Category Archives: apamonth

APA Month Day 8 – Sandra Oh

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Born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Sandra Oh is a two-time Genie Award-winning (Canada’s Emmy), Golden Globe Award-winning and a three-time Emmy Award-nominated Canadian actress. Since the age of four, she has been involved in entertainment including ballet, theater, and improv. Her first major role was in CBC television film The Diary of Evelyn Lau. Her performance brought her a Gemini nomination for Best Actress and the 1994 Cannes FIPA d’Or for Best Actress. A year later, Sandra won her first Genie (Canada’s Oscar) for her leading role in Double Happiness, a bittersweet coming-of-age story about a young Chinese-Canadian woman.

She moved to Los Angeles in 1996 to begin the first of seven seasons as Rita Wu, the smart and sassy assistant on the HBO comedy series Arli$$, for which she won the final Cable Ace award for Best Actress in a Comedy. Her other television work also includes the acclaimed series Six Feet Under, Further Tales of the City, and Judging Amy. Among her feature film credits are The Night Listener, For Your Consideration, Three Needles, Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity, Under the Tuscan Sun, Sorry Haters, Rick, Bean, Guinevere, The Red Violin, Waking the Dead, Dancing at the Blue Iguana, The Princess Diaries and Pay or Play. Her lead performance in Last Night, won her a second Genie Award for Best Actress, and in 2003 the enormously successful feature film Sideways, earned her a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

A talented and driven actress, Sandra Oh is also a Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award winner and has also received two Emmy Award nominations for her role as Dr. Cristina Yang on the hit series Grey’s Anatomy. With all the awards, she knows that she is one of the few Asian actresses in Hollywood recognized for her talent. Although her success in Canada opened doors for her, she still experienced many difficulties in Hollywood based on her race. Getting a lead role in the US is much more difficult than in Canada. The Hollywood entertainment industry always want to keep her in the supporting roles.

Sandra Oh talks about being Asian American on the set of Grey’a Anatomy:

Watch Sandra Oh as Dr. Cristina Yang in Grey’s Anatomy on Thusday nights at 9pm/8pm Central on ABC:

APA Month Day 7 – Kevjumba

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Kevjumba aka Kevin Wu is one of the top all-time subscribed comedians on YouTube. The Chinese American high schooler gained huge visibility when YouTube featured his video “I have to deal with Stereotypes”. Here’s the video:

Kevjumba draws his inspiration from comedian Dave Chappelle. And based on online videos, he is an avid soccer player with an online pseudo-girlfriend HappySlip. Recently, he has been able to get high profile celebrities on his videos including Baron Davis vs Kevjumba in waste paper basketball. In his latest video, he challenges Baron Davis and Jessica Alba to a staring competition.

Kevjumba vs Baron Davis in a staring competition:

Jessica Alba answers Kevjumba’s staring challenge:

Subscribe to Kevjumba on YouTube.

APA Month Day 6 – HappySlip

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Prior to her YouTube fame, Christine Gambito aka HappySlip was a registered nurse, but always had a passion for acting. The nurse-turned-actress was always looking for a creative outlet and had thought of one day doing a one woman show. Not only is she in front of the camera, but is also her own production team doing everything from scripting, directing, and editing.

“Mixed Nuts” video spoofing a quirky Filipino family was her breakthrough video. Her hard work got HappySlip Nominated for 2006 YouTube Video Award. HappySlip is one of the top subscribed directors on YouTube with over 150k subscribers. She also became one of the first YouTube users accepted into YouTube’s revenue sharing program. Earlier this year, the Filipino-American was appointed ambassador for Philippine tourism by the Department of Tourism and made a series of video in the Philippines. We hope HappySlip continues her success.

Watch HappySlip in “Mixed Nuts”:

HappySlip just recently launched a contest for her video “Exposed”. You can join the contest here. Watch HappySlip in “Exposed”:

You can add HappySlip as a friend on Youtube and Myspace

APA Month Day 5 – Actor Kal Penn

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Kal Penn aka Kalpen Suresh Modi has burst onto the Holloywood scene the past few years with starring roles in National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, The Namesake, and most recently Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay. He can also be seen as a regualrly oon TV as Dr. Kutner on Fox’s House.

