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8.20.2013

14 More Asian Leading Men Who Deserve More Screen Time

A complementary list with, regrettably, fewer abs.



Last week, BuzzFeed posted a Very Important list of 27 Asian Leading Men Who Deserve More Airtime -- a fine, ab-tastic piece of journalism that all sorts of people saying "Mm hmm" and fanning themselves. Even with a whopping 27, I couldn't help but notice that there were some major omissions who also deserved to be included on the list -- it actually could have been a lot longer. So I did some quick brainstorming...

I give you fourteen more Asian leading men who deserve more screen time (in no particular order):


John Cho

Claim to fame: Harold & Kumar, Star Trek, The "MILF" Guy
Seriously, how was John left off BuzzFeed's list?

Sung Kang

Claim to fame: Fast & Furious
Super Cool Sung can be seen as Tae Kim in the upcoming Fox cop drama Gang Related.

Ken Leung

Claim to fame: Lost, The Sopranos
Ken is fantastically entertaining in everything he does. I recommend checking him out in the little-seen 2004 Showtime crime drama pilot Sucker Free City, which unfortunately never made it to series.

Ian Anthony Dale

Claim to fame: Hawaii Five-0, The Event
Recently seen romancing Grace Park as reformed gangster Adam Noshimuri on Hawaii Five-0, Ian also kicks much ass as the lethal Scorpion in the webseries Mortal Kombat: Legacy.

Kal Penn

Claim to fame: Harold & Kumar, The Namesake, The White House
Kal (real name: Kalpen Modi) stars in the upcoming CBS comedy We Are Men.

Randall Park

Claim to fame: Baby Mentalist, Supah Ninjas, Asian Jim on The Office, Every Other Commercial
If we ever get an Asian guy in the cast of Saturday Night Live, it should be Randall Park.

Leehom Wang

Claim to fame: Lust, Caution, Love in Disguise, Asian Pop Stardom
Because being a crazy-famous Asian pop star is not enough, Leehom will soon be seen in Michael Mann's Cyber, and starring in the movie adaptation of comics legend Stan Lee's Chinese superhero Annihilator.

Daniel Wu

Claim to fame: The Heavenly Kings, One Nite in Mongkok, New Police Story
Daniel fabricated and formed a boy band, Alive, in order to stage a mockumentary of the Hong Kong pop music industry, The Heavenly Kings -- for which he won best new director at the Hong Kong Film Awards.

Byron Mann

Claim to fame: Street Fighter, Arrow, The Man with the Iron Fists
RZA's Man with the Iron Fists is a crazy-ass exploitation flick with a lot of lousy parts, but Byron's turn as the villainous Silver Lion is one of the big bright spots. His hair alone in that movie deserves an award.

Tim Kang

Claim to fame: The Mentalist
When he's not fighting crime as Agent Kimball Cho on The Mentalist, Tim is a current spoksperson for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Will Yun Lee

Claim to fame: Witchblade, Bionic Woman, The Wolverine
There is only one Asian American actor who can legitimately pull off that badass long hair look. That distinction belongs to Will Yun Lee.

Leonardo Nam

Claim to fame: The Perfect Score, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Oh, if it's more abs you want, then I urge you to check out Leonardo as Brian McBrian in the two Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movies.

Kunal Nayyar

Claim to fame: The Big Bang Theory
Sure, he plays the nerdy Rajesh on CBS' hit sitcom Big Bang Theory, but this dude is as international smooth as they come. And he's married to -- I kid you not -- 2006 Miss India winner Neha Kapur.

Dustin Nguyen

Claim to fame: 21 Jump Street, V.I.P., The Rebel
While best known for his groundbreaking role as Officer Harry T. Ioki in the 1980s undercover cop show 21 Jump Street, Dustin is still kicking all kinds of ass in Vietnam. And somehow, the guy has seemingly not aged.