How Awkwafina Fuses Her Music with Humor

Photos: Awkwafina Does It All

AGE: 29.

PROVENANCE: Queens, New York.

EARLY YEARS: “My mom passed away when I was four, and I learned to harness humor as a defense mechanism. I could hold a crowd at five years old.” Her love of performance led her to the trumpet, which she studied at LaGuardia High School, a teen incubator for the arts. “They take the best of the city. I was the best in junior high but not the city, so it killed a lot of my music dreams. But it showed me the arts as a way of life.”

THE ALTER EGO: In 2014, Lum released Yellow Ranger, her fiercely funny debut rap album, under the name Awkwafina. “I was producing songs off my MacBook and started rapping on top of that. Music has always been a passion, whereas comedy is part of my fiber, so to mix those two was very natural.”

THE HEIST: Next month, she joins Cate Blanchett, Sandra Bullock, Rihanna, and Mindy Kaling in Ocean’s 8 as Constance, a pickpocket from Lum’s real-life home borough. “[Director] Gary Ross took a chance on me. These women are so empowering and the entire experience was incredibly humbling. It was an honor to play an authentic Queens girl.”

THE BREAKOUT: In August, Lum will star as Goh Peik Lin in the film adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s best-selling novel, Crazy Rich Asians. “Peik Lin is me. I needed to do this movie, because it’s going to be important for everyone who is Asian-American.”

The Must-See Looks from the iHeartRadio Music Awards