Tag: hollywood

Kevin Kreider is a model, actor, and entrepreneur who was adopted from Korea and raised in Philadelphia by German-Irish Catholic parents. Growing up in a community where adoption was normalized but identity was rarely discussed, he struggled to understand where he belonged—facing racism, confusion, and the feeling of never being “Asian enough” or “American enough.”

Stephen Park is an actor who was born in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, to Korean immigrant parents seeking to relocate their family away from the busy city. When he was a child, his family moved to a small town called Waverly before eventually settling in Vestal, New York. Stephen describes how he became a class clown during his school days—popular among his peers, but often made fun of or taken advantage of by the same “friends,” some of whom targeted him for his ethnicity.

Charlotte Koh is the Executive Vice President of Acquisitions and Co-Productions for the Motion Picture Group at Lionsgate. She was born in Utah to Korean parents who immigrated to the United States in the late ’60s and early ’70s; they had gotten engaged in Korea before her father left for America to pursue graduate studies. The young family moved from Utah to Chicago shortly after Charlotte was born, as her mother’s brother lived in the city, and from early on, her parents emphasized the importance of education.

Ted Kim was born in Seattle, Washington, to Korean immigrant parents who arrived in the United States shortly after the Korean War ended. His father came from a line of ministers in Pyongyang and moved to Philadelphia, where he studied at seminary. His mother joined him there, and together they settled in Seattle, where she earned a doctorate while raising Ted and his six siblings—all while being a pastor’s wife.

James Shin is the President of Film & Television at HYBE America, where he develops Korean and Korean American talent—both in the U.S. and abroad—across music, film, and TV. Born in Chicago to immigrant parents with entrepreneurial spirits, James was a violin and piano prodigy who earned a full scholarship to Phillips Andover and later attended Princeton, where he served as concertmaster. After recognizing signs of burnout from his musical career, he pivoted to entertainment, studying the many pathways through which he might break into the industry.

Grace Yun is a distinguished production designer renowned for her work on films like Hereditary (2018), First Reformed (2017), and Past Lives (2023), as well as television series such as Ramy and Beef (2023).

Leonardo Nam was born in 1979 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the youngest of three children born to Korean immigrants who left their country in the aftermath of the Korean War. When he was six years old, his family moved to Australia, where he recalls being first moved by the spirit of acting while playing the role of Edmund in King Lear during an after-school program in Sydney. He describes the world of drama and theater as a source of refuge and community from a tumultuous household.

Harry Yoon was born in 1971 in South Korea and moved to the United States with his family when he was five years old. He recalls growing up in the East Bay fondly, with parents who recognized and nurtured his passion for entertaining others at an early age. Although he did “a little bit of film school” in college, his first career was in the tech industry. Having seen his parents sacrifice so much for their kids, Harry initially chose to pursue a stable career over his dream of working in film.

Kevin Woo was born in 1991 in Seoul, South Korea, to quite the musical family: his father was a pianist, his uncle a classically trained opera singer, and his aunts were artists. Growing up in the Bay, Kevin was naturally attuned to music, singing in his church’s praise band and putting on karaoke performances with his sister at home—favorites included the Spice Girls, Shania Twain, and NSYNC.

So Yun Um is a Korean American filmmaker from Los Angeles, California. She tells us about growing up in L.A. as a child in the ‘90s, a dynamic city full of fashion, enterprise, and of course, a large Korean community.

Daniel K. Isaac was born in 1988 in Los Angeles, California, to Korean immigrant parents who separated when he was a toddler. He grew up performing in church plays and participating in the Boy Scouts, later discovering his passion for theater through his high school’s productions. While in high school, he entered conversion therapy, influenced by his religious upbringing, but found in theater the family and community he longed for. Determined to pursue acting, he studied theater at UC San Diego, where he performed in a production every single quarter of his enrollment.

Kymber Lim, raised in Georgia, grew up fighting for her ambitions despite her immigrant parents’ expectations of a simple life. Her drive led her to college, where she thrived in production classes, impressing professors and diving into video production.

Will Yun Lee was born in 1971 in Arlington, Virginia, though he tells us that he spent much of his childhood moving around. After his parents’ divorce, he was cared for by family and friends for a while before moving back in with his father, who operated a Taekwondo studio in Hawaii.

Jeanne Yang was born in Los Angeles in 1968 as the second child of immigrant parents. She recalls how the last thing her parents expected was another child—her mother worked three jobs, the family lived in a converted garage, and her “crib” was a drawer filled with blankets—but family circumstances improved after moving to Monterey Park.

Jeanne’s first career was in law, following her parents’ wishes, but she soon became disillusioned with the legal system and pivoted towards the world of entertainment, where her career as a stylist flourished. Today, she works alongside A-list talent, magazines, and brands, moved by the question: “What will be your legacy?”

Animator and film director Peter Sohn was born in the Bronx, New York, to parents who immigrated to the United States from South Korea during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. His father opened and operated several small businesses, from grocers to art supply stores, and his mother arrived in America to work as a nurse.

Peter’s love for drawing and animation emerged at a young age, though it wasn’t always encouraged by his parents, who had navigated the hardships of the Korean War and of emigrating to the U.S. Their experiences have shaped and informed the stories Peter animates, directs, and creates today, speaking to the valences of immigrant life which he masterfully captures through film.

Diana Son was born in Philadelphia, though she attributes most of her formative memories to Dover, Delaware, where her family moved when she was a child. A self-described “latchkey kid,” she talks about how she had been enamored with writing and storytelling from a young age through watching popular talk shows after school. This passion for creating and sharing narratives took a pivotal turn into the theatrical world when she saw a production of Hamlet in New York City with her high school class.

Despite her storied and successful career in TV, as a writer/producer/showrunner and playwriting, she believes that she is still growing, learning, and “evolving” as an artist, telling us that there’s still so much more she wishes to accomplish; in her own words, “I’m still hungry.”