Half-Asians

Hannah Simone (the subject of my previous post) is not the only lady of partial South Asian descent who is starring on a new Fox television series this season. The Spielberg-produced sci-fi mega-production “Terra Nova” features not one, but two such ladies: Shelley Conn (who is of British and Sri Lankan descent) and Naomi Scott.

Naomi Scott is an actress, singer, and musician from London, England. Her mother is Gujarati (raised in Uganda) and her father is British. You might recognize her from the Disney movie Lemonade Mouth, which also starred half-Japanese musician/actress Hayley Kiyoko.

It’s not surprising that Disney would cast a couple of half-Asian girls to star alongside white males in one of their movies – it’s a phenomenon that I’ve written about before. What’s interesting is that Terra Nova seems to have taken this approach as well: the male members of the Shannon family (the father and the son) are fully white, while the female members (the mother and two daughters) are not. I’m not going to complain though about a system that puts beautiful mixed-race women like Naomi and Shelley into prominent starring roles on screen.

To learn more about Naomi, check her out on Twitter, IMDb, and Wikipedia.

Pictures after the jump.

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When I featured half-Japanese singer/songwriter Kina Grannis on the site back in August 2010, I mentioned that she had just started working on a “secret crazy project”, which Kina frequently referred to on Twitter as “the SCP”. Well, yesterday we finally got to see the result of her more-than-yearlong work on the SCP: the new music video for her latest single “In Your Arms”.

The video features Kina and 288,000 jelly beans painstakingly photographed in stop-motion animation. The effect is something along the lines of a Peter Gabriel video on steroids. Except with a really cute girl instead of some weird looking dude.

Check out the video, after the jump.

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Angela Anela Iokia Byrd is Hawaii’s representative in this year’s Miss USA pageant, which will take place on June 19. She is considered to be one of the frontrunners to win the title of Miss USA 2011, which would earn her the right to compete in the Miss Universe pageant later this year. She is of English, Scottish, and Korean descent.

Accoring to her Facebook bio, Angela was born in Kentucky, but she and her family moved fourteen times before she graduated high school (her father was a U.S. Army officer). She was a talented musician growing up (excelling at piano, flute, and guitar) and was an honor Thespian in high school. She earned a full-ride Army ROTC scholarship to Seattle University, where she studied pre-med, but she decided to leave the ROTC program due to sports-related injuries, and she moved to Honolulu to finish her degree at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She is currently a model, and her future goal is to become a physician’s assistant and work with Doctors Without Borders.

Angela is on Facebook. You can also follow the official Miss Hawaii USA Facebook and Twitter. And make sure to vote for her HERE – the winner of the Miss USA online vote will automatically qualify as a semifinalist in the pageant.

Pictures after the jump.

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Jacklyn Keyser exemplifies much of what I love about half-Asian women. Of course, she is breathtakingly gorgeous (and she gogo dances!), but beyond that, she’s a bright girl (currently studying accounting) who successfully navigates the Asian/non-Asian dichotomy of her multicultural background.

She acknowledges her father’s northeastern U.S. roots, as she is a diehard fan of the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots. But she also fully embraces her mother’s Japanese heritage: for instance, she can speak casual Japanese and is learning to speak formal Japanese, and she is a superfan of Sailor Moon (with a particular affinity for Sailor Jupiter) and the J-pop supergroup AKB48. Her home since age 8 has been San Diego, CA, but she spent six years of her early childhood in Japan and hopes to move back there again someday.

Jacklyn is on Twitter and Model Mayhem.

Pictures, and a Roger Sanchez & Far East Movement music video that she was in, after the jump.

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Continuing on the theme of Next Top Model contestants in the Oceanic region, here is Australia’s Next Top Model Cycle 5 contestant Laura Mitchell. She made it to the sixth episode before being eliminated (another victim of the questionable Next Top Model makeover).

Laura’s Chinese mother is from Malaysia, and her father is from England. She has elicited comparisons to another part-Asian model, Chanel Iman.

Laura is on Facebook and Model Mayhem. Also check out her profile on her modeling agency’s website, and this thread discussing her appearance on the show.

Pictures after the jump.

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Today is Jennifer Field‘s birthday, and to celebrate I’ve got some pictures, videos, and links for you featuring the birthday girl.

The photos I’ve posted are a sampling from her collaboration with photographer John Agcaoili. More photos, as well as an article he wrote about the experience, can be found on his Tumblr.

The videos I’ve posted include:
* behind-the-scenes footage from the John Agcaoili photoshoot,
* a trilogy about love called “Silent Romance”,
* a Funny or Die video where she plays a talkative date, and
* a MTV Iggy video spotlight on her for the K-Town reality show.

You can find more videos on Jennifer’s YouTube channel.

Finally, I highly recommend checking out her in-depth interview with HalfKorean.com, where she discusses biraciality, acting, and the K-Town show, amongst other topics.

Pictures and video after the jump.

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Yes, Kate Beckinsale is part-Asian: her father’s mother’s father was Burmese, which makes her one-eighth Burmese (and seven-eighths English).

Pictures and video after the jump.

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Rhona Natasha Mitra is a British actress and model. She is Bengali and English on her father’s side, and Irish on her mother’s side.

She is known for being the original real-life Lara Croft model and for appearing in many television series (such as The Practice and Nip/Tuck) and movies (such as Hollow Man and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans).

She starred this past summer on the ABC television series The Gates. The 13-episode run can be viewed online.

Check out her Wikipedia entry and her IMDB profile for more info.

Pictures and video after the jump.

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