Voxcali

From his early comedic roles to franchise sci-fi roles John Cho’s acting evolution has spanned the Hollywood galaxy.

Actor John Cho (born Cho Yo-Han) won fame through his breakthrough role as Harold Lee in the three Harold & Kumar buddy stoner comedy movies, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle in 2004, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay in 2008, and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas in 2011. The franchise grossed over $103 million — about $230 million in 2024 dollars — or about 2.5 times their budget.

Cho contributed to the American vernacular as the MILF guy in the successful American Pie comedy series screening in 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2012.  The four movies grossed just under a billion dollars.

In the rebooted Star Trek sci-fi film series Cho portrayed Hikaru Sulu — reprising a role made famous by George Takei — first with Star Trek in 2009, then in 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness and 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. The three Paramount Pictures franchise films grossed $1.2 billion dollars.

Cho’s first dramatic lead role came in the 2018 internet mystery thriller Searching. This role marked a significant milestone, making him the first Asian American actor to headline a mainstream Hollywood thriller.  Made for under $1 million, the film delivered a surprising $75 million in global box office.

Now 52, the Seoul-born actor immigrated with his family at the age of 6.  His father, who is originally from North Korea, was a minister in the Church of Christ in Los Angeles. Cho attended UC Berkeley, graduating in 1996 with a BA in English Literature.  His involvement in theater gave him the opportunity to tour with a stage production.  At Cal he also met actor Kerri Higuchi to whom he has now been married to for almost 20 years. They have two kids and reside in Los Angeles.

The clutch player for Western Conference Champion Thunder, is just games away from an NBA title.

Jaylin Williams of Western Conference Champion Oklahoma City Thunder is the first player of Vietnamese descent to be drafted into the NBA as the 34th overall pick in the second round of the 2022 draft.

The 22-year-old’s 4-year rookie contract is worth $8.2 million with a $4 million guaranteed.

At 6’9”, 240 pounds Williams has traditional size for a power forward but his game is modern. Across his 3-year career he’s shot an impressive 39% while averaging a 3-pointer per game.

The Thunder had an exceptional regular season this year, winning 83% of their games. Williams started 9 games but, more commonly, provided a spark off the bench, averaging 5.9 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game in 47 games.  He showcased his all-around game in March by achieving his first two triple-doubles within weeks of each other.

In the Thunder’s playoff run Williams saw action in 14 of the 17 games.  He averaged 9 minutes per game in the Quarter-, Semi-, and Conference finals.  Now two games into the NBA Finals, with Williams seeing the floor in game 2, the series versus the Pacers is tied.   His appearance was in garbage time but he stayed true to form by draining a three.  Both the finals appearance and the three pointer are firsts for a Vietnamese American player.

Raised in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Williams played for the Razorbacks at the University of Arkansas before entering the NBA. In his sophomore and final collegiate season he earned first-team All-Southeastern Conference honors and made the SEC All-Defensive team. His mother Linda was born in Saigon and immigrated to the United States in 1975.

Acclaimed author, playwright, and New York Times journalist Sopan Deb will write about literally anything he finds interesting. At the same time, he sees the importance of telling South Asian stories.

Romen Borsellino (00:00)

Sopan Deb (00:31)

Romen Borsellino (00:33)

Sopan Deb (00:51)

And that was like the end of the email and I never thought about it before and I go, huh, you know what? I don't have an answer to that question and I want to find out. And so I literally just reached out to Sesame Street and I asked them, hey, can you put me on with some Cookie Monster people because what's up with those cookies he eats? And I wrote a story on that and ended up being one of my most read in my career. so, you know, I write on anything and everything ranging from culture to sports but the basic bar is things that just make me go, huh.

Romen Borsellino (01:49)

And that was a very funny piece, by the way. I remember a line, something along the lines of, me want cookies? No, me want Cookies.

Sopan Deb (01:56)

Romen Borsellino (01:58)

Sopan Deb (02:04)

Romen Borsellino (02:06)

Sopan Deb (02:17)

My dad immigrated to Rochester in the early 70s. met, they were arranged to get married through a newspaper in 1975. And then they moved to New Jersey eventually. I was born outside of Boston, grew up in New Jersey, but my parents are both Bengali. And, you know, in bringing me up, they only spoke to me in Bengali, so I grew up bilingual and we had Indian food every single night. In my early part of my childhood, up and through my teenage, we used to go to pujas every year. They essentially gave me a pretty good cultural route growing up, essentially.

