Since the very first Academy Awards in 1929, only 23 performances by Asian actors have been nominated for an Oscar.
Four of those 23 nominations came in 2023: Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu for “Everything Everywhere All At Once” (above) and Hong Chau for “The Whale” (next photo).
Bing Chen, President and Executive Chairman of Gold House — the organization that unites, invests in, and promotes Asian Pacific Islander creatives and creative projects — toasted the record AAPI nominations earlier this week.
“Our community leads in nearly every major Oscar category while our own Gold House co-founder [Janet Yang] is President of The Academy,” Chen said in his speech. “We got here because we did this together — and we can’t wait to take it further.”
Indeed, Sunday’s Oscars was a historic night. Best Actress winner Michelle Yeoh was only the second Asian actress in history to be nominated for Lead Actress (Merle Oberon, who was born in Mumbai, passed as white during Hollywood’s Golden Era). And her costar Ke Huy Quan took home the Best Supporting Actor award, 38 years after Haing Ngor won his. Read on to learn about these trailblazers.
Miyoshi Umeki
Best Supporting Actress, “Sayonara” (1957)
The Japanese actress was the first performer of Asian descent to win an Oscar, a supporting role in the 1957 war romance drama “Sayonara.”
Ben Kingsley
Best Actor, “Gandhi” (1983)
Kingsley, who is of British Indian descent, is the first and only person to win Best Actor for his portrayal of revolutionary leader Mahatma Gandhi.
As recently as 2021, two Asian actors — Riz Ahmed and Steven Yeun — were nominated for their performances in “The Sound of Metal” and “Minari,” respectively.
Haing S. Ngor
Best Supporting Actor, “The Killing Fields” (1984)
Ngor, who is of Cambodian descent, won an Oscar for his portrayal of journalist and refugee Dith Pran, who chronicled the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.
Sadly, Ngor was murdered in 1996 in what has been reported as both an assassination (for his role in the film) or a violent robbery.
Yuh-Jung Youn
Best Supporting Actress, “Minari” 2021
After a career spanning five decades in her native South Korea, Youn won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in the Korean-American immigrant family drama “Minari.”
Michelle Yeoh
Best Actress, “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” 2023
Yeoh is only the second woman of color to win Best Actress. She was presented her award by Halle Berry, the first woman of color to win.
Ke Huy Quan
Best Supporting Actor, “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” 2023
A former child star who starred in ’80s hits like “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies,” Quan talked openly about his struggles finding work for decades. Quan dominated the awards circuit and took him the big prize.
