese album. The single, The Gate of Late Night, was chosen to be the theme for an animation series by Tokyo TV.- Actress
Nammi Le was born in Saigon, Viet Nam and at three months old, she, her parents and older brother left their home-land by boat. Her father had secretly converted a fishing boat to sea-worthiness to enable them to escape along with other family members and some local villagers. On the voyage, the tiny and leaky fishing boat was boarded by pirates who confiscated all valuables from the passengers. One item that one pirate tried to take away was Nammi's older brother. After much pleading from Nammi's mother to the pirates' 'captain', the year-old boy was returned to his family. Eventually, the boat completed its journey on a Malaysian beach, where locals helped the passengers burn the boat to ensure the coast guard could not tow them back out to sea. After several months in a detention camp, the whole family flew to Sydney where they have lived ever since.
At school, Nammi developed an interest in painting, but her principal focus was on academic subjects and she went on to study Commerce at the University of New South Wales. After graduating, she worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers for several years.
In 2007 she was offered a lead role in an independent Australian film, 'Ra Choi'. The film focused on a group of four troubled street kids from the Western suburbs of Sydney, and their exploits in the midst of gang turf war, drug taking/dealing and prostitution. The film was shown at various festivals including the Sydney Film Festival and the London Australian Film Festival.
Shortly after, Nammi travelled to Europe and during this period resumed her earlier interest in painting. While there, she was cast by John Duigan in 'Careless Love'. One of her self-portraits is used as a key prop in the film.- Born in Tokyo, Japan, Aiko is a stand-up comedian, actress and TV personality. She first appeared in the theatrical film The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and was featured in the Justin Lin mockumentary film Finishing the Game, about Bruce Lee's last film. Aiko has been featured on The Jim Jeffries Show and The Howard Stern Show, and most recently in Comedy Central Stand-Up Asia! Live.
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Thuy Trang was born on December 14th of 1973 in Saigon, Vietnam. After the fall of Saigon in 1975 to Communist forces, her father who had fought in the Vietnam War, traveled to the United States to seek political asylum. However, his entire family, unable to follow, were left behind.
In 1979, Thuy and her family boarded a cargo ship with other refugees to travel to the United States. However, first they sailed to a detention camp in Hong Kong.
The family was finally reunited in California in 1980.
Thuy graduated from Banning High School and earned a scholarship to study civil engineering at UC Irvine.
After her father died from cancer In 1992, Thuy got interested in acting and, in 1993, got her first big break when she landed the role of Trini Kwan on the hit TV series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993). In 1994, Thuy left the show to pursue other projects.
After appearing in a video documentary called the Encyclopedia of Martial Arts: Hollywood Celebrities (1995), as an interviewee, and a cameo as a manicurist in Spy Hard (1996), Thuy got her next large role as Kali in The Crow: City of Angels (1996), the sequel to The Crow (1994).
Tragically, on September 3rd 2001, Thuy was a passenger in a car traveling on the I-5, that lost control. She suffered fatal injuries.
She leaves behind only a small body of work but, through them, she made an impact on many.
Thuy Trang will be missed by many.- Xiao-lei Yu was born on 14 December 1977 in Qingdao, Shandong, China. She is an actress, known for The Robbers (2009), Eternal Beloved (2009) and Together (2011).
- Ami Kawai was born on 15 December 1967 in Tokyo, Japan. She is an actress, known for Dinosaur Squadron Zyuranger (1992), Mobile Sheriff Jiban (1989) and Mechanical Violator Hakaider (1995).
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Tien Niu, younger sister of glamorous Shaw Brothers actress Tien Ni (aka Tanny) born from a family of Shandong lineage, followed her sister's footsteps first as a television and movie teen-idol in their native Taiwan before her frank and provocative debut performance for Hong Kong audiences in director Sung Tsu-shou's popular 'Zao Shou' aka 'Thirteen' for Shaw Brothers in 1974. The success of that film still resonate with teenage girls today enough for Shaws veteran Derek Yee to helm a Cantonese remake also entitled 'Zao shou' aka 'Jo Sok' (2 Young, 2005) with the young Fiona Sit reprising the role made famous by Tien Niu.- Hwang Sin-hye was born on 15 December 1963 in South Korea. She is an actress, known for Passionate Love (2013), Absolute Love (1994) and Mugunghwaggoti pieotseubnida (1995). She was previously married to Min Seo Park.
- Ratna Assan was born on 16 December 1954 in Torrance, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Papillon (1973), Mister Roberts (1965) and Destry (1964).
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Valerie Chow was born in Hong Kong as Ka-Ling Chow, the only daughter of a well-off family. In 1991, she won Miss Hong Kong Pageant as the first runner up. She went back to Hong Kong University to finish her law degree before returning, in 1993, to her acting career.
Chow's career kicked off with a good start with "Wan 9 Zhao 5" (Twenty Something), in which she played Alice, a girl who tries to find true love in Hong Kong's club scenes. Then came her big break, "Chungking Express", in which she plays the woman who broke Tony Leung's heart. She had only a few scenes, but made quite an impression. The blurry image of her wearing a bra and a skirt, walking around the house as if she is swaying in and out of space (and Leung's memory), made Chow a symbol of mysterious seduction.
After Chungking Express, Chow did a 20-eposide TV series, playing the outside interest of a honest married man; who eventually divorced his fat, cooking-oil-soaked wife. The series itself was a huge success, but her role was not warmly received, and her career began to go downwards. She went on to star in a string of insignficant films, which either showed her as a two-dimensional seductress, or tried unsuccessfully to "cleanse" her image as a home-wrecker. She finally decided to move to the States and start fresh. However, Chow's career in Hollywood was equally uneventful, with the exception of her Revlon contract.
After returning to Hong Kong, she found a job working for the marketing and events department of Lane Crawford, the Hong Kong equivalent of Neiman Marcus; and acting became her part-time job. Ironically, one of her latest part-time jobs, a 40-episode TV series called "Hap Qua Yin Som" (Healing Hearts), was her biggest success ever. Her role, a lawyer named Flora, was recognized as the perfect modern woman--smart, beautiful, and independent. The success of Healing Hearts led to another major cosmetic contract--Chow signed on to become the spokeperson for Neutrogena's whitening mask, a new line that was launched in Hong Kong.- Actress
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Yun Zhou was born on 17 December 1978 in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. She is an actress and producer, known for The Assassin (2015), Hidden Man (2018) and Jin hun feng yu qing (2011). She has been married to Wen Jiang since 2005. They have one child.- Actress
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She rose to fame in the drama Kimi wa petto (2003) with Jun Matsumoto and gained huge popularity.