Romen Borsellino (03:28)

Sopan Deb (03:41)

Romen Borsellino (03:56)

Sopan Deb (04:11)

Romen Borsellino (04:15)

Sopan Deb (04:20)

I'm proud of the book. I'm really excited that I did a novel, that I get to call myself a novelist for the rest of my life. Whether I'm a good novelist or not is, that's for other people, but I get to call myself a novelist.

Romen Borsellino (05:04)

Sopan Deb (05:44)

Romen Borsellino (06:43)

Sopan Deb (06:47)

Romen Borsellino (06:59)

Sopan Deb (07:24)

It just so happens that it's been what I've been interested in writing about. It's not the only thing I've been interested in writing about, but it's been a lot of what I've been interested in writing about. And so I don't really consciously try to do it. It's just, you know, maybe there's a subconscious need to like write about the things that I'm most familiar with. And in some of it certainly is a basic, write what you know. And that may seem like a cop out, but it's…

kind of true and a lot of what I write, I want to bring as much specificity and authenticity to stuff I write as possible. And it's probably something I need to work on as a writer to break out of that shell.

Romen Borsellino (09:03)

Sopan Deb (09:24)

I think it ended up. Oprah ended up being involved somehow because I think she put it on her book club list and they got a lot of blowback and then ended up being a whole thing. I don't inherently have a problem with writers centering other ethnicities in their writing. I don't inherently have a problem with that. Not necessarily. The challenge becomes is the things like investment, know, pay, that kind of stuff.

So for example, if a white writer wrote Keya Das, that writer is more than likely to get a higher advance, get more marketing, get better PR, know, more PR, get more book editors interested. So it's less about the individual project and more about the system as a whole, you know? And so I don't think that people should be put in a box as a writer. And so no, I wouldn't have a problem with, you know a white writer writing a novel of Bengali people if they do the research and do it in a way that pays the story care. Because it'll be hypocritical for me to say, I don't think white people should be writing about Bengali families or black families or whatever. Because then the natural outgrowth of that is that people will tell me, you can only write about Bengali families.

And that's not fair. So I'm not one of those people. However, what I wish is that there was a little bit more equity in the kind of projects that the system will take a risk on. Because a lot of writers who are not white are considered risks in the marketplace. They're less likely to have their projects bought, whether it's in TV, film, theater, whatever.

it's, you know, artistically, there have been, it's been a more challenging time for decades. It's been a systemic thing, right? And that's the core of the, if a white person were create a Keya Das thing. It's not about the one project, it's about the systemic kind of easier path that white writers have often had in publishing that people who look like me or people who look like you, you know, don't have, if that makes sense.

Romen Borsellino (12:29)

Sopan Deb (12:39)

Romen Borsellino (12:53)

Sopan Deb (13:05)

Romen Borsellino (13:14)

Sopan Deb (13:20)

It just makes sense, like to me, for everyone's ease to just say Sopan. That's how, if you put those two words together, it's Sopan, it makes sense. And it has still somehow managed to flummox a lot of people over the years, but it's never been anything, there was never a cultural reason. Like my parents don't call me Sopan, they call me Sho-pan. That's how they pronounce it.

Romen Borsellino (14:17)

Sopan Deb (14:20)

Romen Borsellino (14:25)

Sopan Deb (14:28)

So parents typically address you by your daknam, your nickname. So my whole life, my parents have called me Shambho. If they're introducing me in front of strangers, then I'm Shopan. But with everybody, with family, with me, they only call me Shambho. That's my daknam, that's my nickname. My good name, or in Bengali translation, palanam, is Sopan, is Shopan.

But my parents have only historically called me Shambo. So they never had occasion to call me by my quote unquote good name. And you remember the namesake, this was the whole thing with Gogol or whatever, with Kal Penn's character in that movie. So it never came up because they don't call me Sopan. They don't even call me Shopan. They just call me Shambo by nickname they've called me by my whole life.

