Tammy Duckworth is a U.S. Senator from Illinois, in addition to being the first Thai American woman elected to Congress, first person born in Thailand elected to Congress, first woman with a disability elected to Congress, first double amputee in the Senate, and first senator to give birth while in office. Learn more about Tammy below.
Tammy Duckworth is a U.S. Senator from Illinois, in addition to being the first Thai American woman elected to Congress, first person born in Thailand elected to Congress, first woman with a disability elected to Congress, first double amputee in the Senate, and first senator to give birth while in office. She is a retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel and was the first American female double amputee from the Iraq War, for which she received a Purple Heart.
Jhumpa Lahiri won a Pulitzer Prize for her debut short-story collection titled Interpreter of Maladies and has authored an additional short-story collection, as well as three novels. Most of her work addresses the common struggles that Indian American immigrants to the United States face and the stark differences between America and their homeland.
Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson, more professionally known as H.E.R, is an American artist. She was born and raised in the California Bay Area to her Filipina American mother and African American father. She has won numerous awards for her music. Her second compilation album, I Used to Know Her, was nominated for five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Song of the Year for “Hard Place”. In 2021, she was awarded the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for “I Can’t Breathe” and the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Fight for You” from the film Judas and the Black Messiah with her also winning the Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Performance for the latter song the following year. Her debut full-length album Back of My Mind was released in June 2021.
Yuri Kochiyama was a Japanese American political and civil rights activist. During World War II, her and her family were forcibly moved to an incarceration site for Japanese Americans by the U.S. government. Her activism supported the liberation of African American, Asian American, and Puerto Rican people. She spoke out against injustice in the U.S. and worked alongside many activists, including Malcolm X.
SopJon M. Chu is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Chu grew up near Palo Alto, California and loved making films from a young age. His mother (born in Taiwan) and father (born in Sichuan) gave him a video camera when he was in fifth grade, so he could document family vacations. Instead, he loved making home movies starring his siblings. He is most well-known for directing Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and In The Heights (2021).
Sophia Li is a Chinese American climate justice and racial justice advocate. Harvard named Li one of the top climate communicators of 2022. She serves on the Board of Directors of environmental nonprofit Slow Factory and is on the advisory board of Better Shelter. Her journalistic reporting has appeared in CNN, Vice and the United Nations. She is the co-founder and co-host of All of the Above, the first sustainability talk show. Sophia also is the host of Meta’s podcast, Climate Talks
Philip Vera Cruz was a Filipino American labor leader, agricultural worker, and leader in the Asian American Movement. He helped to establish the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (which later became United Farm Workers), working to improve the conditions for migrant workers. He was born in Saoang, San Juan, Ilocos Sur, Philippines in 1904 and moved to the United States in 1926.
Rupi Kaur was born in Punjab, India and she moved to Canada with her family at 4 years old. Kaur is a well-known and celebrated poet. At 21, as a university student, Rupi wrote, illustrated, and self-published her first collection of poetry, Milk and Honey. She has also written The Sun and Her Flowers and Home Body. Considered to be a part of the “Instapoetry” group, Kaur’s work is simplistic in nature and explores South Asian identity, immigration and femininity; her childhood and personal life serve as sources of inspiration. Line drawings accompany her poetry with stark subject matters. Kaur has been included on congratulatory year-end lists by the BBC and Elle; The New Republic controversially called her the “Writer of the Decade”.
Olivia Isabel Rodrigo (born February 20, 2003) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Olivia Rodrigo’s Filipina heritage comes from her father’s side of her family. She is a three-time Grammy Winner and has earned many other awards for her first album. She gained recognition in the late 2010s with her lead roles on the Disney television programs Bizaardvark and High School Musical. Rodrigo’s debut studio album, Sour (2021), topped charts globally and was met with widespread critical acclaim, earning her a Brit Award and three Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist. Time named her the 2021 Entertainer of the Year and Billboard named her Woman of the Year in 2022. Rodrigo is biracial, with her father being a Filipino-American and her mother having German and Irish ancestry.
Amy Tan is a Chinese American novelist most well-known for her book The Joy Luck Club which explores the relationship between Chinese mothers and their Chinese American daughters. The novel has been incredibly influential and won many awards including the Los Angeles Times and New York Times book awards – and was translated into 25 languages. Tan’s other two books, The Kitchen God’s Wife (1991) and The Hundred Secret Senses (1995), have also appeared on the New York Times bestseller list.
Naomi Osaka (大坂 なおみ), born October 16, 1997, is a Japanese professional tennis player. She has been ranked No. 1 by the Women’s Tennis Association and is the first Asian player to hold the top ranking in singles. She is a four-time Grand Slam singles champion. Her seven titles on the WTA Tour also include two at the Premier Mandatory level. At the 2018 US Open and the 2019 Australian Open, Osaka won her first two Grand Slam singles titles in back-to-back Grand Slam tournaments. She was the first woman to win successive Grand Slam singles titles since Serena Williams in 2015, and was the first to win her first two in successive majors since Jennifer Capriati in 2001.