Her first international film was The Last Samurai (2003) where she played Taka, wife of a Samurai slain by the character Nathan Algren, portrayed by Tom Cruise, Koyuki was well-known in Japan for years before that. She first caught the attention of the public in 1997 by winning an exclusive modelling contract with the magazine Non-no, but quickly grew beyond modelling and has earned acclaim as an actress through her many roles on Japanese television and in several Japanese films.
She has been appeared in many commercials, including Coca-Cola Japan's Sokenbicha, P&G Max Factor SK-II, and Suntory Kakubin.- Actress
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One-time volleyball player, model, television personality and actress the Shimane-born Esumi Makiko retired at age 50 in 2017 citing a desire to concentrate on her family in general and children in particular, but magazines reported that the decision came amidst news of an extramarital affair and estrangement from her second husband from whom she was living apart. She denied the allegations and described her companion as a business associate. Reports also had it that she was negotiating a restitution on a bad deal from the businessman. She was no stranger to controversy however. She was once associated to a manager caught vandalizing a celebrity's house and also accused of not paying into her own public pension before the turn of the century while being the advertising face for the plan. She sustained an arm injury playing volleyball and instead became a fashion model, reportedly inspired by singer Miki Imai, which in turn lead to a life in acting, music, writing, nude photo books, commercials and product endorsement. Having played prolifically in many series and films, like Koreeda Hirokazu's Maborishi and Suzuki Seijun's Pistol Opera, it was probably her depiction of an OL (Office Lady) with attractive legs in fashionable miniskirts in the TV serial Shomuni that made her most famous. Being considered talented, attractive and youthful her retirement disappointed observers and fans. She had also won Best Actress and Rookie Of The Year awards. Esumi has two children, married, divorced once and lost a brother to cancer.- Actress
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Sumire Uesaka was born on 19 December 1991 in Kamakura, Japan. She is an actress, known for This Art Club Has a Problem! (2016), Ultraman Trigger: New Generation Tiga (2021) and Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions (2012).- Actress
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Reiko Sato was born on 19 December 1931 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Flower Drum Song (1961), The Ugly American (1963) and Woman on the Run (1950). She died on 28 May 1981 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Deliciously lithe, busty, and enticing brunette knockout Hiromi Oshima was born on January 6, 1980 in Tokyo, Japan. Oshima has a B.A. in communications and speaks fluent English, Spanish, and Japanese. She eventually moved to Miami Beach, Florida and first tried out for "Playboy" magazine scouts for the 50th Anniversary Playmate Hunt. After posing for a couple of newsstand special editions and being featured in a pictorial in the December, 2003 issue of the famous men's magazine, Hiromi was chosen to be the Playmate of the Month for June, 2004. Oshima has the distinction of being the first Japanese woman to be a Playmate. She went on to pose for a few more newsstand special editions and has appeared in several "Playboy" videos. Moreover, Hiromi was the January girl in the 2005 "Playmates at Play at the Playboy Mansion" swimsuit calendar. Outside of modeling, Oshima has also worked as a photo production coordinator, stylist, and producer for a number of magazine covers and photo shoots. She appeared as herself both in the comedy film "The House Bunny" and on the realty TV series "The Girls Next Door." Hiromi is featured in the music video for "Shake Ya Tailfeather" by Nelly, Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, and Murphy Lee. She has small roles in the movies "Bchelor Party 2: The Last Temptation" and "Race to Witch Mountain."
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Tina Huang was born in Dallas, Texas, USA. She is an actress and director, known for Rizzoli & Isles (2010), The Night Shift (2014) and Shameless (2011).- Yu Li was born on 20 December 1976 in Xian, China. She was an actress, known for Profound Love in Heavy Rain (2001). She died on 14 March 2009 in Beijing, China.
- Mandy Wong was born on 21 December 1982 in Hong Kong, British Crown Colony. She is an actress, known for The Midnight After (2014), Firestorm (2013) and Natural Born Lovers (2012).
- Shioli Kutsuna was born in Australia, but moved to Japan at age 14 in order to pursue a career in acting.
Shioli won the 11th Japan Bishojo Contest in 2006. This award honors the most beautiful young girl in Japan. Her first role came the following year when she was a member of the cast of 3 Nen B Gumi Kinpachi Sensei 8, which was a TBD TV school drama. Two years later she achieved a main character role for the serial Tsugumi Nitobe in 7 Mannin Tantei Nitobe. In that year she also appeared in her first movie, Guardian Angel. Her appearance in Back Pages garnered her the 85th Kinema Junpo Award for Best Actress in 2010.
Shioli graduated from Horikoshi High School in Tokyo in 2011, but dropped out of Asia University, where she was starting Arts, in 2013 in advance of her third year due to the pressures of acting, thus breaking an earlier vow to persist no matter what.
She has won several other awards since her earlier ones including 9th Clarino Beautiful Legs Award in the teen category in 2011 and Newcomer Of The Year, which came in 2014, some five years after she began her career, at the 37th Japan Academy Prize. She was one of four girls on the road in Petaru Dansu and was cast in the Hollywood production for a Deadpool sequel, scheduled for release in 2018.
It was reported that she was dating actor Shôta Matsuda in 2013. Shioli has done quite a bit of corporate advertising for companies such as Epson, MOS Burger and Pocky and others. She suffered some blow-back for the Pocky work due to the popularity of her predecessor, Yui Aragaki. She is represented by Oscar Promotion. - Actress
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Loretta Yu was born in Montréal, Quebec, Canada. She is an actress and producer, known for Blood and Water (2015), Save Me (2017) and Between (2015).- Actress
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Aurora Marion was born on 22 December 1985 in Uccle, Belgium. She is an actress, known for A Wedding (2016), Almayer's Folly (2011) and Doctor Who (2005).- Actress
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Patricia Martínez better known as Patrice Martinez was a Mexican-American actress. She had a strong background in theatre acting. However, her talents were not limited to the stage. Her resume manifests a "well-rounded" acting career that is complemented by her film and television credits. She began her career in her early teens, when she was working as an extra in Convoy (1978) starring Kris Kristofferson and directed by Sam Peckinpah. After catching the director's eye, Peckinpah offered her a speaking role.
Still a teenager, Patrice became the lead stage actress for "La Compañía", a bilingual theatrical repertory company founded by her mother, Margarita Martínez, and her mentor, Jose Rodríguez. Graduating early from high school, this diligent actress followed the footsteps of some very distinguished actors when she decided to seek formal training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, one of the world's most prestigious and respected drama schools. Among 3000 aspiring actors from around the world vying for the only 23 coveted entries that were offered, Patrice was awarded the sole scholarship of her term. Upon her graduation from RADA, she was honored with five of the most prominent awards the academy has to commend.
Patrice returned to the US after finishing her studies at RADA and moved from her home state of New Mexico to California. After being in Hollywood for only a couple of months, she was cast in a lead role in her first feature film, A Walk on the Moon (1987). Shortly thereafter she was cast in another leading role in the hit comedy Three Amigos! (1986) starring Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short and directed by John Landis.
