Kalpen Suresh Modhi, commonly known by his stage name Kal Penn, is an actor, writer and producer of South Asian descent. You may recognize him from his roles in House and Designated Survivor, and his recurring roles in How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory. Many are unaware of his involvement in…
Where there are women, there is the glass ceiling; where there are Asian Americans, there is the bamboo ceiling. The bamboo ceiling is a term derived from the glass ceiling theory in 2005 that recognizes the invisible barriers that stop Asian Americans in the workplace from rising above a certain level. As the Asian American…
In the early 2010s, APIDA representation in the media was‒frankly‒non-existent. It was nearly impossible to see somebody of APIDA descent in a major Hollywood film or in other forms of mass media. This lack of representation made many in the APIDA community accustomed to a mainstream culture dominated by whites that implied their narratives didn’t…
Dear Hollywood, Why are Asian Americans not good enough for our own narratives? Why do you cast us aside? Or when you do finally give us a piece of the spotlight, why do you put us in a box? Mickey Rooney. Scarlett Johansson. Tilda Swinton. Emma Stone. Benedict Cumberbatch. Katherine Hepburn. The cast of The…
Earlier this month at Star Wars Celebration Orlando, Vietnamese American actress Kelly Marie Tran was announced to play the largest new role in the upcoming film “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” According to “The Last Jedi” director Rian Johnson at the event’s “The Last Jedi” panel, Tran’s character Rose is a maintenance worker in the…
When it comes to Marvel, I have a soft spot. My brothers and I, of different ages and interests, never spent time doing something together unless it was “Brother-Brother-Sister Movie Night.” Over the past several years, it had always centered around a Marvel production, but now we’ve found ourselves skipping over it in favor of…