Romen Borsellino (15:34)

Sopan Deb (16:00)

Romen Borsellino (16:06)

And then eventually I moved to Hollywood. I would say that when I got to Hollywood was the most I had ever felt immersed with my culture, with South Asian culture. There was just this big community of South Asians. And that was to me sort of this this moment of like, I really want to lean into this. This is really important to me in a way that I never fully realized. Has there been a point in your life where you felt that, the particular desire to embrace your culture? Has that been more recently?

Sopan Deb (16:53)

I'm not saying that he has to embrace, you know, every single part of who I am, but I want to give him the base like my parents gave me. And then he can choose how much he engages or how little he engages as he gets older. But he's not going to be able to engage with being his Bengali side without knowing what being Bengali means. Or he's not going be able to know what it means to be Indian without me instilling some of that in him. And so as I got older,

I kind transitioned to the state of life where I'm middle-aged and I'm thinking a lot more about the kind of values I want to instill in my son and that kind of stuff. And so once I did the book, which, the book came out in 2020, I was in my early thirties at that point. That's when I started meeting other South Asians. I kind of like awoke something inside of me.

And then once I married my wife and here's thing, if I don't instill him with with any of these values. I don't mean values, I mean knowledge. Here's where you come from. "Here's what a puja is." We did a first rites ceremony for him. If I don't teach him about those customs and rituals, he's never gonna get that stuff. I don't want him to miss out on that. Now if in 20 years he says, man, this is a waste of my time, I don't wanna be doing this, okay, that's fine. But as long as you know where you come

Because for me, I grew up with it, went away from it, and then found my way back to it. For Kiran, if he grows up with it, he can go away from it, but maybe he comes back to it. But if he doesn't grow up with it at all, then he has nothing to come back to. And so that's kind of where it is for me.

And everyone has their own journey with this stuff, and mine has been a long and winding road. But, you know, being a parent and just getting older has really changed how I look at this stuff.

Romen Borsellino (19:30)

Sopan Deb (20:01)

Romen Borsellino (20:04)

Of course. Thank you so much.

Michele Kang has a billion-dollar mission to redefine what ownership looks like in women’s sports.

Imagine being able to just casually buy an entire soccer team. Tech entrepreneur and business woman Michele Kang is doing it because she saw something broken and was ready to help make it better.

Kang was born in Seoul to a mother who was a lawyer and member of parliament in South Korea and a father who was selected to attend university in the United States on a scholarship funded by the United Nations Korean Reconstruction Agency.

With extremely accomplished parents, excellence was the standard in the Kang household and the bar was set high for Michele.

She was at the top of her class and the only female student in her first year at Sogang University in Seoul.

After moving to the U.S. in 1981 Kang received her bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Chicago then later earned her master’s in public and private management at Yale.

Before making soccer headlines, Kang started her career in tech working her way up to vice president of the Health and Science Solutions unit at Northrop Grumman.

After resigning in 2008, she wanted to start her own company so she founded Cognosante to work towards modernizing health systems.

With her own business up and running, Kang stepped up and started to turn her head towards women’s soccer when scandals began to strike in the US National Women’s Soccer League in 2020.

In 2022 Cognosante reported over $236 million in revenue which solidified Kang’s position as a giant in tech, giving her the momentum to acquire majority stakes in the Washington Spirit and the first woman of color to own a national women’s soccer league.

By 2023 Kang expanded her vision, buying OL Lyoness and London City Lionesses, some of Europe’s most decorated clubs and launching Kyniska Sports, the very first multi-club ownership model that is focused on women’s football.

She also currently has a stake in John Textor’s Eagle Football Holdings, a high profile global sports investment group.

Since launching Kyniska Sports in 2024, she has continued to make a huge impact in women’s sports with multiple donations including a $30 million pledge to U.S. Soccer in order to build pipelines for coaches, referees, and aspiring athletes.

Today Michele Kang has a networth of $1.2 billion and this number truly reflects both her success in business as well as her commitment to creating a lasting change in women’s sports.

Before everyone was ordering boba at Starbucks, it was a Taiwanese street drink that sparked a worldwide lifestyle. 

This Taiwanese street beverage has made its way to the United States ultimately forming a billion dollar industry that nobody can get enough of. We have all tried it, if not heard of it. 

