Awkwafina

United States 🎬 Actresses

Awkwafina started as a viral rapper with a song about her va-jay-jay and ended up winning a Golden Globe, which is honestly the most Awkwafina arc imaginable. Born Nora Lum in Queens, New York, she turned internet notoriety into a film career that no one predicted and everyone should have — because underneath the absurdist humor is an actress with real emotional range and the kind of timing that comedy schools don't teach. Her work in The Farewell was a revelation: quiet, devastating, and completely stripped of the comedy armor she usually wears. Then she went and anchored Crazy Rich Asians, voiced Sisu the dragon in Raya, and hosted her own Comedy Central show. The rapper-to-Oscar-adjacent pipeline has very few members, but Awkwafina has made it look like a reasonable career path. She's funny the way the best comedians are funny — because she's also watching everything, understanding everything, and making you laugh so you don't notice how sharp she actually is.