Kim Adis is an actress well known for her lead role as Kitty in the show Get Even. Originally born in the Philippines Kim came to the UK when she was just 8 years old and always had a love for acting. But she couldn’t afford to go to acting school, so her career journey was definitely not easy AND she almost even gave up on her acting dreams. Since we spoke Kim has already been casted for new shows like Netflix’s Witcher and I know one day she will be an award-winning actress. Watch this space and I hope you enjoy this episode!

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This week’s Phenomenal Asian is Howard Watt a Partner at one of the leading law firms. Howard and I bonded over the fact that we both pleased our Asian parents by choosing traditional & stable career paths (unlike our siblings!). But this didn’t stop us from discovering and going after what we were truly passionate about. Howard is now an incredibly successful partner specialising in Venture Capital transactions and I left accountancy to go start my own company. Unfortunately we did have some technical issues when recording this episode so it’s a little shorter than normal but it’s still amazing and I hope you enjoy! 

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This week’s Phenomenal Asian is Kelvin Tan, an Irish chef currently working at 2 star Michelin restaurant Sat Bains. Kelvin and I talk about his upbringing in Ireland, his super inspiring journey as a chef and his most recent success on instagram. Kelvin creates and shares the most delicious authentic Chinese dishes that anyone can follow and although he’s a professional chef, he only started cooking Chinese food a year ago. I really hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did, Kelvin made me laugh throughout and I mean who doesn’t love an Irish accent?

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This week’s Phenomenal Asian is Vivian Yau, Founder of Bee Influence, an influencer marketing agency based in Manchester. Viv and I actually met through Instagram as she launched her own podcast ‘But where are you from?’, around the same time as I did. The more we spoke, the more we realised how similar are lives were; both take away kids, both started our own company, both the same age but we also both lost a parent from cancer. Although we had never met, it was incredible how well we hit it off and how honest we were able to be so quickly. I really hope you enjoy this episode and do let us know what you think.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN

Viv's upbringing and family life (4:21)

Challenging our Asian parents (13:57)

Viv's career and how she started Bee Influence (28:20)

FOLLOW VIV

Podcast: But where you from?

Instagram: www.instagram.com/vivthediv

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Instagram: www.instagram.com/phenomenal.asian

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This week’s Phenomenal Asian is Nigel Ng, a stand-up comedian originally from Malaysia and co-host of the hugely popular 'Rice To Meet You', one of the first comedy podcasts about Asian culture. Given the severe lack of Asian representation in UK comedy, I was super excited to have Nigel as a guest as he's been making waves on the comedy scene and was nominated for the prestigious Best Newcomer Award for his sold-out show Culture Shocked at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did and prove to you that Asians can be pretty funny too.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN

Nigel's background and upbringing (1:54)

How Nigel got into comedy (8:00)

Culture shock of moving East to West (9:15)

What life as an Asian comedian is really like (19:32)

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Nigel's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrnigelng/?hl=en

Nigel's website: https://nigelngcomedy.com/

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Instagram: www.instagram.com/phenomenal.asian

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This week’s phenomenal asian or shall I say asians are my brothers Wayne & Gwan Yip. I’m so lucky to be close with my family and especially my brothers, as we all live in different cities around the world. I really enjoyed this episode as it’s a conversation our family has never had before and it was fascinating to hear how different our childhoods were even though we were raised the same. Being the youngest of 3, my brothers are are my ‘asian’ role models, Wayne is a successful Director, on TV shows such as Misfits, Utopia, Dr Who and Gwan founded his own company Core 3D, a software company based in NY. I’m super proud of them and what they’ve achieved that I hope collectively we are redefining the asian stereotype as a family.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN

Coronavirus from an LA & NY perspective (3:38)

Their upbringing and experiences (6:52)

Dating & relationships (16:20)

What part of the asian culture will they instil into their own family (18:21)

FOLLOW WAYNE & GWAN

Gwans' LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/gwanyip/

Wayne's IMDB: www.imdb.com/name/nm3408764/

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Instagram: www.instagram.com/phenomenal.asian

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This week’s guest is Foong Ng, Founder of Matchable, a platform offering employees game-changing opportunities to work with not-for-profits and startups on innovative projects. We chat about the difficult switch Foong made from a PwC Tax Director to female entrepreneur and the guilt that comes with it, especially telling your Asian parents. Foong and I actually share very similar stories, I used to work for PwC too and set up my own company almost 5 years ago but I've always wondered, if more Asians could hear inspiring stories like Foong's, would we have more confidence in making our own career choices vs simply pleasing our parents?

EPISODE BREAKDOWN

About Foong and Matchable (1:00)

Foong's upbringing (3:53)

Foong's career switch from corporate to entrepreneur (17:54)

Foong reveals her career switch to her Asian parents (24:21)

FOLLOW FOONG & MATCHABLE

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/wai-foong-ng/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/foongi_ldn

Website: www.wearematchable.com

FOLLOW PHENOMENAL & ASIAN

Instagram: www.instagram.com/phenomenal.asian

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This week’s guest is Arnold Ma, Founder of Qumin, an award-winning Chinese digital creative agency. It felt like Arnold and I had known each other for years! We bonded over many things, how we dealt with being the only Asian kids at school, how we hated being different and our love for Dragon Ball Z of course. What I really admired most was his effort in reconnecting with his Asian roots and how embracing his ethnicity has led Arnold to create a successful business.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN

Arnold's upbringing and family life (1:48)

How and why Arnold embraced his Asian ethnicity (10:00)

Arnold's career and why he founded Qumin (18:40)

Arnold's experience being Asian during Coronavirus (25:30)

FOLLOW ARNOLD & QUMIN

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/arnoldma

Instagram: www.instagram.com/realarnoldma

Website: www.qumin.co.uk

FOLLOW PHENOMENAL & ASIAN

Instagram: www.instagram.com/phenomenal.asian

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This week’s guest is Shu Shi Lin or you might know her as Dejashu, a Food, Travel and Lifestyle Vlogger (yes, she gets paid to eat and travel the world). Shu and I chat about life growing up in the UK, about her parents owning a Chinese takeaway (because mine did too) and how she wants to use her platform to stand up to the racism escalating from Coronavirus.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN:

Shu's upbringing and family life (1:57)

How she became a full-time vlogger (14:17)

How being Asian helped Shu's career (23:17)

Shu's experience being Asian during Coronavirus (27:44)

FOLLOW SHU

YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/dejashu

Instagram: www.instagram.com/dejashuu

Twitter: www.twitter.com/dejashu

FOLLOW PHENOMENAL & ASIAN

Instagram: www.instagram.com/phenomenal.asian

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