This is how boba or bubble tea became our generation’s go-to drink. 

During the 1980s, Taiwanese tea houses began experimenting with their drinks. The idea of serving tea cold came about from tea store owner, Liu Han-Chieh. 

Then in 1988 a project development manager worked with Han-Chieh to come up with the idea of combining fen yuan, a popular Taiwanese dessert, with the cold tea. 

From there, Boba was born. Chewy tapioca pearls were being added to iced tea, along with sweeteners like condensed milk. The drink started to gain more attention when tea shops added different flavors of ice tea to their menus and was a total hit at night markets. 

By the 1990s, boba shops were expanding out from Taiwan to other parts of East and Southeast Asia. 

And due to the high increase of Asian immigration to the United States during this time, the boba empire traveled to North America as well. 

Entrepreneurs in cities with high Asian populations like the San Gabriel Valley and Bay area opened boba shops that acted as safe spaces for the community. They were always go-to spots for students to study with friends or reward themselves after midterms. 

Boba was slowly becoming a part of Asian American identity in the U.S. setting the stage for authenticity and also mainstream appeal. 

Once the 2010s came around, you could find a boba shop in every city, not just predominantly Asian ones. Social media was fueling the fire as people were attracted to the chunky straws and fun flavors that, of course, looked great in photos. 

Boba chains like ShareTea and Quickly started to establish themselves, rebranding the drink with aesthetic logos, colorful packaging, and “special ingredients”. With these special add on ingredients costing around $0.50 each, a regular boba beverage can cost you $7 or more. 

And just like coffee, boba is suddenly a new lifestyle necessity. 

With boba tea evolving, so was the crowd. Everyone was adding boba to their list of new things to try, which led some of the biggest retailers to join in on the craze. 

Costco and Target started to offer brands of bubble tea in stores and there are even DIY boba kits where you can make your own drink and customize it right at home. Starbucks has also recently incorporated popping boba, also originated from Taiwan, on their menu, offering customers a vibrant refresher for the summer. 

Mainstream companies may have just recently hopped on the boba trend, but Asian Americans have been enjoying it for decades. Today the boba empire stands. What started as a creative twist on a cold beverage is now an essential in foodie culture and recognized all around the world.

Find out how Macy Mungcal turned her beauty side hustle into a booked business as one of the San Fernando Valley's most beloved brow and lash artists.

Kelli Luu (00:00)

Macy (00:17)

Kelli Luu (00:18)

Macy (00:22)

I was like, you know what? Like I think I could do that.

Kelli Luu (00:52)

and do you feel like COVID kind of helped with it?

Macy (00:58)

Kelli Luu (01:07)

Yeah,

for sure. Was there ever a certain moment where you kind of sat and thought like, this is something that I could do for real?

Macy (01:23)

Kelli Luu (01:26)

Macy (01:40)

Kelli Luu (01:46)

Yeah, okay.

So I know you said you went to community college. Did you do any kind of school to get into Lash and Brow art?

Macy (02:05)

Kelli Luu (02:12)

cool, okay. And what is esthetician school like? is that in person and what are you doing in school?

Macy (02:36)

Kelli Luu (02:41)

Are you just doing brow waxing, eyelash extensions? give us like a breakdown of what you're offering.

Macy (03:05)

Kelli Luu (03:29)

Got it, okay. So how do your parents feel about your small business now?

Macy (03:35)

Kelli Luu (03:38)

I see.

Oh, okay. Yeah, you had

to show them the proof at first.

so now are you at a studio or are you still working out of your house? yay.

Macy (04:08)

studio for I want to say maybe one and a half years almost

Kelli Luu (04:14)

Macy (04:21)

in the age of technology, right? So social media is around. It's pretty much, I would say it's like your storefront. That's like the first thing people see when they look at my page. So, you know, make it nice, find a theme that you like that resonates with you and start posting on there. It could be small. Like you don't always have to show your face at first, but ⁓ don't be afraid to connect with your audience and showcase your work for sure. And you know, tell everybody, you know?

