Awkwafina facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Awkwafina
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Awkwafina in 2018
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Nora Lum
June 2, 1988 Stony Brook, New York, U.S.
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| Alma mater | University at Albany (BA) | ||||||||||||||
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| Years active | 2005–present | ||||||||||||||
| Awards | Full list | ||||||||||||||
| Musical career | |||||||||||||||
| Origin | Queens, New York, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
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| Instruments | Vocals | ||||||||||||||
| Nora Lum | |||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 林家珍 | ||||||||||||||
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Nora Lum (born on June 2, 1988), known as Awkwafina, is an American actress, comedian, and rapper. She became famous in 2012 when her rap song "My ..." became popular online. She then released her first album, Yellow Ranger (2014). She also appeared on the MTV comedy show Girl Code from 2014 to 2015.
Awkwafina started acting in movies with roles in comedies like Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), Ocean's 8 (2018), Crazy Rich Asians (2018), and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019). She won a Golden Globe Award for her main role in The Farewell (2019). In this film, she played a young woman dealing with grief.
Since 2020, Awkwafina has helped create, write, and produce the Comedy Central show Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens. She also plays a version of herself in the series. In 2021, she played Katy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. She has also lent her voice to many animated films. These include Storks (2016), The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019), Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), The Bad Guys (2022), and The Little Mermaid (2023). She also voiced characters in Migration (2023), Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024), and IF (2024). In 2023, she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie for starring in and producing the TV movie Quiz Lady.
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Awkwafina's Early Life and Education
Awkwafina was born in Stony Brook, New York. She is the only child of Wally Lum, who is Chinese American, and Tia Lum, who was Korean American. Her father worked in information technology. His family owned restaurants. Her great-grandfather came to the United States in the 1940s. He opened Lum's, a Cantonese restaurant in Flushing, Queens. This was one of the first Chinese restaurants in that area.
Her mother was a painter. She moved to the United States from South Korea in 1972 with her family. Awkwafina's mother passed away in 1992 when Awkwafina was four years old. After that, her father and paternal grandparents raised her. She became very close to her grandmother, Powah Lum.
Awkwafina grew up in Forest Hills, Queens. She went to Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School. There, she played the trumpet and studied classical music and jazz. When she was 15, she chose the stage name Awkwafina. She said it was an "alter ego" to her quieter personality. Her stage name also referred to how she saw herself as "awkwardly fine." She was inspired by writers and musicians like Charles Bukowski and Tom Waits. From 2006 to 2008, she learned Mandarin Chinese at Beijing Language and Culture University. This helped her talk with her paternal grandmother. She studied journalism and women's studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York. She graduated in 2011.
Awkwafina's Career Journey
Awkwafina started rapping when she was 13. She began making music using GarageBand. Later, she learned to use professional music software like Logic Pro and Ableton.
Becoming Famous with Music
In 2012, her song "My ..." became very popular on YouTube. She wrote this song in college. She lost her job at a publishing house when her boss saw her in the music video. Her first solo hip-hop album, Yellow Ranger, was released on February 11, 2014. This album included songs she had already released on YouTube.
In 2014, Awkwafina appeared in six episodes of Girl Code. In 2015, she co-hosted its spin-off show, Girl Code Live, on MTV. In 2016, she worked with comedian Margaret Cho on the song "Green Tea." This song playfully made fun of Asian stereotypes. She also worked as a disc jockey (DJ) in New York bars. She was featured in the 2016 documentary Bad Rap. This film showed her and other Asian-American rappers. She released an EP (a shorter album) called In Fina We Trust on June 8, 2018. It won an award for Best Hip-Hop/Rap Album in 2019.
Acting Roles and Hosting
From 2015 to 2017, Awkwafina hosted a web series called Tawk. In 2016, she played a supporting role as Christine in Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. She also voiced the character Quail in the animated movie Storks. In 2018, she starred in the indie comedy Dude. She played Rebecca, one of four best friends. She was also a main cast member in Ocean's 8, an all-female movie related to the Ocean's Trilogy.
Awkwafina then co-starred in the movie Crazy Rich Asians. She played Goh Peik Lin, a friend of the main character Rachel Chu. She also had a recurring role in the Hulu series Future Man in 2017. She hosted the 2018 iHeartRadio MMVAs awards show.
On October 6, 2018, Awkwafina hosted Saturday Night Live. She was the second East Asian-American woman to host the show. She said that Lucy Liu hosting SNL inspired her to become famous enough to host it one day.
Major Film Successes
In 2019, Awkwafina starred in the film The Farewell, directed by Lulu Wang. She played Billi, a writer who visits her sick grandmother in China. The movie was highly praised by critics. Awkwafina won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. She was the first person of Asian descent to win a Golden Globe in any lead actress film category.
In the same year, she played Ming Fleetfoot in Jumanji: The Next Level. This movie was a big success at the box office. In July 2019, Awkwafina was cast as Katy in Marvel Studios' Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The film was released on September 3, 2021. It received good reviews and earned a lot of money. She won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Shang-Chi.
In August 2019, Disney announced that Awkwafina would voice Sisu the dragon in the animated film Raya and the Last Dragon. This movie was released on March 5, 2021. Awkwafina made up a lot of her lines for the film. Her performance was compared to Robin Williams' voice role as the Genie in Aladdin.
Television Series and Voice Work
Since 2020, Awkwafina has starred in the comedy series Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens. She also writes and produces the show. To promote the series, she recorded new announcements for the 7 train of the New York City Subway. She made jokes at each stop. These recordings were used until the show premiered on January 22. In one episode, Simu Liu (her co-star from Shang-Chi) made a guest appearance. In October 2023, National Geographic announced that Awkwafina narrated the documentary series A Real Bug's Life.
Other Activities
Before she became famous in entertainment, Awkwafina had several internships. She worked at the Gotham Gazette and the Times Union newspaper. She was also a publicity assistant for a publishing company called Rodale Books. They fired her after finding her music videos online. Later, she worked at a vegan grocery store.
In 2015, she released a guidebook about New York City called Awkwafina's NYC. On May 16, 2019, she was a main speaker at a food festival called EEEEEATSCON. There, she talked about growing up in Queens and her family's Cantonese restaurant.
Awards and Recognitions
Awkwafina was named Kore Asian Media's Female Breakout of the Year in 2017. For her role in The Farewell, she received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. She also won the Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. She received the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Virtuoso Award. She was also nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award.
In 2023, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie for starring in and producing the TV movie Quiz Lady.
Images for kids
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Awkwafina in 2018
See also
- Asian Americans in arts and entertainment
- Chinese people in New York City
- Koreans in New York City
