After decades, Hollywood is finally catching on to what we've all known: Asian men are hot. And they can act. Check out this list of hot Asian American men repping in Hollywood right now.
1. Justin Chon Born and raised in California, actor and director Justin Chon has starred in a diverse range of roles, from key supporting characters in the Twilight series and Nickelodeon shows to Martin Scorsese's Revenge of the Green Dragons. The Korean American son of a former child actor and a concert pianist began his directing career with 2017's Gook , a '90s LA riots drama, which won the Next category of the Sundance Film Festival and nabbed him an Independent Spirit Award, and followed up in 2019 with contemporary sibling drama Ms. Purple. Chon's latest project, Blue Bayou , stars Chon as the lead alongside Alicia Vikander as a Korean immigrant deported by ICE.
Dominique Charriau / WireImage 2. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson The Rock has been gracing screens as your friendly neighborhood giant (and resident DILF) for over a decade, but many people may not know that the 6'5" former WWE champion and Fast and Furious star is half Samoan on his mother's side. Johnson is one of the highest-paid and highest-grossing film stars globally, appearing in movies like Jumanji: The Movie , The Mummy Returns, and Moana . In Hollywood, Johnson is known as much for his work ethic and being an all-around good guy as his impressive muscles.
Nbc / NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images 3. Henry Golding Actor, television host, and model Henry Golding was born in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia and moved to England when he was 8 before moving back to Malaysia at age 21 to pursue acting work and to host travel shows. Golding was catapulted to international stardom as the lead in all-Asian romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians , playing multimillionaire prince charming Nick Young. His mother is from the Indigenous Iban people of Sarawak, and Golding underwent the bejalai, an Iban coming-of-age ritual, in the Borneo jungles.
Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images for MTV/ViacomCBS 4. Steven Yeun Before receiving numerous awards and Oscar nods for indie film Minari , Yeun was best known as Glenn on AMC's The Walking Dead (in the Asian American community, he used to be lauded as the most famous Asian American man to have sex with a white woman on TV). Seoul, South Korea–born and Michigan-raised, Yeun discovered his love of acting while attending Kalamazoo College, going on to pursue theater rather than med school (his parents were thrilled about that). After small roles on The Big Bang Theory and commercial campaigns, he played the plucky survivor Glenn in post-apocalypse zombie smash-hit The Walking Dead . Yeun walked away from the show's commercial success in 2018 to play deeper roles as an indie circuit darling in films like Burning and Minari .
Rich Fury / Getty Images for PRADA 5. Dev Patel Dev Patel has come a long way since his acting debut as the awkward burnout on Skins . His breakout role was playing Jamal Malik in Danny Boyle's Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire at just 19 years old, becoming one of the youngest Best Actor nominees at the BAFTAs. Patel has gone on to carve out an ever-more impressive career, playing lead roles and winning awards in hits like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), Hotel Mumbai (2018), and The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019).
Dave J Hogan / Dave J Hogan / Getty Images 6. Daniel Henney Born to a Korean American adoptee mother and British American father, Daniel Henney spent the first half of his career being professionally good-looking. After stints modeling throughout college and then in Europe and Asia, Henney proved too beautiful to stay motionless on magazine covers and was scouted for the Korean small screen, starring in popular Korean drama My Lovely Sam Soon (2005) as Dr. Henry Kim. He went on to star in Korean and American films like Big Hero 6, X-Men Origins: Wolverine , and Seducing Mr. Perfect. His television credits include Criminal Minds and Hawaii Five-0 .
Han Myung-gu / WireImage 7. Simu Liu Rachel Murray / Getty Images for California Milk Processor Board 8. Daniel Dae Kim Daniel Dae Kim is an OG Asian American in Hollywood, and the gorgeous actor has starred in long-running TV roles on Lost and Hawaii Five-O . Born in Busan, South Korea, and raised on the East Coast, Kim (and his razor-sharp cheekbones) helped set the groundwork for younger Asian American actors in Hollywood by showing audiences the sexy side of Asian masculinity. His film credits include voicing Benja in Raya and the Last Dragon and Hellboy . What a zaddy.
Hannes Magerstaedt / Getty Images 9. Sendhil Ramamurthy Born in Chicago to physician parents and raised in San Antonio, Texas, Ramamurthy has the square jaw, brilliant smile, and calm demeanor of a man born for the stage. Ramamurthy is best known for his roles as Mohinder Suresh in NBC's cult sci-fi drama Heroes , and Jai Wilcox in the spy series Covert Affairs . More recently, Ramamurthy (mostly his very reassuring voice) pops up as Devi's deceased father in Mindy Kaling's Netflix teen dramedy Never Have I Ever .