Producer Chas. Floyd Johnson selected her as Tom Selleck's love interest in Magnum, P.I. (1980), and out of all his leading ladies she was the only one asked back to reprise her role in the final episode. In the interim she guested on Miami Vice (1984) with Don Johnson and Edward James Olmos. She also appeared in the films Beetlejuice (1988) with Alec Baldwin and Geena Davisand The Effects of Magic (1998), among others. She even managed to sneak in appearances in a few music videos with Morris Day and a double feature with Robbie Robertson.
One of the highlights of her professional career was when she began to appear in international productions, such as her role in the series Zorro (1990), shot was for the Family Channel in Spain. Thereafter she worked on several other European projects, namely Winnetous Rückkehr (1998) for German television.24 Dec 2018- Actress
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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 the film festival circuit -- including Sundance, Toronto, Tribeca, and SXSW. In 2017, she won "Best Actor" at the NBC Shorts Fest and a talent holding deal with the network.
Lynn was featured in Variety's 2020 "Power of Women" Issue for her directorial debut I WIll Make You Mine, which she also wrote, produced, and starred in. The movie has a 100% Rotten Tomato Rating and was an Official Selection of the 2020 SXSW Film Festival.
Lynn has produced, directed, and hosted non-scripted content for outlets like BuzzFeed, Tastemade, Hello Giggles, and ISATV that have seen over 40 million views. She founded the blogs/podcasts "The Actor's Diet" and "Thick Dumpling Skin" (the first site dedicated to Asian-Americans and eating disorders). She has been featured on NPR, Cosmopolitan, and Marie Claire Magazine and has been a speaker at various colleges (Stanford, Dartmouth, Wellesley), conferences (WonderCon), and festivals (Disneyland California Adventure Food & Wine) for her acting work and body image activism. Lynn has been an Ambassador for The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) and Miry's List. She has also written for LA Weekly, Filmmaker Magazine, and cupcakes & cashmere.- Jin-shil Choi was born on 24 December 1968 in Seoul, South Korea. She was an actress, known for My Love, My Bride (1990), I Wish for What Is Forbidden to Me (1994) and Mister Mama (1992). She was married to Sung Min Cho. She died on 2 October 2008 in Seoul, South Korea.2 Oct 2008 (Suicide)
- Riyo Mori was born on 24 December 1986 in Shizuoka, Japan. She has been married to Brent Kaspar since 28 August 2018.
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Mieko Harada was born on 26 December 1958 in Tokyo, Japan. She is an actress and writer, known for Ran (1985), Dreams (1990) and Begging for Love (1998). She is married to Ryo Ishibashi. They have two children.- Lianna Pai was born on 26 December 1966 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She is an actress, known for Requiem for a Dream (2000), The Siege (1998) and Grand Theft Auto III (2001). She is married to Geoffrey Quelle. They have two children.
- Yun Liu was born on 26 December 1982 in Changsha, Hunan, China. She is an actress, known for AI is coming (2018), The Message (2009) and A Moment of Love (2013). She has been married to Jun Zheng since 26 May 2010. They have one child.
- Barkha Bisht is an Indian film and television actor. She works primarily in Hindi and Bengali movies and TV serials.
Bisht launched her acting career in 2004 with Ekta Kapoor's TV series Kitni Mast Hai Zindagi (2004). Her co-stars in the series were Karan Singh Grover, Manasi Parekh, and Panchi Bora.
Bisht was brought up in military towns, including Kolkata, as her father worked in the military as a colonel. Her original hometown is Dehradun, Uttarakhand. She has two sisters who work in hotel management and fashion design. She completed her schooling at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Fort William, and pursued her B.Com degree at Symbiosis University, Pune, India.
On March 2, 2008, after a courtship of two years, Bisht tied the knot with actor Indraneil Sengupta, whom she co-starred with in Pyaar Ke Do Naam: Ek Radha, Ek Shyaam (2006) and Choices (2021). However, their marriage was short-lived, and the couple decided to part ways in July 2021.
Before essaying the role of a dancer in Prakash Jha's movie Raajneeti (2010), Bisht had featured in multiple TV series, such as Kkavyanjali (2005) and Ssshhhh... Phir Koi Hai (2006). Her first Bengali movie was Dui Prithibi (2010), in which she appeared in a dance scene.
She went on to play defining roles in Ami Shubhash Bolchi (2011), Kashala Udyachi Baat (2012), Villain (2013), Samrat & Co. (2014), Biporjoy (2017), and PM Narendra Modi (2019). She also played the role of Kesar in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela (2013), starring Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone.
Bisht was part of the main cast for the TV series Sankatmochan Mahabali Hanuman (2015). Since then, she has also been featured in various web series and TV shows such as Mukhbir: The Story of a Spy (2022), Duranga (2022), and Swaraj: Bharat ke Swatantrata Sangram Ki Samagra Gatha (2022).
Bisht won the Boroplus Gold Award for the Most Fit Actress in 2017. - Actress
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Paris was born & raised in the suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Paris started in dance at the age of 4 then competed in gymnastics for 9 years. She started a modeling career when she was 9 with Ford Models Chicago then begun an acting career a few years later. Paris moved to LA at the age of 14 to pursue her acting career. She has 3 younger sisters. Bless, who's also an aspiring actress. Joelie, who's following on her footstep as a gymnast and the youngest, Skye.- Tarita Teriipaia is a former actress of French Polynesian and Chinese descent most famous for having been the third wife of actor Marlon Brando, whom she later divorced. For media and entertainment appearances and engagements she has usually been billed as Tarita.
Tarita played Maimiti opposite Marlon Brando in the film Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She became Brando's third wife in 1962. She is the mother of two of Brando's children, a son, Simon Teihotu, and a daughter, Tarita Cheyenne. They divorced in 1972. Only months after Marlon Brando's death in 2004, Tarita published her memoirs titled Marlon, My Love and My Torment.
