Awkwafina became the first performer of Asian descent to win a Golden Globe Award on Sunday. She’s the sixth woman of Asian descent to be nominated in the lead actress in a musical or comedy category and the first to win the award in the lead actress film category.
In “The Farewell” Awkwafina plays a young woman of a Chinese family with a secret. They are trying to keep the family’s grandmother from learning that she has cancer.
Awkwafina said she could really connect with the movie.
“Immigrants in this country who were raised to feel very American … and when we go back where, you know, we’re told that you don’t belong here and you go back to where you belong…you feel like a stranger there and this constant feeling of being lost in translation. And I think that’s what really resonated with me in The Farewell.”
Awkwafina believes she still has more to prove.
“It feels incredible,” she said. “There’s also another feeling that you are going to do more. I hope this is just the beginning.”
Awkwafina’s real name is Nora Lum. She was born in New York in 1988. She got her start in entertainment in hip-hop music. In 2014, she released her first professional rap album, Yellow Ranger. Another, In Fina We Trust, came out in 2018.
