AWKWAFINA - NORA LUM
- Simona
- May 24, 2023
- 3 min read
Born Nora Lum (林家珍) on June 2, 1988, but known and Awkwafina, she is an American actress, rapper, and comedian.
She's got Chinese (from father side) and Korean (from mother's) heritage. Her father, Wally, lived in Queens and worked in the information technology field, while her mother, Tia, was a painter. Her mother died when Nora was four, therefore Nora was raised by her father and her paternal grandparents, in Forest Hills, Queens,
At age 15, Nora adopted her alter ego name Awkwafina (she was looking for a weird unusual and yet musical name), studied Chinese to better communicate with her family and then majored in journalism and women's studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York in 2011.
CAREER
Well, we're talking about an artist in progress, as she's young and growing more and more!
MUSIC
She began rapping at 13.
In 2012, her song "My Vag" became popular on YouTube. She originally wrote the song in college as a response to Mickey Avalon's "My Dick (Tribute to Nate)". In 2014 she released her solo hip-hop album Yellow Ranger.
In 2016, with comedian Margaret Cho worked on "Green Tea", a song that makes fun of Asian stereotypes.
In the 2016, she appears in the documentary Bad Rap, with other Asian-American rappers such as Dumbfoundead, Rekstizzy and Lyricks.
Her second album, In Fina We Trust, won the 2019 A2IM Libera Award for Best Hip-Hop/Rap Album.
TV
In 2014, she appeared in Girl Code and then co-hosted its spin-off, Girl Code Live, on MTV.
From 2015 to 2017, she hosted the short-form talk show web series Tawk for the digital production company Astronauts Wanted.
On October 6, 2018, she hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live, becoming the second East Asian-American woman to host the show (after Lucy Liu).
From 2020, she star, co-writes and co-produces the comedy series Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens.
CINEMA
In 2018 she starred in the principal cast in Ocean's 8, the all-female spinoff to the Ocean's Trilogy. The same year, she played a key-role in Crazy Rich Asians, directed by Jon M. Chu, playing Goh Peik Lin, a Singaporean college friend of lead character.
In 2019, Awkwafina starred in the film The Farewell, directed by Lulu Wang and received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, in 2021, becoming the first person of Asian descent to win a Golden Globe Award in any lead actress film category.
She also won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
She gave voice to Sisu the dragon in the animated film Raya and the Last Dragon, improvising many of the dialogues, which many compared to Robin Williams' performance as the Genie in Aladdin.
I THINK...
The first time I heard of Awkwafina, it was because I read an interview that a fashion magazine (sorry for not remembering at all which one) made to her. Her name remained in my mind as, in italian, it has totally sense: acqua fina, fine water! I thought it was a weird name that well fitted someone with a really unique face and attitude.
Little I knew, that, few years later, I would have become a big fan of hers! I think she's a natural talent, who also looks humble, yet genuinely enjoying her time and all that s coming to her way.
I wish her success, as that would mean that I'll more episodes of Nora from the Queens to watch and more movies too. And I wish her to remain true to herself. There are some solid actresses out there, that are, for me, a certainty: anything they do, I watch it, not preventively reading much about it as I know that their choices are fitting my interests. I hope she remains consistent in the quality, even if growing and changing and experimenting!
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