Kelli Luu (05:04)

Macy (05:06)

Kelli Luu (05:07)

Macy (05:11)

Kelli Luu (05:26)

Macy (05:31)

COVID year so everybody was on their phone. Yeah, so was just like, guys, I got my certification. Like if you want your lashes done, let me know. And then I think I posted my first thing and my price was like, I wanna say like $35 for a full set. Yeah.

Kelli Luu (05:45)

For a full set. my

gosh. Okay. So just so that everybody kind of knows how much is a full set, like what's an average full set cost?

Macy (06:08)

Kelli Luu (06:10)

Okay, and.

for, and that's for eyelash extensions. And then were you just, you were just like charging really low just with the hopes of they'll come back or just because you were a new beginning?

Macy (06:31)

like yeah like why not you know and eyelash extensions were so new at the time too.

Kelli Luu (07:03)

of, you kind of like got on the trend early. Yeah.

Macy (07:07)

I would say that last six inches have been around for a long time, but I would say like it didn't start popping off until maybe like the past five or six years. Yeah.

Kelli Luu (07:19)

people had to do it, they couldn't go anywhere to So I want to know if there was ever a time that you weren't really getting business, if there was any time like that, did you ever want to try anything new?

Macy (07:33)

Kelli Luu (07:45)

Macy (07:59)

that I wouldn't always have the time to pay attention to, you know? ⁓

Kelli Luu (08:28)

us an example? What things are you able to focus on more now?

Macy (08:32)

Kelli Luu (08:51)

Macy (08:55)

Kelli Luu (08:57)

That's still a lot

Macy (09:12)

like I feel like it's a lot and it's tedious work, you know, but I think if it's a mixture of like lashes and brows, I may push myself a little bit more so I could see like, I don't know, probably like seven, eight clients. Yeah.

Kelli Luu (09:27)

Macy (09:32)

Kelli Luu (09:32)

Right, for sure, you have to.

Exactly. Yeah.

Macy (09:59)

Kelli Luu (10:02)

lunch breaking?

Macy (10:08)

Kelli Luu (10:10)

Yeah.

Right, yeah for

sure.

Macy (10:30)

Kelli Luu (10:37)

how do you deal with those bad clients?

Macy (10:41)

Kelli Luu (10:47)

Macy (10:47)

a deep breath. I'm like, I take a deep breath. And I feel like I just have to remind myself that everybody's going through something, you know what I mean? And sometimes a person might not be coming in on their best day, I would say. And um,

Kelli Luu (11:05)

Macy (11:07)

Kelli Luu (11:21)

Macy (11:22)

Kelli Luu (11:26)

you feel like you've learned a lot more about people being in this kind of space and having to deal with clientele like that?

Macy (11:44)

So yeah, it's different. Like you get to meet so many different people who have walked through life differently and you get to learn a lot about them too.

Kelli Luu (12:10)

Yeah.

I'm really curious to know what did this 90 year old lady come in for?

Macy (12:25)

Kelli Luu (12:29)

Macy (12:32)

Kelli Luu (12:38)

eyelash extensions at 90 years old and she's able to take care of them and that's crazy.

Macy (12:47)

Exactly, that's what I'm my girls.

I'm like take care of your lashes if you were Exactly exactly there's no excuse

Kelli Luu (12:57)

Wow, that is crazy. I've

not, I don't think I've seen a 90 year old lady wearing eyelash extensions before, so that's a first. All right, so were there any moments where you felt like people didn't really take your business seriously? Maybe your family and friends? I know your parents you said, kind of at first, but besides them, anybody else?

Macy (13:18)

would say, maybe, probably just family at first because they have the utmost love for you. know, like I feel like they, like at first I took it personally, but looking back at it now, I know that it came out of a place of them just wanting me to be successful. that's just what they knew and I couldn't blame them for that.

So I get it.

Kelli Luu (13:42)

Okay. Can you think of one mistake that you made early on with your business that ended up teaching you a lot?

Macy (13:49)

Kelli Luu (13:53)

Macy (13:58)

Kelli Luu (14:04)

I see.

Macy (14:26)

Kelli Luu (14:32)

so just better organization skills from the beginning. Okay, cool. as an Asian American woman in the beauty industry, how do you feel about Asian culture being really spotlighted right now?

