September 3-6 at Outside In Theatre in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, call your friends and make some plans for a good-ass time. Asian AF and Outside In Theatre present the AF Comedy Festival, celebrating 10 years of the hit comedy show Asian AF with over 200 AAPI performers coming from all over the country.
The kickass lineup includes the likes of Margaret Cho, Joel Kim Booster, Amy Hill, Asif Ali, Aparna Nancherla, Raymond Lee, Tim Chantarangsu, Andrew Law, Andrew Lopez, Zac Oyama, Saagar Shaikh, Vincent Rodriguez III, and dozens more across three nights of shows.
It's happening September 3-6 at the Outside In Theatre in Los Angeles. If you didn't blow all your money on BTS that weekend, this is where you should go! For more information and tickets, visit afcomedyfest.com.
Teen Vogue offers a first look at the upcoming K-pop-centric movie K-pop: The Debut, starring Ji-young Yoo. The film follows Lizzy Lee, a young Korean-American woman who, tired of spending her life following the path her family chose for her, secretly decides to pursue her dream after landing a spot in a competition show to form the next K-pop girl group in Seoul. Looks fun. K-pop: The Debut is set to premiere on February 12.
Check out the trailer for Take Me Home, the moving feature film debut from director Liz Sargent. Adapted from her award-winning Sundance short, the film is inspired by her own family's real-life circumstances and stars her cognitively disabled sister Anna Sargent in the lead role.
"Anna, a 38-year-old Korean adoptee with a cognitive disability, lives in a delicate balance in suburban Florida, serving as a caregiver for her aging parents while navigating her own need for support. When a severe heat wave shatters her family's fragile routine and exposes her father's hidden signs of dementia, Anna's world is thrown into uncertainty. Forced to confront the systemic failures of the American healthcare infrastructure, she must fight to carve out her own path toward autonomy, independence, and chosen community."
Take Me Home opens in theaters in New York City on September 23 and in Los Angeles on October 7.
I gotta recommend the latest edition of ESPN's 30 for 30 Podcasts, "The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani," a six-part investigative series that delves into how Shohei Ohtani's trusted relationship with longtime interpreter Ippei Mizuhara unraveled amid a massive illegal sports betting scheme. Just some excellent reporting that goes beyond the headlines, deeper into the players and events of the scandal.
Damn. After two seasons, Deli Boys has been canceled at Hulu. The critically acclaimed crime dramedy, which starred Asif Ali, Saagar Shaikh, and Poorna Jagannathan, was reportedly canceled due to low ratings. I really enjoyed this show, and the cast kicked ass -- particularly Jagannathan as Lucky. It's a shame the show never quite got the numbers it deserved. Catch it on Hulu, enjoy the two seasons, and lament what could have been.
Hell yeah. We are getting a full-fledged Criterion Collection release of last year's surprise smash animated hit KPop Demon Hunters, chock full of special edition features, including:
New 4K digital master, approved by directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the film and special features
Full feature-length animatic, with a new introduction by Kang and Appelhans
New making-of documentary
Two video essays by filmmakers Taylor Ramos & Tony Zhou (Every Frame a Painting)
Lyric videos
Trailer
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and English descriptive audio
Collectible postcards featuring original illustrations by artists who worked on the film
PLUS: An essay by critic Karen Han
The 4K+Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD editions of Kpop Demon Hunters will be available on November 3.
"In the heat of an election season, results are measured in raw vote totals. But they should also be measured by the potential they reveal. That is what Hong did on election night. 'We have built something that will change politics forever,' she told a cheering crowd of young supporters. 'What we have done will be remembered. I don’t even know how the final results will end. But what I do know is that we are ready to keep fighting, and I feel confident. More importantly, I am so deeply, deeply grateful.'"
"Between January 20, 2025, and March 10, 2026, there have been 14,678 arrests, 13,455 detentions, and 6,453 deportations of APIDA immigrants. This represents a sixfold increase in arrests and detentions and a ninefold increase in deportations compared to the Biden administration—some of the largest increases yet."
According to a new survey by The Asian American Foundation, 55% of AAPI adults in New York City have thought about leaving the city because of the high cost of living. As the cost of housing, groceries, and other everyday expenses continue to rise, many AAPI New Yorkers are questioning whether they can afford to remain in the city they've long called home.
"This is Riz Ahmed: guarded, thoughtful, empathetic, challenging, funny. All these things have made him one of the most compelling actors of his generation. And no, he’s not terribly interested in hyping the movie that he must hope could net him another Oscar nomination. But if you keep digging, maybe even to the very bottom, you might find something beautiful."
Now playing at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego: The Family Album, an original new musical, co-created by singer/songwriter MILCK, about finding and reclaiming your voice and using it for change.
"Singer-songwriter Mia Bing has been hustling for years and is on the cusp of breaking through in the music industry. Just as she receives the call that could change her career, she’s pulled back to her childhood home, where she’s once again the “disappointing” daughter of her Asian immigrant parents, still haunted by an unresolved secret. Mia must learn to use her voice to confront and heal from the past."
Catch The Family Album in its final week through August 23.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has won the Democratic nomination for governor of Wisconsin, narrowly defeating state Rep. Francesca Hong by less than 4,000 votes.
KPBS' Midday Edition discusses the parallels and through lines between the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II and the mass detentions and deportations of the Trump administration's immigration policy, the impact on Japanese Americans generations later, and what we can learn from the past.
Emmy-nominated Top Chef host Kristen Kish talks about the latest season of the cooking competition series, recent criticism of the format and the hard work of being a good host.
Coming next month to the Vincent Price Art Museum in Los Angeles: Anida Yoeu Ali's The Buddhist Bug, an expansive performance project that brings together myth, humor, spiritual inquiry, and the lived experience of displacement. At its center is a monumental 328-foot-long saffron-colored creature with a human face tightly framed in cloth at one end and a pair of feet at the other. Activated through performance, photography, and video, The Buddhist Bug moves through markets, temples, streets, rural landscapes, and other social spaces across Cambodia. The exhibition runs September 26 through May 22, 2027.
Netflix just dropped the trailer for the upcoming animated series DANG! Starring Stephanie Hsu, Poppy Liu and Andrew Law, DANG! follows a brother and sister duo whose fun, messy lives in New York City are interrupted when their worst nightmare comes true: their high-achieving older sister shows up and wants to hang out with them. DANG! premieres September 8 on Netflix.
"As a kid, I would watch many movies with my dad, with our family, and that is how I traveled. That is how I was exposed to other cultures. That's how I understand how kids grew up in high school on the mainland. And one of my biggest takeaways was not how different we are, but how similar we are, emotionally." Destin Daniel Cretton, director of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, explains to NPR's Fresh Air about how movies connected to the bigger world outside of his upbringing in Hawaii.
Lucy Liu has boarded Reset, a sci-fi dramedy from writer-directors Celine Tien and Jerry Hsu, as executive producer. Set in a near-future society where citizens are physically reset to six years old at the age of 65, the short premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival, is now being developed as a feature film.
In the early 1970s, Bruce Lee made nunchaku cool. But the "nunchucks" craze coincided with something much bigger: the birth of a radical new Asian American identity. Jeff Chang guests on BBC's A History of the United States in 100 Objects to talk about how nunchucks went from ancient weapon to symbol of resistance -- not only uniting Asian Americans in the fight for their own rights, but connecting them to every other group pushing back from the margins.
Save the date! Comedian Atsuko Okatsuka is taping her Netflix special in Los Angeles. January 30 at the United Theater. Clean up those bowl cuts and get your tickets at atsukocomedy.com.
Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist state lawmaker once seen as a long-shot candidate, is now the front-runner in the Democratic primary for governor of Wisconsin -- a state President Donald Trump won twice. She would be Wisconsin's first woman governor, first Asian American governor and the first Asian American woman governor elected in the United States.
"BTS and many of its fans see the new category as an attempt by the Recording Academy to keep the growing power and popularity of K-pop groups from overwhelming the prestige categories — the record, album and song of the year and multiple pop performance awards — and they reject the academy’s claims that the new award is simply a means to acknowledge the growth of popular music from South Korea, China, Japan and Southeast Asia. BTS rightfully refused to risk being pigeonholed."
"The USC Equity Research Institute's (ERI) latest analysis on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Californians confirmed what community organizations have been experiencing for months: ICE arrests in our communities have been unprecedented and devastating."
Greta Lee sits down with Conan O'Brien's podcast to discuss her childhood deeply rooted in Korean identity, experiencing a massive cultural shift moving to the Midwest, experiencing the impact of her role in the 2023 romantic drama Past Lives on audiences, and her new Netflix film The Last House.
Coming soon to the dried fish aisle near you! If you haven't heard, our friend Jenny Yang has been on a unique nationwide summer standup comedy tour, turning immigrant grocery stores into comedy clubs for a night.
Jeff Yang and Phil Yu present an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America.
What's up, podcast listeners? We've got another episode of our podcast They Call Us Bruce. (Almost) each week, my good friend, writer/columnist Jeff Yang and I host an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America, with a strong focus on media, entertainment and popular culture.
In this episode, we welcome Kiana Hall, the Seattle resident who spotted and named the viral phenomenon "Jimothy," the unusually-shaped raccoon who has captured the internet's heart. She talks about the fateful evening she encountered Jimothy on a neighborhood walk ("What am I looking at?"); why Jimothy has become a symbol of joy and resilience for so many, especially in this moment; the unexpected viral attention Kiana has received from the discovery; and the inevitable attempts to monetize and exploit Jimothy's image. Also: The Good, The Bad, and The WTF of discovering and naming Jimothy.