One of their grandsons, Tuki Brando, is a prominent model. As of 2015, she is the only wife of Brando who is still alive, after Movita Castaneda and Anna Kashfi died on February 12 and August 16 of 2015, respectively. - Actress
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Janice Man was born on 29 December 1988 in Hong Kong. She is an actress, known for Lost in the Stars (2022), Moscow Mission (2023) and Helios (2015). She has been married to QiNan Wu since 8 September 2019.- Actress
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Li Xin was born on 28 December 1975 in Jilin, China. She is an actress and producer, known for Paris, I Love You (2006), Meg 2: The Trench (2023) and Double zéro (2004).- Actress
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Theresa June-Tao is a rising performer readily seen in television and in film. As a stand-out student, Theresa graduated from Clear Brook High School in Friendswood, Texas. She was part of the National Honor Society, National French Honor Society, Student Council, the Theatre Club, Cheerleading including the Competition squad, and was the Homecoming Queen. After attending college for a year-and-a-half winning the Small Coed division of the Collegiate NCA National Championship in Daytona, Florida as a "flyer". Theresa's next move was the entertainment field. She found work dancing for Team NRG of the WNBA's Houston Comets, toured with Top 40 Artists Frankie J, and Baby Bash, appeared in John Legend's and Andre 3000's "Green Light" video, played a mean Malibu Squad Cheerleader in "Bring It On Cinco" with Christina Milian, and so much more. She began studying acting in 2007 in California at the Meisner Center where she says she "Learned about hard work and discipline, Preparation, and A crap-load about myself." She also studied under her mentor, Lesly Kahn, while she played an FBI Tech on "Bones", an apocalyptic fighter in "Wasteland", an abused Laotian immigrant in "Seed of Hope", a hairdresser on Matthew Perry's "Go On", as well as a tough cookie in various independent features like "Mile Marker 7". She is best known for her role in the Sci-Fi Action feature "Battle of Los Angeles" (2011) (V) often airing on the SYFY channel in which she played Airforce pilot Lt. Solano. Most recently, you will find her opening the episode called "Patience" on CBS's internationally known NCIS. She also enjoys the creative side-writing, producing, shooting, and editing smaller projects. She is a part-time environmentalist, promoting petitions that she believes in, is a long distance mother to her Child-Fund child from Mozambique, Sarmento, is a member of Amnesty International, donator to Human Rights Campaign, UNHCR, Samaritan's Purse and more. There's a reason her company is called Golden Rule Entertainment.- Melissa Le-Vu was born in Brisbane, Australia. She is an actress, known for After the Dark (2013), The Secrets She Keeps (2020) and Mutt (2024).
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Voted as the "#1 Sexiest Woman in the World 2006" by FHM readers in Asia, and one of the "10 People in Entertainment to Look Out For" in Canada 2006 by Playback, Steph Song also has degrees in Nursing and Journalism.
She started as a television host for National Geographic's EarthPulse (2001) and her Asian sitcom Achar! (2004) made her a star in Asia. The series won second prize at the New York Festivals 2005, for Best International Situation Comedy behind Frasier (1993) and has been sold in en countries. Steph moved back to North America in 2005, and has since starred in the feature Everything's Gone Green (2005), and the made-for-TV film Dragon Boys (2007). She divides her time working in the US, Canada and Singapore.- Marjolaine Bui-The is known for Saigon Eclipse (2007), 20h10 pétantes (2003) and Marjolaine et les millionnaires (2004).
- Noriko Aoyama was born on 29 December 1978 in Chiba, Japan. She is an actress, known for Legendary Assassin (2008), Fukigen na jiin (2005) and Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night (2010).
- Andrea Lui was born on 30 December 1983 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She is an actress, known for Category 7: The End of the World (2005), Pushing Daisies (2007) and The Genesis Code (2010).
- Camille Canlas was born on 30 December 1999 in the Philippines. She is an actress, known for Magpakailanman (2012) and Wowowin (2015).
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Born in Shenyang, grew up in Jinan, the daughter of an economics professor. Loved music from childhood, and dreamed of a singing career. After failing to gain entrance to China's top music school in 1985, applied for and was admitted to the Central Drama Academy in Beijing, from which she graduated in 1989. While still a student, was cast as the female lead in Red Sorghum (1988)(aka "Red Sorghum"), the initial directing effort by Yimou Zhang. China's best-known actress in the West, she was named Best Actress at the 49th Venice International Film Festival for her role in The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) (aka "The Story of Qiu Ju"). Made a series of successful films with Yimou Zhang, a collaboration that apparently ended with the breakup of their personal relationship in 1995 and Gong's subsequent marriage to a tobacco company executive.- Actress
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Tae-ri Kim is a South Korean actress. Kim started her career appearing in theater productions and modelling in TV adverts. She made her feature film debut in Park Chan-wook's film The Handmaiden (2016) where she was chosen from among 1,500 candidates who auditioned for the role. Park's first impression of Kim reminded him strongly of his first meeting with actress Kang Hye-jung, who had her career breakthrough in Park's film Oldboy (2003).
Kim also starred in 1987: When the Day Comes (2017) and Little Forest (2018).- Ying-Hsuan Hsieh was born on 31 December 1979 in Taiwan. She is an actress, known for Dear Ex (2018), Hun qiu xi men (2019) and Si lou de tian tang (2021).
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Daughter of a Chinese woman, who spent her childhood in Nishi Ku (Fukuoka City). When she was in elementary school, her parents divorced and she went to live with her mother, who ran a little restaurant. Being a child she practiced karate in junior high school, represented Kyushu in several competitions and finally won the woman national karate championship. During her attendance in the Nippon College of Health and Physical Education for women, where she studied physical education, she saw the film "Young Master" (1980), directed and starring Sing Lung, and decided enrolling JAC (Japan Action Club) to become a stuntwoman. She finally changed her name to "Oshima" and debuted in the TV series "Super Electron Bio-Man" in 1984. At that time one part of JAC, "Asia Action", became independent and based in Hong Kong and Yukari decided to leave Japan. Chinese director Hung Kam-Bo gave her a bit part in the martial arts film "Shanghai Express" in 1986 and thus she began a career in Hong Kong until 1994, when after more than 20 Chinese films and a divorce from star Cheng Ho-Nam she established herself in the Philippines and changed her name for the second time to "Cynthia Luster" (Sincere Raster). Here she would participate in more than 20 films.- Mio Takaki was born on 31 December 1960 in Fukuoka, Japan. She is an actress, known for Ultraman: Tiga (1996), Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey (2000) and Ultraman Tiga & Ultraman Dyna: Warriors of the Star of Light (1998). She has been married to Takashi Kutara since 2013.
