© Getty Images
1 / 31 Fotos
Chrissy Teigen
- Chrissy Teigen's mother is Thai, and the model is proud of her heritage, and a huge fan of her mom's cooking. Though it wasn't always like that. "Mom's food looked different and smelled different—honestly, I was a little embarrassed about it when I was young," she said. Teigen's mother, Vilailuck "Pepper" Teigen, now has her own cookbook!
© Getty Images
2 / 31 Fotos
Jason Momoa
- Momoa is proud of his Polynesian heritage. "It's an honor to be a brown-skinned superhero for sure. There’s a lot of Polynesian kids who are going to be very stoked to have someone to look up to like that," said the actor about his role as Aquaman.
© Getty Images
3 / 31 Fotos
Kamala Harris
- Kamala Harris is going down in history as the first female, Black, and Asian-American vice president of the United States. The politician is of Indian-Jamaican heritage.
© Getty Images
4 / 31 Fotos
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
- The wrestler-turned-actor's mother is of Samoan descent. His grandfather was the Samoan-American wrestling legend Peter Maivia. The actor's father, Rocky Johnson, was one of the first Black champions in WWE history. "I identify as exactly what I am - both. Equally proud. Black/Samoan," said The Rock about his ancestry.
© Getty Images
5 / 31 Fotos
Lucy Liu
- From 'Charlie's Angels' to 'Elementary,' Lucy Liu is one of the most accomplished Asian-American actresses in Hollywood.
© Getty Images
6 / 31 Fotos
Tiger Woods
- Tiger Woods' mother, Kultida Woods, is Thai. The professional golfer describes himself as "Cablinasian," a mix of Caucasian, Black, American Indian, and Asian heritages.
© Getty Images
7 / 31 Fotos
Bruno Mars
- The 'Uptown Funk' singer's father has Puerto Rican and Jewish heritage, and his mother is from the Philippines, making Mars half Filipino.
© Getty Images
8 / 31 Fotos
Vanessa Hudgens
- The actress' mother is Filipino. Hudgens says she loves her multicultural background, despite having been told that she "wasn't Latin enough, or Asian enough, or Caucasian enough."
© Getty Images
9 / 31 Fotos
Tyga
- Michael Ray Stevenson, better known as the rapper Tyga, is of Jamaican and Vietnamese descent.
© Getty Images
10 / 31 Fotos
Olivia Munn
- Having a multiethnic background (including Chinese ancestry), the actress encountered some difficulties when it came to auditions. "I’d be told, 'You’re too Asian' or 'You’re too white.' I remember someone telling me, 'Don’t feel bad. One day they won’t be trying to match you to fit with anyone else. You’ll just be hired for you.' So you can’t help but get frustrated. That’s part of it all."
© Getty Images
11 / 31 Fotos
Nicole Scherzinger
- Born in Hawaii, the singer has Filipino, Hawaiian, and Ukrainian heritage. "My mother, growing up, would dance the hula and Tahitian with her family. My mother taught me hula when I was really young," she once said in an interview.
© Getty Images
12 / 31 Fotos
Darren Criss
- The 'Glee' star has both European and Asian heritage. Criss' mother is Filipino. "[One] of my favorite things about myself is that I’m half Filipino. PERIOD. I happen to not look like it, but THAT fact is not what I like. I like the fact that most people don’t know it’s an ace up my sleeve, an ace I’m very proud of, regardless of what I look like," said the actor.
© Getty Images
13 / 31 Fotos
Constance Wu
- The 'Crazy Rich Asians' and 'Fresh Off the Boat' actress has Taiwanese parents. Wu was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia.
© Getty Images
14 / 31 Fotos
John Cho
- Born in South Korea, Cho is best known for his roles as Hikaru Sulu in the 'Star Trek' rebooted movie series, and Harold Lee in the 'Harold & Kumar' films.
© Getty Images
15 / 31 Fotos
Norah Jones
- Norah Jones' father is Indian music icon Ravi Shankar. This makes the award-winning singer-songwriter of Indian-American heritage.
© Getty Images
16 / 31 Fotos
Justin Lin
- Justin Lin is best known for directing part of of the 'Fast & Furious' franchise. But he is also the man behind the famous Asian-American blog and YouTube channel 'YOMYOMF' (“You Offend Me, You Offend My Family”).