Macy (14:40)

I love that. feel like we just like anybody else we deserve that representation and it makes me feel good because I'm just like my god like it's I'm a woman from running my own business and like it's recognized you know yeah

Kelli Luu (14:59)

I'm loving seeing all the amazing Asian Americans run their own businesses using the beauty industry So it's awesome and I love it. Is there any like beauty trend, like any, is there any beauty trend that you've known about for a long time? Any Asian beauty trend that you've known about for a long time that people are now starting to use?

Macy (15:00)

Me too.

Let me think. Because I grew up loving watching YouTube videos when I was younger. I'm trying to think of a trend that they're starting to use now. Because I was that girl watching Michelle Phan

Maybe using like, I feel like I've seen some people use like rice water as like a toner, like more so now, like which was something that I like grew up knowing about when I was younger.

Kelli Luu (15:43)

a lot of skin care brands are just making rice water toners now.

Macy (15:53)

Kelli Luu (16:00)

Macy (16:07)

I would say in the way that I grew up, like, I feel…

that my culture is very good at hospitality. So we know how to take care of people. know, like you see a lot of Filipinos in the healthcare industry because it's something that comes naturally to them, you know, and it's something that they enjoy doing. And I feel like early on, I knew that I wanted to take care of people in some way. It just ended up being different, you know? Yeah, that, and I feel like it showed me just like watching my family have so much respect

Kelli Luu (16:37)

Macy (16:45)

Kelli Luu (16:46)

I love that. I've I never really

thought about it like that because Filipinos you said a lot are nurses and a lot of them go into nursing but it's because in the culture you're just it's in your it's in your culture to take care of people and be that kind of nurturing person.

Macy (17:09)

Yeah,

literally like whenever you go to a Filipino party or something they're like, did you eat yet? And I'm just like, I will, you know, like that. Or they're just like, let me know if you need anything. Like, I feel like those roots is like, those roots are what I've carried through my whole life.

Kelli Luu (17:32)

Macy (17:40)

Mm-hmm.

It's super important. You know, I think everybody has their own preferences ⁓ in combination with the knowledge that I know about like, you know, like eye symmetry, eye planes, different brow shapes and how they can change your face completely. I feel like those all tie in together. So they're super important.

Kelli Luu (18:19)

Macy (18:26)

time. Like I feel like ⁓ a lot of my girls will come in wanting like a cat eye, right? But if they have downturn eyes, it tends to droop their eyes and drag down their features. So I might suggest something like ⁓ a natural eye mapping, which pretty much puts the longest length of the set towards the arch of the brow and then we taper it a little bit.

Kelli Luu (18:52)

Macy (18:53)

Kelli Luu (18:58)

then same thing with brows. Does brow shape matter as well?

Macy (19:04)

Kelli Luu (19:14)

Okay.

Got it. Okay, cool. All right, so I only have just a few more questions. What does representation and beauty mean to you? And do you feel like you're representing the Asian community through your work

Macy (19:33)

say I would say yeah I feel like I feel like my business has taught me a lot and I'm so happy to have a platform that allows me to represent other Asian Americans you know and let them know that like you can showcase your worth you can be proud of yourself and you don't have to be behind the scenes all the time you know like you

Kelli Luu (20:05)

Macy (20:08)

Kelli Luu (20:21)

Macy (20:24)

I would say, how am I keeping my passion alive?

Pretty much just, I know I have my long-term goal and I think by just focusing on small parts at a time, it keeps things interesting. I work on a little segment of my business every day and I feel like through those little accomplishments, even if it's not seen, I know that it made me feel good, so it kinda keeps the momentum going.

Each and every day you're accomplishing something little and you're working towards that goal. Yeah.

Kelli Luu (21:00)

we see you in five years?

Macy (21:05)

Kelli Luu (21:12)

think I'll be going there Alright, well that's all that I have for you today Macy. Thank you so much for joining us here at Gold Sea. I really appreciate your time

Macy (21:24)

The distinctively bizarre visual flair that bespeaks Daniel Kwan’s roots in music videos has blossomed into award-winning feature films.

Daniel Kwan, 37, is one half of the filmmaking duo Daniels, alongside Daniel Scheinert, who  are best known for the 2022 eccentric genre-bending film Everything Everywhere All at Once.