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Afsana Thapa is Very Promising & Talented actress in Nepali Film Industry. She had works in many music videos, commercial ads, Telefilms & movies. She is known for natural acting that's why she is called as dream girl of Nepali film industry. She is also highest actress in Nepali Film Industry.- Toshia Mori was born on 1 January 1912 in Kyoto, Japan. She was an actress, known for The Secrets of Wu Sin (1932), The Man Without a Face (1928) and Roar of the Dragon (1932). She was married to Allen Jung. She died on 26 November 1995 in The Bronx, New York, USA.26 Nov 1995
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Hong Kong born, British actor Jemma Moore stars in the award winning horror 'HOST' (Dir by. Rob Savage 2020). 'HOST' won FANGORIA's Golden Chainsaw Award for 'Best Streaming Premiere' and was nominated for multiple BIFA awards. It is 'Certified Fresh' on rotten tomatoes, one of Variety's top ten 'Best Found Footage Horror Movies of All Time' 2022 and one of EMPIRE magazine's 'Best Movies of 2020' with Jemma's character making it into EMPIRE magazine's 'The 100 Best Horror Movie Characters' list. Jemma was long-listed for BAFTA breakthrough UK 2021 and won the 'ABC Discovers UK Digital Talent' Competition in 2017, which led to a year long talent deal with ABC. Jemma is also known for her roles in SILENT WITNESS (BBC, 2023), BAFTA SCOTLAND and ROYAL TELEVISION SOCIETY SCOTLAND award winning show 'TWO DOORS DOWN' (BBC, 2022), 'DOOM: ANNIHILATION' (Universal, 2019), 'SHAKESPEARE & HATHAWAY' (BBC, 2019) and 'WONDER WOMAN' (Warner Brothers, 2018). Jemma is also a filmmaker with her comedy short film 'STALLING IT' recently screening at BAFTA and BIFA-qualifying festivals in 2021/22.- Sofia V. Mendez was born on 2 January 1984 in Waukegan, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for 12 Minutes to Heaven: Fate (2009), Psycho Killer Bloodbath (2011) and Coyote Ragtime Show (2006). She died on 1 October 2011 in Houston, Texas, USA.
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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 taboo against miscegenation meant that Caucasian actresses were cast as "Oriental" women in lead parts opposite Caucasian leading men. Even when the role called for playing opposite a Caucasian in yellowface, as with Paul Muni's as the Chinese peasant Wang Lung in The Good Earth (1937), Wong was rejected, since she did not fit a Caucasian's imagined ideal look for an Asian woman. The discrimination she faced in the domestic industry caused her to go to Europe for work in English and German films. Her name, which she also spelled Wong Lew Song, translates literally as "Frosted Yellow Willows" but has been interpreted as "Second-Daughter Yellow Butterfly." Her family gave her the English-language name Anna May. She was born on Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles in an integrated neighborhood dominated by Irish and Germans, one block from Chinatown, where her father ran the Sam Kee Laundry.
The Wong family moved back to Chinatown two years after Liu Tsong's birth, but in 1910 they uprooted themselves, moving to a nearby Figueroa Street neighborhood where they had Mexican and East European neighbors. There were two steep hills between the Wongs' new home and Chinatown, but as her biographer, Colgate University history professor Graham Russell Gao Hodges, points out, those hills put a psychological as well as physical distance between Liu Tsong and Chinatown. Los Angeles' Chinatown already was teeming with movie shoots when she was a girl. She would haunt the neighborhood nickelodeons, having become enraptured with the early "flickers." Though her traditional father strongly disapproved of his daughter's cinephilia, as it deflected her from scholastic pursuits, there was little he could do about it, as Liu was determined to be an actress. The film industry was in the midst of relocating from the East Coast to the West, and Hollywood was booming. Liu Tsong would haunt movie shoots as she had earlier haunted the nickelodeons. Her favorite stars were Pearl White, of The Perils of Pauline (1914) serial fame, and White's leading man, Crane Wilbur. She was also fond of Ruth Roland.
Educated at a Chinese-language school in Chinatown, she would skip school to watch film shoots in her neighborhood. She made tip money from delivering laundry for her father, which she spent on going to the movies. Her father, if he discovered she had gone to the movies during school hours, would spank her with a bamboo stick. Around the time she was nine years old, she began begging filmmakers for parts, behavior that got her dubbed "C.C.C." for "curious Chinese child."
Liu Tsong's first film role was as an uncredited extra in Metro Pictures' The Red Lantern (1919), starring Alla Nazimova as a Eurasian woman who falls in love with an American missionary. The film included scenes shot in Chinatown. The part was obtained for her by a friend of her father's (without his knowledge) who worked in the movie industry. Retaining the family surname "Wong" and the English-language "Christian" name bestowed on her by her parents, Liu Tsong Americanized herself as "Anna May Wong" for the movie industry, though she would not receive an on-screen credit for another two years.
The rechristened Anna May Wong appeared in bit parts in movies starring Priscilla Dean, Colleen Moore and the Japanese-born Sessue Hayakawa, the first Asian star of American movies. Due to her father's demands, she had an adult guardian at the studio, and would be locked in her dressing room between scenes if she was the only Asian in the cast. Initially balancing school work and her budding film career, she eventually dropped out of Los Angeles High School to pursue acting full time. She was aided by the fact that, though still a teenager, she looked more mature than her real age.
Director Marshall Neilan cast the teenage Anna May in a bit part in his film Dinty (1920), then gave her her first credited role in the "Hop" sequence of Bits of Life (1921), the American movie industry's first anthology film. In "Hop" Wong played Toy Ling, the abused wife of Lon Chaney's character Chin Gow, which the Man of a Thousand Faces played in yellowface. She next appeared in support of John Gilbert in Fox's Shame (1921) before being cast in her first major role at the age of 17, the lead in The Toll of the Sea (1922). She played Lotus Flower in this adaptation of the opera "Madame Butterfly," which moved the action from Japan to China. "The Toll of the Sea" was the first feature film shot entirely in Technicolor's two-strip color process. By appearing top-billed in this romantic melodrama, Anna became the first native-born Asian performer to star in a major Hollywood movie. Most portrayals of Asian women were done by Caucasian actresses in "yellow-face," such as the 1915 Madame Butterfly (1915) starring "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford (who was born in Toronto, Canada) in the title role. In "The Toll of the Sea," Anna May's character perpetuates the stereotype of the Asian "lotus blossom," a self-sacrificial woman who surrenders her life for the love of a Caucasian man. The film was a hit, and it showcased Wong in a preternaturally mature and restrained performance. This breakthrough should have launched Anna May Wong as a star, but for one thing: She was Chinese in a country that excluded (by law) Chinese from emigrating to the US, that forbade (by law) Chinese from marrying Caucasians and that generally excluded (by law or otherwise) Chinese from the culture at large, except for bit roles as heavies in the national consciousness.
"The Toll of the Sea" made Anna May Wong a known, and thus a marketable, commodity in Hollywood. She became the #1 actress when a young Asian female part had to be cast, but unfortunately lead roles for Asians were few and far between. Instead of becoming a star, this beautiful woman with a complexion described as "a rose blushing through old ivory" continued to be stuck in supporting roles, as in Tod Browning's melodrama Drifting (1923) and the western Thundering Dawn (1923). She even played an Eskimo in The Alaskan (1924). She appeared as Tiger Lily, "Chieftainess of the Indians," in Paramount's prestigious production of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan (1924), but the role was very small (the film was shot on Santa Catalina Island, where the cast stayed during the production.
