May is AAPI Heritage Month. AAPI stands for Asian American and Pacific Islanders, a population that encompasses millions of people throughout the US from all over Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and the Pacific Islands, such as Samoa, Hawaii, and other Polynesian islands.
As AAPI Heritage Month concludes, we took a look at some of the most influential AAPI celebrities in Hollywood, including actors, directors, producers, and musicians. All have broken records and broken boundaries in terms of AAPI representation on-screen, behind the scenes, and on the radio.
Here are some of the most famous AAPI celebrities who are changing the entertainment industry.
Dwayne Johnson has been the highest-paid actor in Hollywood four separate times.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Sean Gardner/Getty Images
As reported by Forbes, Dwayne Johnson was the highest-paid actor in 2016, 2019, 2020, and 2021 for his roles in films such as “Central Intelligence,” “Moana,” “Jumanji: The Next Level,” “Hobbs & Shaw,” “Jungle Cruise,” and “Red Notice.”
The former pro wrestler is now one of the most famous people in the world and a face of the Samoan community in mainstream entertainment.
In addition to Johnson’s movie roles, he is also a producer of many of his films, and he co-created a sitcom about his life growing up in Hawaii, his time at high school in Pennsylvania, and as a college student in Miami. Fittingly, it was called “Young Rock” and aired from 2021 to 2023.