The movie was a critical and commercial success, winning three Academy Awards including Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Original Screenplay. It also became A24’s highest-grossing film, earning over $143 million at the box office with a modest budget of 25 million.

This was only the second feature film the duo had directed since their debut with the 2016 cult classic dramedy Swiss Army Man.  Kwan won the best dramatic directing award at Sundance where it premiered.

Kwan and Scheinert’s 3rd feature is set to begin production in the summer of 2025 with a scheduled 2026 released date.   They’ve been tightlipped about details.  The budget is reportedly 9-figures which will make it the biggest budget for A24, albeit in collaboration with Universal.

Since 2009 Daniels have accumulated a variety of directorial credits across various forms, including 6 short films, 5 TV episodes, and 15 music videos.

They earned Grammy nominations for their work on the music video for “Houdini” (2012) by Foster the People and “Turn Down for What” (2013) by DJ Snake and Lil Jon. The latter clearly has a shared visual style with Everything Everywhere All at Once including energetic rapid-fire editing, absurd physical humor, and a maximalist visual overload. The EDM trap music video has reached over 1.2 billion views on YouTube. The Daniels met while studying Media Arts Production at Emerson College.  Both graduated in 2010. Kwan was raised in central Massachusetts by a Taiwanese mother and a father from Hong Kong.

After moving from Seoul to Los Angeles, Yul Ku turned his denim dreams into an empire, creating a now top-selling brand at Nordstrom. 

In 1975 Yul Ku arrived in Los Angeles from Seoul with his parents and a dream. Only knowing a few words in English, he was able to teach himself what he didn’t know and ultimately became the “king of jeans”.

With so many opportunities in the United States, Yul Ku’s family brought with them their manufacturing vision from Seoul and opened a small clothing factory just three months after their arrival.

In 1985 Ku took $3,000 and the few sewing machines he had and was able to give his denim dream a start up inside a factory in Downtown LA.

His dream? To build his business through five-pocket jeans. So he created Koos Manufacturing, which is now a producer for huge fashion names like Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch.

One of Ku’s first deals was with Calvin Klein where he designed a two-piece waistband that no one else could.

In 2000 Yul Ku joined forces with Adriano Goldschmied, Italian designer who is considered the “godfather of denim”, to establish AG Jeans.

Just a few years later, Ku bought Goldschmied’s stake in AG and took on full ownership of the brand, appointing his son, Samuel Ku as creative director.

Ku and his son began to really emphasize sustainability as a brand highlight. They implemented energy efficient cloth washers and dryers that can reuse heat at their facilities.

By 2019 AG’s manufacturing headquarters were upgraded with solar panels and a water recycling system that operates almost completely on recycled water.

Today AG remains eco-friendly, prioritizing craftsmanship and forward-thinking, generating estimated annual revenues of $182.7 million.

For years now, AG has been a consistent top selling brand at Nordstrom. As a former salesperson at Nordstrom, I can tell you once a client tries on a pair, they always end up walking away with one or two.

AG continues to be a beloved family-run business on the West Coast. With Samuel Ku leading the creative vision and Yul Ku still behind the scenes, AG is mastering the denim blend of timeless, innovative, and functional.

Yul Ku’s family legacy started in a manufacturing facility in South Korea and is now in everyone’s fitting room at Nordstrom. Even in an industry that is constantly changing, Ku has always done what he does best: making premium denim with a purpose.

Bets on seed- and early-stage startups led to Homebrew’s stable of multi-billion-dollar companies.

As co-founder of the venture capital firm Homebrew, Satya Patel has shown a knack for spotting high-return startups.  Homebrew was born in 2013 with a “bottom up” investing philosophy — betting on companies from “boring” industries primarily in seed stage, then enhance their potential by leveraging technology.  This strategy has worked.  The company’s assets under management now exceed $210 billion.

Patel’s biggest win has been Chime which was once valued as high as $25 billion.  As one of Homebrew’s first bets in 2013, Chime was valued at only $7.26 million at the time.  The seed round was just the start.  Homebrew added to its stake in the Series A round, then again in the  B round in 2017.  