The 170-cm-tall (5'7", although other sources cite her height as 5'4½") beauty was known as the world's best-dressed woman and widely considered to have the loveliest hands in the cinema. Her big breakthrough after her auspicious start with "The Toll of the Sea" finally came when Douglas Fairbanks cast her in a supporting role as a treacherous Mongol slave in his Middle Eastern/Arabian Nights extravaganza The Thief of Bagdad (1924). The $2-million blockbuster production made her known to critics and the movie-going public. For better or worse, a star, albeit of the stereotypical "Dragon Lady" type, was born.
Despite her waxing fame, she was limited to supporting roles, as Caucasian actresses, including most improbably Myrna Loy, continued to be cast as Asian women in lead roles from the 1920s through the 1940s, despite the ready availability of Anna May Wong. She was unable to attract lead parts despite her beauty and proven acting talent, even in films featuring Asian women, but she did carve out a career as a supporting player in everything from A-list movies to two-reel comedies and serials. The characters she played typically were duplicitous or murderous vamps who often reaped the wages of their sin by being raped. It was a demeaning apprenticeship that most Caucasian actresses did not have to go through. Anna wanted was to play modern American women all through her career but was thwarted because of racism. Later, when she journeyed to Europe to escape the typecasting of Hollywood, she told journalist Doris Mackie, "I was so tired of the parts I had to play. Why is it that the screen Chinese is always the villain? And so crude a villain--murderous, treacherous, a snake in the grass."
Wong embodied the Caucasian ideal of a foreign exotic beauty, an alien presence despite her American citizenship. The movie magazine "Pictures" published a memoir of hers in 1926 in which she complained, "A lot of people, when they first meet me, are surprised that I speak and write English without difficulty. But why shouldn't I? I was born right here in Los Angeles and went to the public schools here. I speak English without any accent at all. But my parents complain that the same cannot be said of my Chinese. Although I have gone to Chinese schools, and always talk to my father and mother in our native tongue, it is said that I speak Chinese with an English accent!". Many Chinese-Americans considered themselves "Chinese in America," an attitude bolstered by the anti-Chinese, anti-Asian attitude of the US government and the American culture. In her memoir, Wong referred to herself as "Chinese" or "Americanized Chinese," but not as an "American" or "Chinese-American."
Anna May Wong appeared as a dancer in a play within a movie shot in Technicolor for the Ronald Colman vehicle His Supreme Moment (1925), but her Hollywood output generally was undistinguished. In 1926 she seems to have appeared in a "race" film made by Chinese-Americans for a Chinese-American audience, The Silk Bouquet (1926) (aka "The Dragon Horse"). Moving between Poverty Row and the majors, she appeared again with Lon Chaney in Mr. Wu (1927) at MGM and with Warner Oland and Dolores Costello in Old San Francisco (1927) at Warner Brothers. Warners also cast her in support of Oriental yellowface queen Myrna Loy in The Crimson City (1928). Despite her WASP looks and red hair, Loy in Chinese yellowface had become a major "Oriental" star in American films desiring an exotic element. This indignity may have been what pushed Wong to seek her future somewhere other than Hollywood.
She moved to Europe in 1928, where she made movies in the UK and Germany. She made her debut on the London stage with the young up-and-coming Laurence Olivier in the play "The Circle of Chalk." After receiving a drubbing for her voice and singing from the London critics, she paid a Cambridge University tutor to improve her speech, with the result that she acquired an upper-crust English accent. Later she appeared in Vienna, Austria, in the play "Springtime."
European directors appreciated Wong's unique talents and beauty, and they used her in ways that stereotype-minded Hollywood, hemmed in by American prejudice, would not or could not. Moving to Germany to appear in German films, she became acquainted with German film personalities, including Marlene Dietrich and actress-filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. She learned German and French and began to develop a continental European attitude and outlook. In Europe she was welcomed as a star. According to her biographer Graham Russell Gao Hodges, Wong hobnobbed with "an intellectual elite that included princes, playwrights, artists and photographers who clamored to work with her." Anna May Wong was featured in magazines all over the world, far more than actresses of a similar level of accomplishment. She became a media superstar, and her coiffure and complexion were copied, while "coolie coats" became the rage. According to Hodges, "[S]he was the one American star who spoke to the French people, more than Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford or Mary Pickford, the top American actresses of the time." But, ironically, "[S]he's the one who's now forgotten." Wong was cast in Ewald André Dupont's silent film Piccadilly (1929) as a maid who is fired from her job at a London nightclub after dancing on top of a table, then rehired as a dancer to infuse the club with exotic glamour. Her first talkie was The Flame of Love (1930) (aka "The Road to Dishonour", although some sources claim it was "Song" aka "Wasted Love" in that same year), which was released by British International Pictures. In a time before dubbing, when different versions of a single film were filmed in different languages, Wong played in the English, French and German versions of the movie.
Paramount Pictures offered her a contract with the promise of lead roles in major productions. Returning to the US in 1930, Wong appeared on Broadway in the play "On the Spot." It was a hit, running for 167 performances, and she moved on to Hollywood and Paramount, where she starred in an adaptation of Sax Rohmer's novel "Daughter of Fu Manchu" called Daughter of the Dragon (1931). She was back in stereotype-land, this time as the ultimate "Dragon Lady," who with her father Fu Manchu (played by ethnic Swede Warner Oland, the future Charlie Chan) embodied the evil "Yellow Peril." While "Daughter of the Dragon" may have been B-movie pulp, it enabled Wong to show off her talent by delivering a powerful performance.
Her best role in Hollywood in the early 1930s was in support of Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Oscar-winning classic Shanghai Express (1932). However, Hollywood in the 1930s was as racist as it had been in the Roaring Twenties, and MGM refused to cast her in its 1932 production of The Son-Daughter (1932), for which she did a screen-test, as she was "too Chinese to play a Chinese." Helen Hayes played the role in yellow-face. Similarly, she was later kept out of both a lead and supporting role in MGM's prestige production of The Good Earth (1937), its filming of Pearl S. Buck's popular novel, after flunking another screen test for failing to live up to a white man's idea of what "looked" Chinese. MGM screen-tested her for the lead role of O-Lan, the sympathetic wife of Chinese farmer Wang Lung (to be played by Paul Muni, personally cast in the part by Irving Thalberg). She also was considered for the supporting role of Lotus, Wang Lung's concubine. Anna, an ethnic Chinese, lost out on both roles to two Austrian women, Luise Rainer and Tilly Losch, as Albert Lewin, the Thalberg assistant who was casting the film, vetoed Wong and other ethnic Chinese because their looks didn't fit his conception of what Chinese people should look like. Ironically, the year "The Good Earth" came out, Wong appeared on the cover of Look Magazine's second issue, which labeled her "The World's Most Beautiful Chinese Girl." Stereotyped in America as a dragon lady, the cover photo had her holding a dagger. Luise Rainer would win the Best Actress Oscar for her performance of O-Lan in Chinese yellowface.