Bruce Lee, Chinese name Li Jun Fan (1940-1973) was an American-born film actor who was renowned for his martial arts prowess and who helped popularize martial arts movies in the 1970s. Lee was born in San Francisco, but he grew up in Hong Kong. He was introduced to the entertainment industry at an early age, as his father was an opera singer and part-time actor. The younger Lee began appearing in films as a child and was frequently cast as a juvenile delinquent or street urchin. As a teenager, he took up with local gangs and began learning kung fu to better defend himself. His work revolutionized Hong Kong martial arts, changed the way Asian American masculinity is portrayed in media, and inspired many athletes, MMA legends like Manny Pacquiao and rappers like Wu-Tang’s RZA with his physical prowess and discipline.
Born and raised on Martha’s Vineyard, Emma Lovewell is an MVRHS graduate and a UMass Amherst Graduate where she earned degrees in Chinese and Mass Communication. She is a former professional dancer, personal trainer, pilates instructor, and is now Brooklyn, NY based and a lead instructor at Peloton. “My ‘Asianness’ has been questioned and doubted, and I have felt shame and confusion about my identity, but I can honestly say I am so proud to be who I am. I am proud to be Asian. As an athlete, entertainer, and daughter I am so honored to be a voice representing the AAPI community and showing up in solidarity in any way that I can.“
Kamala Devi Harris (born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who is the 49th and current vice president of the United States. She is the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well as the first African American and first Asian American vice president. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as the attorney general of California from 2011 to 2017 and as a United States senator representing California from 2017 to 2021.
Nora Lum (born June 2, 1988), known professionally as Awkwafina, is an American actress, rapper, and comedian. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, and nominations for a British Academy Film Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an AACTA International Award.
Ellison Shoji Onizuka (エリソン・ショージ・オニヅカ, 鬼塚 承次, Onizuka Shōji, (June 24, 1946 – January 28, 1986) was an American astronaut, engineer, and USAF test pilot from Kealakekua, Hawaii, who successfully flew into space with the Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-51-C. He died in the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger, on which he was serving as Mission Specialist for mission STS-51-L. He was the first Asian American and the first person of Japanese origin to reach space.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellison_Onizuka
Michelle Kwan, original name Kwan Shan Wing, (born July 7, 1980, Torrance, California, U.S.), American figure skater who was one of the most decorated athletes in the sport. Combining artistry and elegance with athleticism, she won more than 40 championships, including a record-tying nine U.S. titles (1996, 1998–2005).
Kwan began skating at age five and won her first competition two years later. In 1994 she landed the alternate spot on the U.S. Olympic team and the following year placed fourth at the world championships. In 1996, sporting a new, more grown-up look, she won her first U.S. and world titles. After a growth spurt that added both height and weight, Kwan finished second to Tara Lipinski at the U.S. and world championships in 1997. She entered the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan, as the gold-medal favourite, having defeated Lipinski at the U.S. championships earlier in the year. Lipinski, however, won the closely contested event, and Kwan had to settle for a silver medal. She captured a bronze medal at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the following year won her fifth world championship (1996, 1998, 2000–01, 2003).
Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Michelle-Kwan
Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa (born August 1, 1979) is an American actor and filmmaker. Jason identifies as Native Hawaiian (his race) and Polynesian (his ethnicity). He made his acting debut as Jason Ioane on the syndicated action drama series Baywatch: Hawaii (1999–2001), which was followed by portrayals of Ronon Dex on the Syfy science fiction series Stargate Atlantis (2005–2009), Khal Drogo in the first two seasons of the HBO fantasy drama series Game of Thrones (2011–2012), Declan Harp on the Discovery Channel historical drama series Frontier (2016–2018), and Baba Voss on the Apple TV+ science fiction series See (2019–present). Momoa was featured as the lead of the two lattermost series.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Momoa
Tiger Woods, byname of Eldrick Woods, (born December 30, 1975, Cypress, California, U.S.), American golfer who enjoyed one of the greatest amateur careers in the history of the game and became the dominant player on the professional circuit in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 1997 Woods became the first golfer of either African American or Asian descent to win the Masters Tournament, one of the most prestigious events in the sport. With his victory at the 2001 Masters, Woods became the first player to win consecutively the four major tournaments of golf—the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open (Open Championship), and the PGA Championship.
Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tiger-Woods
Mazie Horino was a Japanese-born American politician who was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2012 and began representing Hawaii the following year. She was the first Asian immigrant and the first Buddhist to serve in the Senate and the first woman to represent Hawaii in that legislative body. Hirono previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives.