Dustin Nguyen, who made splash twenty years ago as Harry T. Ioki on the TV cop drama 21 Jump Street, is still definitely on the scene, doing some of his best work ever. You've got to hand it to the guy. I know a lot of Asian American actors today who were inspired by seeing Dustin on TV in a real, likeable, three-dimnesional role way-back-when. He's a true pioneer. This year, he's been all over the place in independent films, with roles in Finishing the Game, Saigon Eclipse and The Rebel. Here's a nice profile on him from the Orange County Register: '21 Jump Street' star Dustin Nguyen is back in action
Here's a brief Winston Salem-Journal(?) interview with Secret Asian Man cartoonist Tak Toyoshima: Ethnic Angle: Cartoonist's cast of characters is headed by an Asian American. The strip recently made the jump from being published in independent papers to national syndication. Look for it in comics page near you! If not, let your paper's editors know you want it.
My pal Camille Mana has a big role in the teen comedy College, due out in January from Lionsgate. Based on some of the YouTube clips floating around, it looks like your typical comedy of the beer/sex/bongs variety. Go Camille.
CBS recently announced the lineup of contestants for its latest season of The Amazing Race. Among the eleven teams, meet Ronald & Christina, a father/daughter team. Ronald is a vice president of sales for a paper packaging company. Christina is a policy analyst in Washington DC. Represent!
Oohhhhh snap. It's the trailer for Step Up 2 the Streets, the highly-anticipated (really) sequel to 2006's Step Up. That's right, baby. The streets. The movie is directed by up-and-coming filmmaker Jon Chu. Also, according to IMDb, Harry Shum Jr. has a role in the movie as "Cable." Can't wait.
Actor/writer/director Fay Ann Lee's romantic comedy Falling for Grace has been making the festival rounds: Falling for reality. It's playing this week at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival. Sooner or later, every New York actor lands a spot on Law and Order. And they get that dreaded question: "Can you play the role with a Chinese accent?"
Hey! John Cho was on How I Met Your Mother Last Night, playing an evil corporate lawyer trying to lure Marshall to the dark side: John Cho Recruits for 'HIMYM'. Man, that guy is everhwere these days.
And here's another profile on graphic novelist Adrian Tomine: The Shortcomings of Adrian Tomine. His latest work is the full-length Shortcomings
, which has been getting quite a bit of critical attention.