There were practical considerations for MGM's refusal to cast Wong opposite Muni. It was illegal in many states, including California, for Asians to marry Caucasians, and featuring an interracial couple, even if they were playing the same race, likely would mean the movie would be rejected by many theater chains in regions in which anti-Asian prejudice was particularly severe, such as the South. The new Motion Picture Production Code of 1934 forbid black/white miscegenation and MGM did cast Walter Connelly (a white actor) opposite Soo Yong (a Chines-American actress) as a married couple. Anna May returned to England, reportedly distraught at the injustice perpetrated by MGM and her home country. In England she alternated between films and the stage, but she was obliged to return to the US to fulfill her Paramount contract. She appeared in two Robert Florey-directed pictures, Daughter of Shanghai (1937) as a non-stereotypical Asian-American female lead, and Dangerous to Know (1938). She also appeared in major roles in King of Chinatown (1939) and Island of Lost Men (1939).
Anna May Wong did not appear in films from 1939-41, when she was cast as a supporting player in Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery (1941), an entry in the B-movie series. Her last two starring roles in films were in a pair of anti-Japanese propaganda films, Bombs Over Burma (1942) and Lady from Chungking (1942), both of which were made by Producers Releasing Corp., the lowest of the Poverty Row studios. The major studios, when shooting propaganda films requiring a sympathetic Asian lead, reverted to the old practice of casting Caucasians in yellow-face, no matter how absurd the result.
As her movie career went into eclipse in the 1940s (she would not appear in another motion picture until 1949), she found work on the stage and in radio and then in the new medium of television. Wong wrote a preface to the book "New Chinese Recipes" in 1942, which was one of the first Chinese cookbooks printed in the US. The proceeds from the cookbook were dedicated to United China Relief.
Though Wong was vocal in her opposition to stereotypes and typecasting, and was one of Hollywood's more memorable victims of racism in being denied leading roles in A-list pictures because the racist mores of the times prevented an Asian woman from kissing a Caucasian actor, she was considered socially suspect by her own people. The roles she was forced to accept in order to have an acting career, as well as her status as a single woman, disgusted many Chinese in America and in her ancestral homeland, where actresses were equated with prostitutes and where women were still played by men in classical opera. On a trip to China in 1936, Anna May was welcomed by the country's cultural elite in cosmopolitan Beijing and Shanghai, but she had to abandon a trip to her parents' ancestral village when her progress was blocked by a crowd of protesters. Someone in the crowed denounced her with "Down with Huang Liu Tsong, the stooge that disgraces China. Don't let her go ashore." Upon her return from China, Wong was determined to play Chinese characters more authentically, but her only options were to reject roles she deemed racist or to try to soften them from within the belly of the beast. Ultimately for this proud woman, it was a losing battle.
Chinese nationalism had been on the upswing since Yat-sen Sun ended the Manchu Empire in 1911 and was rife in reaction to the war of aggression launched against China by the Empire of Japan. Chinese nationalists, concerned about the portrayal of Chinese people as evil incarnate in American popular culture, were offended by Wong's portrayals of Asians and exotics. Though she would spend the World War II years working for Chinese charities and relief agencies, she was snubbed by Madame Chiang, the sister-in-law of Yat-sen Sun and wife of Kai-Shek Chiang, the army general who led the Nationalist Chinese, during Madame Chiang's 1942-43 propaganda tour of the US. Her biographer Hodges claims this was the beginning of a consensus among Chinese and Chinese-Americans that Wong was an embarrassment. Chinese and Chinese-Americans chose to blame her rather than Hollywood for the demeaning stereotypes she had to play in order to work. The result of this new consensus, according to Hodges, was that "her memory has been washed away."
Anna May's career in motion pictures was virtually finished after the war. She got her own TV series, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong (1951), on the Dumont Network, playing a Chinese detective in a role written expressly for her, a character who was even given her real Chinese name. The half-hour program, which ran weekly from August 27 to November 21, 1951, was the first TV show to star an Asian-American.
Wong's personal relationships typically were with older Caucasian men, but California law forbade marriage between Asians and Caucasians until 1948. One of her white lovers offered to marry her in Mexico, but the couple's intentions became known and he backed off when his Hollywood career was jeopardized. Wong mused about marrying a Chinese man at times, but the Chinese culture held actresses to be on a par with prostitutes, which made her suspect marriage material. She was afraid that the mores of her culture likely meant that marrying a Chinese would force her to quit her career and be an obedient wife.
Anna May Wong appeared in over 50 American, English and German films in her career, making her the first global Chinese-American movie star. She was forced to fight against racism and stereotyping all her professional life, while simultaneously being criticized by Chinese at home and abroad for perpetuating stereotypes in the media. Despite this tremendous burden, the beautiful woman assayed an elegance and sophistication on-screen that made her the paradigm of Asian women for a generation of movie audiences.
Anna May Wong loved reading, and her favorite subjects spanned a wide range, everything from Asian history and Tzu Lao to William Shakespeare. She never married but occupied her time with golf, horses, and skiing. Wong smoked, drank too much, and suffered from depression. She was poised to make a comeback as a character actress on the big screen toward the end of her life, having appeared as Lana Turner's maid in Ross Hunter's sudsy potboiler Portrait in Black (1960). She was cast in the role of Madame Liang in Flower Drum Song (1961), the movie version of Richard Rodgers's and Oscar Hammerstein II's Broadway musical "Flower Drum Song," but before shooting could begin she passed away.
Anna May Wong died of a massive heart attack on February 3, 1961, in Santa Monica, CA, after a long struggle against Laennec's cirrhosis, a disease of the liver. She was 56 years old. Her fame lives on, four decades after her death. She is a part of American popular consciousness, chosen as one of the first movie stars to be featured on a postage stamp. And the interest in her continues: a play about Anna entitled "China Doll--The Imagined Life of an American Actress," written by Elizabeth Wong, had its premiere at Maine's Bowdoin College in 1997. A lecture and film series, "Rediscovering Anna May Wong," was held at the UCLA Film and Television Archive in 2004, sponsored by "Playboy" publisher Hugh Hefner. That same year New York City's Museum of Modern Art held its own tribute to Wong, "Retrospective of a Chinese-American Screen Actress." Finally she was getting the respect in her own country that was denied her during her career.
