Bing Chen, President and CEO of Gold House, the organization that unites, invests in, and promotes Asian Pacific Islander creatives and creative endeavors, toasted record-breaking AAPI nominations earlier this week.
“Our community leads in almost every major Oscar category, while our own co-founder of Gold House [Janet Yang] he is president of the Academy,” Chen said in his speech. “We got here because we did this together, and we can’t wait to take it further.”
Indeed, the Oscars on Sunday may be a historic night. Michelle Yeoh is only the second Asian actress in history to be nominated for Lead Actress (Mumbai-born Merle Oberon posed as white during Hollywood’s Golden Age). There has only been one Asian winner for Best Actor, one Asian winner for Best Supporting Actor, and two Asian winners for Best Supporting Actress. Read on to learn about these pioneers.