★ M.A.R.A.★

Sonja Sohn

was most recently on ABC’s Brothers & Sisters.  Sohn played a pregnant doctor who chose Kitty and Robert McCallister (played by Calista Flockhart and Rob Lowe) to adopt her baby.  

Sohn is an American actress of Korean and East African descent.  She won the “Best Supporting Television Actress” Asian Excellence Award in 2008 for her role as Detective Kima Greggs on the hit HBO series, The Wire. 

You know what else rocks? Sohn also has a talent for slam poetry.  Sohn wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the script for the 1998 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Slam; which I am now going to Q.  I wonder if the words will give me the same rush as the beats in Drumline.

[photo 1, 2, 3]

Miranda Kerr

As of mid-2007, Kerr is the first Australian to be signed onto a Victoria’s Secret modeling contract.  Australian “Current Affair” show, Today Tonight, reports in the video below that Kerr is of Serbian, Iranian, Turkish, and Filipino descent.  

Born in Sydney, Australia on April 20, 1983, Kerr and her family moved to the Brisbane city life from Gunnedah, New South Wales where she rode motorbikes and horses as a child in her grandmother’s farm.  Kerr planned to study nutrition in college before deciding to pursue modeling. 

The dimpled beauty has been the face of major cosmetics and fashion campaigns such as Maybelline, Clinique, and Arden B.  Forbes magazine listed Kerr as the 10th top-earning model with $3.5 million in 2008. 

Kerr and her boyfriend, actor, Orlando Bloom, of the famed Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings films, practice a Japanese branch of Buddhsim, called Nichirin Buddhism.  More on Miranda Kerr on Wiki.

[photos via 1, 2, 3]

[photos via: 1, 2, 3, 4]

Mark Dacascos

Born on February 26, 1964 Dacascos is an American actor and martial artist from Hawaii who is of Filipino (paternal), Japanese and Irish (maternal) descent.  With So You Think You Can Dance finalist, Lacey Schwimmer, Dacascos is currently a contestant on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars.  He has also been “The Chairman” on the Food Network’s Iron Chef America since 2005.

DWTS is on ABC/8pm, Mondays (tonight!) - other Famous Asians on DWTS this season - dancer Cheryl Burke (L), contestant and Olympic gold medalist, Natalie Coughlin (R) - both women are part Filipino. 


[Via DWTS: Cheryl with Tom Delay, Natalie with Alec Mazo]

Dichen Lachman

currently stars as Sierra in Joss Whedon’s tv series, Dollhouse, which airs Fridays (TONIGHT!) on Fox, 9pm.  


Lachman was born on Feb 22, 1982 in Kathmandu, Nepal and lived there until she was 7yo before moving to Adelaide, Australia.  She is of Tibetan (maternal) and Australian (not a bloodline, I know, but that’s the avail info) descent.

Okay what? Asian girl sporting an Aussie accent? HOT.  She’s Tibetan.  Even HOTTER.   Lands a role in one of Joss Whedon’s creations? ROCKET HOT.   


Related Posts: Contributing writer to DOLLHOUSE and sister to FAME director
More on Lachman: IMDB, Wiki, Dichen’s Website, Dollhouse Website, Joss Whedon’s Whedonesque

[photos: top 1, 2, 3, 4; mosaic: 1, 2, 3, 4 ]

Patrick Gallagher

is currently starring as Coach Ken Tanaka on Fox’s hit series Glee.  Gallagher also most recently played one of Erik’s main vampires, Chow, on HBO’s hit series True Blood.  (Heard of it?)  Gallagher was also Atilla the Hun in both 2009 & 2006 installments of Ben Stiller’s Night at the Museum AND Grimes in BSG’s March 18, 2005 episode, “Colonial Day”.

Seriously - Glee, True Blood, and Battlestar Galactica? ROCK ON!

Glee returns April 13, 2010 See full episodes here.

[via]

Gallagher (at right) as Chow on True Blood. 

[IMDB]

Gallagher was born on February 21, 1968 in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada.  Though his name relays no Asian roots, I suspect he is of part Asian descent.  Some research narrows my guess to either Chinese or Filipino or both (10% and 2% population in BC per Wiki.)  More on Patrick Gallagher at IMDB.

UPDATE! (as of December 30, 2009)

Got an email from the man himself! Woot! Patrick Gallagher confirmed he is of Chinese and Irish-American descent.  (Note: No primary source had confirmed this information at the time of my original September 2009 post.  Though Wiki has edited its post, it does not have a reference.  Vancouver Sun quotes Gallagher with this info, Nov 21, 2009)

Stay tuned for more UPDATES.  Thanks for the email Patrick Gallagher!

Click to see more posts on Glee

Other Keywords: Patrick Gallagher is Chinese, Irish-American, Patrick Gallagher ethnicity confirmed, asian guy on glee, coach on glee, coach tanaka, chow on true blood, true blood vampire, erik’s vampire, Grimes on bsg battlestar galactica, colonial day episode, original airdate mar 18, 2005
Other Sources: Entertainment Weekly

Christina Chang

Update:
Chang reprises her CSI: Miami role as Rebecca Nevins on the Monday, Mar 1, 2010 episode.  CBS 10pmET. 

Chang starred in a September 2009 episode of ABC’s The Forgotten with Christian Slater.  I last saw Chang as Dr. Sunny Macer, administering morphine and monitoring Jack Bauer’s exposure to a deadly chemical weapon, in the 2009 season of Fox’s hit show 24 with Kiefer Sutherland. 

Chang was born on June 29, 1969 in Taipei, Taiwan and is an American actress of Chinese, Filipino (paternal), and Caucasian (maternal, heritage not specified) descent.  She moved to the U.S. at 17 years old to study theater and film in her mother’s home state of Kansas.  (WOW-she looks FANTASTIC at 40 years old) PS - she also speaks fluent Mandarin.  Smarty pants! Rock it girl. 


Her feature film roles include 28 Days and Random Hearts.  More on Chang at Wiki and IMDB.