A biography by Colgate University history professor Graham Russell Gao Hodges, "Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend," was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2004. Hodges considers Anna May's life and career to be amazing, particularly in light of the fact that her star has yet to be eclipsed by any other Asian-American female star, despite the change in attitudes. Finally, in 2004, the British Film Institute restored E.A. Dupont's 1929 silent film "Piccadilly".- Actress
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Shiho Fujimura was born in Kanagawa, Japan on January 3rd 1939. Throughout most of her career, she usually appeared in "Jidaigeki" dramas. She started her career in 1962 by debuting in The Outcast (1962) directed by Kon Ichikawa and Kiru (1962) directed by Kenji Kisumi and both starring Ichikawa Raizo. Again, she appeared with Ichikawa Raizo in some of "Shinobi no Mono" (Ninja Story) film series (1962 - 1966) and "Nemuri Kyoshiro" (Sleepy Eyes of Death) film series (1962 - 1969).
Other well-known works on film include: Zatoichi on the Road (1963), Boss Takeshi (1965), The Betrayal (1966), Zatoichi's Cane Sword (1967), Prison Break (1969), The Falcon Fighters (1969), Doctor's Wish (2014) and others. Since early 2010s she often worked on television.- Actress
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Carrie Ann Inaba was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. She is of Japanese, Chinese, and Irish ancestry, and is the youngest of two children. Carrie Ann grew up dancing the hula (native Hawaiian dance) and other dance forms. She also played the piano and violin and sang in the choir. She attended Hanahaouli School and then Punahou School. Carrie Ann played volleyball for a little while but found her true love in performing.
At the age of 16, she and her closest friend Tina Horii won the Hawaii statewide competition, "Search for Talent", dancing a piece that they had choreographed together. While still sixteen, Carrie Ann was scouted to go to Japan to become a "Teen Idol".
However, she waited until she finished high school and then left Hawaii to pursue her career as a musical artist in Japan. During her time in Japan, Carrie Ann released three singles with Pony Canyon Records while attending Sophia University, a Jesuit university in Tokyo. In the two-year period spent living in Tokyo, Japan, she learned a great deal about the entertainment industry, performing, as well as the Japanese language. She also made great friends from all over the world, which later became a theme in her life as a documentarian.
After realizing that the Tokyo lifestyle wasn't for her at the time, Carrie Ann returned to the United States, relocating to California. She began to study choreography at the University of California, Irvine. It wasn't long till she got the bug to dance in Los Angeles and moved up to study with Alex Magno at the Debbie Reynolds Studios in North Hollywood, California. One day in dance class, Carrie Ann was approached by a producer who asked her to be in a music video for an artist named Terry Lin. She met the choreographer and booked the job. She was ready to start working.
One of her first jobs was as a dancer for the Emmy Award-winning television show, In Living Color (1990). Her next big gig was performing with Madonna, being featured as the "Pole Girl" on The Girlie Show tour. For this tour, Carrie Ann had to shave her head and also train with circus trainers and a stripper. She later went on to dance with Ricky Martin, David Copperfield, Chayanne, and did a lot of appearances on shows such as The Creative Arts Emmys, The SAG Awards, The NAACP Awards, The MTV Awards, The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986), and so much more. To this day, she still loves to dance. In her heart of hearts, it is the movement and the music that will always inspire her as an artist. In fact, even as an actress, she likes to incorporate dance and movement.
When Carrie Ann began her acting career, her main interest was in action roles. She studied tae kwon do with Billy Blanks, the creator Taebo, and continues her education in martial arts. She also practices hatha yoga. Carrie Ann always looks for ways to include her background in movement (choreography and martial arts) into her career.
Besides performing, Carrie Ann has many credits behind the scenes as well. Besides her choreography, she opened up her own digital video production company, EnterMediArts, Inc., which produced two of her documentaries and her short film. She hopes that EnterMediArts, Inc. will soon produce more reality/education television programming, behind-the-scenes DVD productions as well as lower-end film projects. She is the president and CEO for the company and has directed and edited most of her own projects. She loves the entertainment industry and loves the accessibility that DV (Digital Video) provides. She invested in a few edit bays and a few cameras and produces projects for fellow artists and "creatives." As her company's name implies, Carrie Ann likes to break down barriers and combine elements, creating hybrids just like she, herself, is a combination of cultures. Her production company, EnterMediArts, Inc., gets its name from Entertainment, Media, and the Arts -- all rolled into one.
Carrie Ann has also modeled here and there and has been on the cover of European magazines and Japanese magazines. She was the national spokesmodel for an AT&T Asian Campaign and has been in many commercials throughout her career.
At the time of this writing, Carrie Ann is in the limelight once more for her participation in the hit show, Dancing with the Stars (2005) and Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann (2008).- Miwa Takada was born on 5 January 1947 in Kyoto City, Japan. She is an actress, known for Journey of Honor (1991), Zatoichi the Fugitive (1963) and Mesuinu dassô (1965).
- Yuri Amano was born on 5 January 1966 in Kyoto, Japan. She is an actress, known for Tenchi the Movie - Tenchi Muyo in Love (1996), Tenchi Forever!: The Movie (1999) and Mobile Fighter G Gundam (1994).
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Bernice Liu was born on 6 January 1979 in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada. She is an actress and producer, known for The Legend Is Born: Ip Man (2010), The King of Fighters (2009) and Perfect Wedding (2010).- Actress
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Haruka Abe is an Anglo-Japanese actress based in London, United Kingdom.
Born in Tokyo, Haruka spent her childhood split between New York, London and Tokyo, moving between the three cities with her family. Aged 8 she decided to try acting and at age 9 she played Bilbo Baggins in her school play adaptation of The Hobbit, an experience that confirmed to her that acting was the path she wanted to follow.
Her family moved back to Tokyo when she was 11 years old, and while in middle and high school, she enrolled in a children's drama school called Gekidan Himawari in Ebisu, Shibuya, Tokyo.
She was later accepted into Aoyama University, however at aged 18 she decided instead to return to London to pursue her acting career, attending Rose Brudord drama school where she would graduate with a 1st class Bachelor of Arts degree.- Park Jin-hee was born on 8 January 1978 in Seoul, South Korea. She is an actress, known for Shadows in the Palace (2007), The King of Tears, Lee Bang-won (2021) and Whispering Corridors (1998).
- Monica Anne Parales was born on 10 January 1993. She is an actress, known for Gary Unmarried (2008), School Gyrls (2009) and Wizards of Waverly Place (2007).
- Tracy Chou was born on 10 January 1983 in Taiwan. She is an actress, known for Twisted Strings (2022), Merry Me (2006) and Lovestore at the Corner (2014).
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Ellen Wong was born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. Her first role was on the award winning television series "This Is Wonderland". She is best known for her role as Knives Chau in "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World", starring alongside Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Jason Schwartzman. She auditioned against many hopefuls through an international talent search to fill the role of Knives Chau. Edgar Wright wanted to work with Ellen as she was able to showcase herself as a unique actress, with the ability to also take on intense fight choreography. During training for "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World", the on-set trainer nicknamed Ellen, The Ellen-nator.