Actresses of Asian Pacific persuasion

1. Maggie Q

Margaret Denise Quigley was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to a father of Polish and Irish descent (originally based in New York) and a Vietnamese mother. Her parents met during the Vietnam War. Maggie has two older half-siblings from her mother's previous marriage, and two older sisters. The family ...

2. Olivia Munn

Actress | The Newsroom

Lisa Olivia Munn was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Her mother, Kimberly Schmid, lived in Vietnam, and is of Chinese ancestry, while her father, Winston Barrett Munn, is from a family with deep roots in the American South. Olivia's parents divorced when she was two years old, and she was raised ...

3. Shay Mitchell

Actress | The Possession of Hannah Grace

Shay Mitchell (born Shannon Ashley Mitchell; April 10, 1987) is a Canadian actress, model, entrepreneur and author. She rose to prominence starring as Emily Fields in the Freeform series Pretty Little Liars (2010) (2010-2017).

She was born in Mississauga, Ontario, the daughter of Precious Garcia and...

4. Phoebe Cates

Actress | Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Phoebe Belle Cates was born on July 16, 1963 in New York City, New York, and raised there. She is the daughter of Lily and Joseph Cates, who was a Broadway producer and television pioneer. Her uncle was director/producer Gilbert Cates. Phoebe is of Russian Jewish, and one quarter Chinese, descent. ...

5. Tia Carrere

Actress | Wayne's World

Tia Carrere, born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, was discovered in a grocery store and landed the female lead in the film Aloha Summer. She then moved to Los Angeles and continued her ascent in the acting world as a series regular on General Hospital as well as a string of guest starring roles on ...

6. Lucy Liu

Actress | Kill Bill: Vol. 1

Born to immigrants in New York City, Lucy Liu has always tried to balance an interest in her cultural heritage with a desire to move beyond a strictly Asian-American experience. Her mother, Cecilia, a biochemist, is from Beijing & her father, Tom Liu, a civil engineer, is from Shanghai. Once ...

7. Jennifer Tilly

Actress | Bound

An actress who always attracts audiences' attention, Jennifer Tilly is by turns funny, sexy, compassionate, compelling and often all at once. She has been playing unforgettable characters ever since she started her career as an actress.

Jennifer Tilly was born Jennifer Ellen Chan in Harbor City, ...

8. Grace Park

Actress | Battlestar Galactica

Grace Park (born March 14, 1974) is an American-Canadian actress. She gained recognition as Lt. Sharon 'Boomer' Valerii and Lt. Sharon 'Athena' Agathon on Battlestar Galactica (2004), as well as Shannon Ng in the Canadian television series teen soap Edgemont (2000). From 2010 to 2017, Park starred ...

9. Kimiko Glenn

Actress | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Kimiko Elizabeth Glenn was born and raised in Phoenix, AZ, where she grew up with her sister Amanda, and parents Mark and Sumiko. She started doing theater when she was ten years old at Valley Youth Theatre and there, began developing her love for performing.

Halfway through her freshman year of ...

10. Moon Bloodgood

Actress | Terminator Salvation

Moon Bloodgood was born on September 20, 1975 in Alliance, Nebraska, USA. She is an actress, known for Terminator Salvation (2009), Faster (2010) and The Sessions (2012). She was previously married to Grady Hall.

11. Gemma Chan

Actress | The Creator

Gemma Chan (born 29 November 1982) is a British film, television, and theatre actress and former fashion model. She played Charlotte in season four of the Showtime and ITV2 series Secret Diary of a Call Girl (2007); Ruth in Channel 4's Fresh Meat (2011); Mia Bennett in Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars...

12. Chasty Ballesteros

Actress | The Ranch

Chasty Rose Ballesteros is a Canadian actress of Filipino descent who has had roles in Smallville, Supernatural, Psych, Sanctuary, Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory, and How I Met Your Mother. Raised in Winnipeg, Ballesteros moved to Vancouver after high school, to pursue a career as a hairstylist...

13. Kelly Hu

Actress | The Scorpion King

On February 13th, 1968, a girl of Chinese, English, and Hawaiian ancestry was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her father, Herbert, was a salesman and her mother, Juanita, worked many odd jobs to help support the family. She has one older brother, Glenn. She is a former Miss Teen USA, and modeled in Japan...

14. Sarah Oh

Actress | House of Lies

Sarah Oh was born in Glendale, Arizona. She's is Korean American and is based in Los Angeles. Sarah has experience in singing and was part of a company dance team for 14 years where she danced competitively. She auditioned for an indie feature that was shooting in her town when she was 17 years old...