Despite his success, Kal Penn has seen his share of racism in Hollywood. In his first audition in Los Angeles for a commercial, he was asked “Where’s your turban?” When he explained why he didn’t wear a turban, the casting director told him to “put on a bedsheet or something”. Partly as a joke and partly to test if anglicized names appeal more to a white-dominated Hollywood, he changed his name from Kalpen Modi to Kal Penn on his resume and photos. Suprisingly, callbacks for auditions increased. Although he still prefers Kalpen Modi, he is stuck with his working name Kal Penn in Hollywood.

With his experience in acting and auditioning, Mr. Kalpen Modi (aka Kal Penn) is currently an adjunct professor in the Asian American Studies Department at UPENN teaching ASAM 109/CINE 109/SOCI 109 “IMAGES OF ASIAN-AMERICANS IN MEDIA” for Asian American Studies, Cinema Studies, and Sociology! This course examines contemporary popular images of Asian Americans in the US media, with a specific focus on popular film and television. Guest lecturers that have spoken in Professor Modi’s class include Margaret Cho, executives from New Line Cinema, Daniel Chun (Writer, The Simpsons), and Vali Chandrasekara (Writer, My Name is Earl).

Watch Kal Penn of talk about being an Asian American actor and typecasting:

Watch Kal Penn on House on Monday Nights at 9pm/8pm Central:

APA Month Day 4 – Comedian Dr. Ken Jeong

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Ken Jeong aka Dr. Ken has been blending comedy & medicine all of his life. After graduating Duke University & attaining his MD at the University of North Carolina, Ken completed his Internal Medicine residency in New Orleans while developing a cult comedy following.

While in New Orleans, Ken won the Big Easy Laff-Off. Late NBC president Brandon Tartikoff and Improv founder Budd Friedman judged the competition and advised Ken to move to Los Angeles. Once residing in LA, Ken began performing regularly at the Improv & Laugh Factory. He is also part of the Kims of Comedy consisting of Bobby Lee, Kevin Shea, Steve Byrne, and Dr. Ken Jeong

Ken’s background in theater & improv has led to several television appearances including “The Office,” “Entourage” “Boston Legal” and “The Shield.”. He is a recurring voice on FOX’s American Dad. In 2007, Dr. Ken made his feature film debut in Knocked Up as Dr. Kuni. Here’s clip from the movie:

Warning! – the clips on this entry are not safe for work (NSFW)

Dr. Ken will reteam with Judd Apatow & Seth Rogen in The Pineapple Express. He recently completed filming All About Steve starring Sandra Bullock, Little Big Men starring Paul Rudd, and The Goods: The Don Ready Story starring Jeremy Piven. He also wrapped a cameo in Step Brothers starring Will Ferrell. Look for Pineapple Express and Step Brothers this summer.

Dr. Ken also has a following for the viral video Million Dollar Strong where he plays Yoshido. Watch this hilarious music video What’s It Gonna Be? by Million Dollar Strong:

Warning! – the clips on this entry are not safe for work (NSFW)

According to Variety, MTV Films plan to make this into a full blown movie.
They story will revolve around the meteoric rise of a delusional rapper (Mike O’Connell) and his Asian foreign exchange student friend (Ken Jeong) as they take on the hip-hop world.

Add Dr. Ken as you myspace friend.

APA Month Day 3 – Video Game Pianist Martin Leung

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Martin Leung (aka Video Game Pianist aka Blindfolded Pianist) is an award-winning, globally-recognized pianist and musical pioneer for the 21st century. Although he trained classically, Martin Leung specializes in playing music from video games.

At San Francisco’s Sony Metreon on 8 March 2005, Martin made his first public appearance interpreting the tune-stories of Super Mario, Sonic, Zelda, Earthworm Jim, and Halo 2 as a performing art. Two days later he performed at Moscone Center for the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) Audio Awards. Martin Leung is in the vanguard of efforts to introduce video game music as a respectable component of universal music-making. The first video-game-music solo recital Martin performed publicly was in 2005 at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, Texas—replete with 21 encores.

His success was initially launched by a popular internet video of then-seventeen-year-old Martin’s blindfolded performance of the classic Super Mario Brothers theme, and a spirited Mario medley. This landmark clip debuted on numerous websites on 2 July 2004.

Watch the Video Game Pianist in action:

You can also find Martin Leung at Facebook, Myspace, and YouTube. Add him as your friend.