Chime offers checking and savings accounts with FDIC-insured banks geared towards low- and middle-income Americans, including mobile millennials.  It filed for an IPO in May 2025 and is expected to start trading on June 12, 2025.  The IPO valuation has declined to $11 billion as rising interest rates and an unpredictable economy have recently tempered expectations.

In Homebrew’s first year Patel found another unicorn in a privately owned startup called Plaid which had developed the first modern application programming interface (API ) for banking and credit card data.  Homebrew invested in its Series A round in September 2013 when the company’s valuation was estimated at $10 million.  Today Plaid is at over $6 billion.

Homebrew also made early-stage investments in 2016 in Shield AI, an aerospace and defense tech firm, and in 2021 in Headway, a Mental Health Startup worth $2.3 billion.

Patel also cofounded Screendoor, a fund that supports underrepresented General Partners and first-time venture capital managers.

Patel’s early career mixed tech and finance.  On the tech side he started a seven-year stint beginning in 2000 as a Sr. Manager for Google and DoubleClick, which was later acquired by Google.   From 2007-2011 Patel was a Partner at Battery Ventures, co-leading their seed and early-stage investing practices.  He worked at Twitter as VP of Product from 2011-2012.  The Vegas native and son of Indian immigrants earned two undergraduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania — one in finance and another in psychology.  The 50-year-old currently lives in Burlingame, California.

From Seoul, Guangdong, and Saigon, these three chefs have climbed the ranks in one of the U.S’s largest food competitions. Here’s how these Top Chef winners turned their immigrant roots to Michelin-level success.

Not only did these three Asian American chefs battle on Bravo’s Top Chef, they completely dominated their seasons. After coming out victorious, they are taking their childhood dishes and turning them into Michelin Star plates. 

Kristen Kish made her very first appearance on Top Chef as a head chef out of Boston and is now an industry legend. 

Born in Seoul, South Korea Kish was adopted at four months old and grew up in Kentwood, Michigan. In 2005 she obtained an AA in culinary arts at Le Cordon Bleu in Chicago and by 2012, she was promoted to head chef at Stir, a culinary demonstration kitchen in Boston. 

That same year, Kish was invited to participate in Bravo’s 10th season of Top Chef. To get through the qualifying rounds, she was required to craft a signature soup, and that was the first moment Kish knew she was more than qualified. 

Throughout her season, Kish won four elimination challenges before being defeated in episode 11. Luckily, she won her way back into the main competition after proving her strength in the show’s “Last Chance Kitchen”.

With five wins in the “Last Chance Kitchen”, Kish made it to the final competition and was crowned Top Chef, making her the second female winner in the show’s history and the first woman of color to win the title. 

Since then, she has opened her own restaurant, Arlo Grey, in Austin, Texas and is now the new host of Top Chef, and has received nominations for Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Host and Best Reality Competition Series. 

Chinese-born American Mei Lin is another iconic chef who grew up in Michigan after moving from Guangdong, China at just three months old. 

She attended Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Michigan, where they are highly known for its culinary arts program. After receiving her credentials, Lin gained excellent experience, first as a cook for the Detroit Lions, and later on at Wolfgang Puck’s, Spago in Las Vegas. 

In 2014 Lin competed on the twelfth season of Top Chef and blew the judges away with a strawberry lime curd, which was noted as one of the best desserts the show has ever seen. 

Winning Top Chef was just a new beginning for Lin as she went to work as Oprah Winfrey’s personal chef before opening her own Los Angeles restaurant in 2019. 

Born in Saigon, Vietnam and raised in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Hung Huynh has been mastering the art of food since he was 10 years old. With his mother’s guidance, Huynh helped out at his family’s restaurant and by the time he was a high school student, he was also a chef at the Wheatleigh Hotel, a prestigious property in Massachusetts. 

Huynh and his family were unable to pay for culinary school, so he accepted a job offer in Puerto Rico where he entertained customers as a teppanyaki chef. 

The work he put in secured him a position at the Ritz Carlton in San Juan, ultimately funding his education at the Culinary Institute of America where he graduated in 2002. 

In 2007 Huynh was named the winner of Top Chef season 3 after auditioning at an open casting. Up until 2020 he joined forces with Earl Enterprises to help establish Asian Fusion Concepts.