© Getty Images
17 / 31 Fotos
Auli'i Cravalho
- The voice of the main character in 'Moana' has both Chinese and Native Hawaiian descent (among others).
© Getty Images
18 / 31 Fotos
Jason Scott Lee
- The actor and martial artist is best known for playing both Mowgli and Bruce Lee. Born in California and raised in Hawaii, Lee is of Hawaiian and Chinese descent.
© Getty Images
19 / 31 Fotos
Chloe Bennet
- The actress is half Chinese. She changed her name from Wang to Bennet to help her land roles in Hollywood. "Changing my last name doesn't change the fact that my blood is half Chinese, that I lived in China, speak Mandarin or that I was culturally raised both American and Chinese. It means I had to pay my rent, and Hollywood is racist and wouldn't cast me with a last name that made them uncomfortable," Bennet revealed.
© Getty Images
20 / 31 Fotos
Mark-Paul Gosselaar
- One thing you might not know about the 'Saved by the Bell' star is that he's half Asian. The blond hair was dyed. The actor's mother, who is of Dutch-Indonesian descent, is from Bali, Indonesia.
© Getty Images
21 / 31 Fotos
Olivia Rodrigo
- The teen pop sensation is half Filipino, and she's proud of being an Asian American role model. "I sometimes get DMs from little girls being like, 'I’ve never seen someone who looked like me in your position'," said Rodrigo.
© Getty Images
22 / 31 Fotos
Chanel Iman
- The model has both African-American and Korean heritage. "I think that everyone should be equal; it shouldn’t be about color," Iman said about the lack of diversity in fashion and film.
© Getty Images
23 / 31 Fotos
Mindy Kaling
- The famous actress is the daughter of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent. Mindy Kaling is half Bengali and half Tamil.
© Getty Images
24 / 31 Fotos
Maggie Q
- The actress, who has Vietnamese heritage, has opened up about racial typecasting in Hollywood. She was sent a script and asked to look at a specific role called 'The Chink.' "You can’t make it up. That’s the name of the character. It’s framed in my office, because I want to always be reminded of what’s out there," said the actress.
© Getty Images
25 / 31 Fotos
Danny Pudi
- The 'Community' actor has both Indian and Polish heritage. "Inside my home, I’m very Polish. As soon as I left the door, in school and in public, I was pretty much perceived as Indian," he said.
© Getty Images
26 / 31 Fotos
H.E.R.
- Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson, better known as H.E.R., has both Black and Filipino ancestry.
© Getty Images
27 / 31 Fotos
Anderson .Paak
- The American rapper has both Black and Korean heritage. Anderson .Paak's wife, Jae Lin, is South Korean.
© Getty Images
28 / 31 Fotos
Cary Joji Fukunaga
- The director of the latest James Bond movie, 'No Time to Die,' has Japanese ancestry, from his father's side.
© Getty Images
29 / 31 Fotos
Jim Lee
- Korean American comic artist Jim Lee started his successful career in Marvel, and is now the publisher and chief creative officer of DC Comics.
© Getty Images
30 / 31 Fotos
Eric S. Yuan
- The Zoom CEO is one of the most famous and successful Asian-American entrepreneurs in history. Sources: (BuzzFeed) (Days of the Year)
© Getty Images
31 / 31 Fotos
Famous Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
© Getty Images
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. And what better way to celebrate it than to bring you a list of famous Asians and Pacific Islanders. This May celebration originated in Congress and dates back to 1977. It started off as just a week, but by 1990 it had turned into a whole month of recognizing Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage.
In honor of this special month, click through the following gallery and see how many of these famous Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders you know.
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU




































MOST READ
- Last Hour
- Last Day
- Last Week
-
1
CELEBRITY Relationships
-
2
TRAVEL Astrology
-
3
LIFESTYLE North atlantic treaty organization
-
4
CELEBRITY Celebrity deaths
-
5
MOVIES Cinema
-
6
LIFESTYLE Money
-
7
CELEBRITY Royalty
-
8
CELEBRITY Ukraine conflict
-
9
LIFESTYLE Politicians
-
10
LIFESTYLE Photography
COMMENTS