Jemal Countess / Getty Images for The Lucille Lortel Foundation 10. Lewis Tan Chinese British actor and martial artist Lewis Tan's blood type is Kung Fu; his father is a Singaporean Chinese actor and stunt coordinator who choreographed fights in LA for iconic action movies like Batman and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom . Following a successful modeling career as the face of Nivea in Asia and many TV guests spots in Hawaii Five-0 and the CSI franchise, Tan was chosen by legend Forest Whitaker as the lead in award-winning indie drama Sacrifice . Tan continued to make a name for himself as drunken master Zhou Cheng in Marvel's Iron Fist and gangster Lu Xin Lee in Netflix's Wu Assassins .
Arturo Holmes / Getty Images for Disney 11. Riz Ahmed Riz Ahmed is a man of many talents; his impressively diverse and decorated résumé includes being the first Asian to win a Primetime Emmy (for HBO's The Night Of) and putting out a Hamilton -inspired mixtape. Did I mention he also graduated from Oxford, is an accomplished battle rapper, and is also the first Asian and Muslim to be nominated for an Academy Award (Sound of Metal )? Asian drama kids beware; here's another example for Asian parents to compare us to — "OK, you landed a regular role on CSI, but Riz Ahmed was nominated for two Golden Globes, raises money for Syrian refugees, AND he went to Oxford!"
Andreas Rentz / Getty Images 12. Manny Jacinto Filipino Canadian dancer and actor Manuel Luis Jacinto's breakout role as Jason Mendoza on the NBC sitcom The Good Place (2016–20) made him our favorite cute stoner. Born in Manila, Philippines, to Fliipino Chinese parents and raised in Canada, Jacinto earned a civil engineering degree at the University of British Columbia and was a competitive breakdancer (a career as Filipino as nursing!) before transitioning into acting, nabbing several small roles on television before his big break.
Nbc / NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images 13. Hasan Minhaj My family and I laughed, cried, and wholeheartedly related to Hasan Minhaj's Netflix one-man show Homecoming King , and my shallow self was struck by his adorableness (along with his charisma, intelligence, and eloquence, obviously...). The Indian American stand-up comic and television host hustled for years before landing a spot as senior correspondent on The Daily Show (2014–18) and earning a Peabody Award for his comedy special Homecoming King . His weekly Netflix comedy show Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj dissected serious political events through a lighthearted lens, snagging him a second Peabody Award.
No other comedian could sound so wholesome while emphasizing every other sentence with "fuck."
John Lamparski / Getty Images 14. Harry Shum Jr. Chinese-born Costa Rican singer, actor, dancer, and choreographer Harry Shum Jr. moved from Costa Rica to San Francisco at the age of 6 and was scouted to tour as a dancer with singer Kaci at 18. Following a stint as a backup dancer for singers like Jennifer Lopez, Mariah Carey, and Jessica Simpson, he entered into the acting world with roles in the Step Up franchise. Shum is best known as dancer Mike Chang on Fox series Glee (2009–15), for which he won a Screen Actors Guild Award and as Magnus Bane on Freeform's Shadowhunters (2016–19). Shum starred as the romantic lead in the romantic drama All My Life in 2020.
The 32nd Annual Glaad Media Awar / Getty Images for GLAAD 15. Darren Barnet 16. Randall Park Korean American actor and California native Randall Park has been killing it in the comedy game since doing stand-up comedy in the early 2000s alongside peers like Ali Wong and Samantha Quan. Park is best known for playing Louis Huang in ABC sitcom Fresh off the Boat (2014–20), but has had a long and storied career of comedic acting, from recurring as Governor Danny Chung in HBO's Veep to co-writing and co-starring in Netflix romantic comedy Always Be My Maybe (2019).
Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images 17. John Cho John Cho is another California OG in the game, studying English literature at Berkeley before starting his acting career with the renowned Asian American theatre company East West Players. After breaking out in all-Asian cast, critical darling Better Luck Tomorrow (2002), Cho found commercial success with cult comedy Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and 2009's Star Trek reboot. Cho followed up with indie drama Columbus (2018) and thriller Searching (2018), making him one of the most recognized Asian actors of our era.
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