15. Ziyi Zhang

Actress | Yi dai zong shi

Ziyi Zhang is a Chinese actress and model. She is best known for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Rush Hour 2 (2001), Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004), and Memoirs of a Geisha (2005).

She made her feature film debut in The Road Home (1999).

For her work in Memoirs of a Geisha she was...

16. Samantha Futerman

Actress | Memoirs of a Geisha

Samantha Futerman is a South Korean-born American actress. She is known for her supporting role in the drama film Memoirs of a Geisha, set in Japan around World War II. She is also known for her self-made documentary film Twinsters, about how she discovered the twin sister she was not aware she had...

17. Tamlyn Tomita

Actress | The Day After Tomorrow

Tamlyn Tomita was born on January 27, 1966 in Okinawa, Japan. She is an actress and writer, known for The Day After Tomorrow (2004), The Karate Kid Part II (1986) and The Eye (2008). She is married to Daniel Blinkoff.

18. Julie Chen Moonves

Actress | The Millers

Chen began filling in as news anchor for The CBS Morning News (1987) and This Morning (1988) in June 1999. Before that, she was a reporter and anchor for WCBS-TV, the CBS station in New York (1997-99). She also was a reporter for WDTN-TV Dayton (1995-97). Chen was a producer for ABC NewsOne, that ...

19. Lindsay Price

Actress | Lipstick Jungle

Lindsay Price was born on December 6, 1976 in Arcadia, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Lipstick Jungle (2008), Eastwick (2009) and Splitting Up Together (2018). She has been married to Curtis Stone since June 8, 2013. They have two children. She was previously married to Shawn Piller.

20. Sonia Couling

Actress | A Stranger in Paradise

Born in Thailand, half-Thai, half English Sonia, or Pim, as warmly known amongst friends and family, has been working as a professional model since being discovered at age 13. She attended boarding school and University in the UK and worked with Storm Agency landing ads for L'Oreal UK and many ...

21. Jadyn Wong

Actress | Scorpion

A Canadian actress who has a black belt in karate and is also a classical pianist, Jadyn J. Wong made her professional acting debut in the Emmy Award-winning and Golden Globe-nominated miniseries Broken Trail (2006) on June 24, 2006, with Academy Award-winner Robert Duvall. She was handpicked for ...

22. Denyce Lawton

Actress | The Hot Zone

Multiethnic (African-American / Korean) actress Denyce Lawton is best known for her four seasons on the six-time NAACP Best Comedy Series Winner series House of Payne (2006) from producer Tyler Perry.

Denyce was born and raised in the New Jersey communities of Belmar and Neptune (familiar to viewers...

23. Pisay Pao

Actress | Velvet Buzzsaw

Pisay Pao is a Cambodian American actress best known for playing Cassandra on the Syfy series "Z Nation." She was born in Thailand after her parents escaped Cambodia at the end of their country's civil war. Pisay's family were eventually sponsored to the US and settled in Seattle, Washington. Here,...

24. Brenda Song

Actress | Dollface

Brenda Song was born in Carmichael, California. Her father is Hmong and her mother is Thai-American. Brenda, her parents, and her younger brothers Timmy and Nathan now live in a suburb of Los Angeles.

Brenda was named an All-American Scholar in ninth grade and holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

She ...

25. Ali Wong

Producer | Ali Wong: Baby Cobra

Ali Wong was born on April 19, 1982 in San Francisco, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Ali Wong: Baby Cobra (2016), Always Be My Maybe (2019) and Beef (2023). She has been married to Justin Hakuta since November 27, 2014. They have two children.

26. Ahney Her

Actress | Gran Torino

Ahney Her was born in Lansing, Michigan, USA. She is known for Gran Torino (2008), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Night Club (2011).

27. Joan Chen

Actress | Judge Dredd

Born into a family of doctors and educated in China at the Shanghai Film Academy and the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Languages, Joan Chen was discovered by veteran Chinese director Jin Xie while observing a filming with a school group. Her performance in Xiao hua (1979) (A.K.A. "The Little Flower...

28. Yunjin Kim

Actress | Lost

Yunjin Kim (born November 7, 1973), also known as Kim Yun-Jin is a South Korean-American film and theater actress. She is best known for her role as Sun on the American television series Lost, and as the North Korean spy Bang-Hee in the South Korean film Shiri. She also starred as Dr. Karen Kim in ...

29. Mayko Nguyen

Actress | ReGenesis

Mayko Nguyen was born on April 19, 1980 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She is an actress, known for ReGenesis (2004), Going the Distance (2004) and Anon (2018).

30. Jamie Chung

Actress | Big Hero 6

Jamie Chung was born and raised in California, the daughter of Korean parents. She studied Economics at the University of California, Riverside. Chung's break came in 2004, when she was working in a sports bar. MTV held auditions for The Real World (1992) there, she tried out, and was successful, ...

31. Tera Patrick

Actress | Island Fever

Tera Patrick's height (5'9"), exotic look (her mother is Thai and her father was an American Army doctor of English and Dutch descent) and spectacular body would seem more suited to a high-fashion model--which is exactly what she was, having spent five years as a model with the world-famous Ford ...

32. Saffron Burrows

Actress | You

Saffron Burrows, known for her work in critically acclaimed films, this fall reprises her role in the hit Netflix show YOU, season 3. Burrows previously starred in the Golden Globe winning Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle. In 2019 Burrows directed the short films: Michael & Indigo, starring Jason...

33. Cassie Ventura

Actress | Step Up 2: The Streets

Cassie is a singer, actress, model, songwriter, and dancer. Albums: Me&U, Long Way 2 Go Official Girl ft. Lil'Wayne Is it you

Cassandra is a 5 time National Grand Champion Twirler, because of twirling is how her modeling career started. Cassandra models for Abercrombie, Target, Jcpennys, Walmart, ...

34. Lee Sung Hi

Actress | The Girl Next Door

Sung Hi Lee was born on April 1, 1970 in Eunpyong-Gu (Gija-Chon), a borough of Seoul, South Korea. She moved to the United States in 1978 and spent a large part of her childhood moving around from city to city. Sung Lee was a studious child and teenager spending more time at the library than at ...

35. Jun Ji-hyun

Actress | Yeopgijeogin geunyeo

Versatile and Charismatic, Jun Ji-Hyun is one of the most loved and respected actresses in her homeland of South Korea. She has won numerous accolades, including two Grand Bell Awards for Best Actress and a Baeksang Art Awards Daesang (Grand Prize) for Television. Jun Ji-Hyun's success in film and ...

36. Julia Ling

Actress | Tactical Girl

Most widely known for her work on prime time television on shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, House (FOX), ER, Grey's Anatomy, The OC, 8 Simple Rules (Disney), The Deep End (ABC), the critically acclaimed Aaron Sorkin series, Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip (NBC), Julia Ling starred as the popular "...

37. Liu Yifei

Actress | Mulan

Crystal Liu, better known by her stage name Liu Yifei, was born in Wuhan, on August 25, 1987. She began modeling at 8. She was trained in singing, dancing & the piano. She moved to the U.S. at 10 w/ her mom, where she lived for 4 years. She returned to China in June 2002 to pursue a modeling & ...

38. Tiffany Tynes

Actress | Livin with Grandma

Tiffany Tynes-Gonzales is an American actress from Memphis, Tn. She is also a content creator and professional dancer known for Bart Baker's Anaconda Parody, Bright, and Tosh.O.

Tiffany started out as a print model where she would begin to really start to feel more and more confident in getting into...

39. Amerie

Actress | First Daughter

Introduced to most of the world in 2005 with the smash single "1 Thing," triple-threat actress / dancer / singer-songwriter-producer Ameriie continues to evolve.

Amerie was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, to Mi Suk, a Korean-born artist, and Charles Rogers, an African-American military man. As a ...

40. Marisa Quintanilla

Actress | The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2

A dedicated performer, visual artist, & creative producer, Marisa is best known for her role as "Huilen" - a pivotal character in the Box Office hit Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2.

She is a graduate of the esteemed Brown University, and as part of her Ivy League undergraduate experience she had...

41. Sandra Oh

Actress | Killing Eve

Sandra Oh was born to Korean parents in the Ottawa suburb of Nepean, Ontario, Canada. Her father, Oh Junsu, a businessman, and her mother, Oh Young-Nam, a biochemist, were married in Seoul, Korea. They both attended graduate school at the University of Toronto. Sandra began her career as a ballet ...

42. Liza Lapira

Actress | 21

Liza Lapira is a film, television, and theater actress. She was raised in Queens, N.Y. In New York, she acted on stage and in independent films. She moved to Los Angeles to pursue work in television. Her first theatrical film appearance was in the romantic drama Autumn in New York and since then ...

43. Kelly Lin

Actress | Shu shan zheng zhuan

Kelly Lin was born on October 29, 1975 in Taiwan. She is an actress and director, known for Zu Warriors (2001), The Devil Inside Me (2011) and After This Our Exile (2006).

44. Sara Malakul Lane

Actress | King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

Sara Malakul Lane is a successful Thai model and actress. She began modeling at the age of 14, and has also been in a number of big screen movies including Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015). Sara is a model of Thai-Scottish descent. Her father is a Scottish businessman named Alistair ...

45. Bernice Liu

Actress | Yip Man chin chyun

Bernice Liu was born on January 6, 1979 in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada. She is an actress and producer, known for The Legend Is Born: Ip Man (2010), The King of Fighters (2009) and Perfect Wedding (2010).

46. Kira Clavell

Actress | Frankie & Alice

Kira Clavell is known for Frankie & Alice (2010), Rogue (2013) and The Hunters (2013).

47. Kelis

Soundtrack | xXx

Kelis was born on August 21, 1979 in Harlem, New York, USA. She is an actress and composer, known for xXx (2002), Ocean's Eight (2018) and The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005). She was previously married to Mike Mora and Nas.

48. Michelle Yeoh

Actress | Everything Everywhere All at Once

Michelle Yeoh was born in Ipoh, Malaysia. She's the daughter of Janet Yeoh & Kian Teik Yeoh. She's of Hokkien descent, speaking English and Malay before Chinese. A ballet dancer since 4, she moved to London to study at the Royal Academy as a teen. After a brief dance career, she won the Miss ...

49. Julia Nickson

Actress | China Cry: A True Story

Julia Nickson was born on the beautiful island city of Singapore. Her early years were spent in the vales of Wiltshire, England, followed by the red rock canyons of the Zambezi river in Africa, but she returned to Singapore after her father's death, when she was six. From the age of seven to ...

50. Rosalind Chao

Actress | 3 Body Problem

Rosalind Chao is best known for M*A*S*H, The Joy Luck Club (1993), Star Trek, What Dreams May Come, and most recently The Laundromat (2019), and Plus One (2019). She was born and raised in Orange County, California where her parents ran a Chinese restaurant and pancake house. Rosalind first began ...

51. Krystal Vee

Actress | Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

Krystal Vee is known for her performance in "Scorpion King 3," which played the role of Princess Silda, directed by Roel Reine. Born in Bangkok, Thailand as the second daughter of a Thai father and a British mother. As a result of her father's Diplomatic work she spent a total of six years living ...

52. Koyuki

Actress | The Last Samurai

She rose to fame in the drama Kimi wa petto (2003) with Jun Matsumoto and gained huge popularity.

Her first international film was The Last Samurai (2003) where she played Taka, wife of a Samurai slain by the character Nathan Algren, portrayed by Tom Cruise, Koyuki was well-known in Japan for years ...

53. Rachel Huxtable

Actress | For Evie

Rachel Huxtable is an actor, known for The Whistleblower, Syfy's series Hunters and prime time Australian series Neighbours. Huxtable made her screen debut in Australian feature film Hating Alison Ashley. Other roles on prime time series' followed on Offspring, Thank God You're Here, Wilfred, The ...

54. Sei Ashina

Actress | Silk

Sei Ashina was born on November 22, 1983 in Koriyama, Japan. She was an actress, known for Silk (2007), Kamen Rider Hibiki (2005) and Nanase: The Psychic Wanderers (2010). She died on September 14, 2020 in Tokyo, Japan.

55. Gillian Chung

Actress | Wu Ze Tian mi shi

Gillian Chung Yun Tung is a Hong Kong pop singer and actress. She resides in the affluent Midlevels district in Hong Kong with her younger sister. Standing at just over five feet tall, Chung is a graduate of the Kowloon True Light Middle School and attended RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. ...

56. Elodie Yung

Actress | Gods of Egypt

Elodie Yung was born in Paris, France, of Cambodian and French descent. She grew up in Seine-saint-Denis, in Le Bourget, where she practiced karate and obtained her black belt. She graduated from University of La Sorbonne in Paris and has a law degree. She then decided to study acting at London ...

57. Charlet Takahashi Chung

Actress | Overwatch

Charlet Takahashi Chung was born on February 16, 1983 in Long Beach, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Overwatch (2016), Touch (2012) and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014). She is married to Tom Yoo. They have two children.