Half-Asians

Tara Macken is an actress and stuntwoman of Filipina and Irish descent. She was born in a car in Kuwait and has since lived all around the world, including Brunei, the Philippines, and the United States. She started off as a gymnast and rock climber before moving on to dance and martial arts, all of which have been applicable to her career in stunts and acting.

You may have seen her as Luisa in Sons of Anarchy or as Maggie Q‘s stunt double on Nikita, but you’ll definitely see her soon enough – she’s in The Hunger Games, playing the part of the female tribute from District 4. She can also be seen later this year in GI Joe 2: Retaliation as the stunt double for half-Cambodian actress Elodie Yung (aka Miriam Wu from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo).

Check out Tara’s website, IMDb profile, Twitter, Facebook page, Vimeo, and YouTube channel. Also check out this Facebook album of photos of Tara (and others) shot by half-Japanese actress/dancer/model/photographer Emily Kaiho.

Pictures and video after the jump.

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Half-Japanese actress Nichole Bloom (who I previously featured here and here) is in the current issue of Maxim magazine. She appears in a raunchy photo spread (is there any other kind in Maxim?) along with two of her female co-stars from the new Todd Phillips produced film Project X, which is due out in theatres on March 2.

You can check out the Maxim feature in their March 2012 issue (on newsstands now) or on their website here. And for more information on Project X, check out its Wikipedia entry and IMDb page.

After the jump are pictures and behind-the-scenes footage from the Maxim photoshoot, as well as some bonus pics of Nichole from the Sherlock Holmes 2 premiere back in December.

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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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Production was recently completed on Model Minority, an indie film written, directed, and produced by long-time ER actress Lily Mariye.

The film’s leading role is played by Nichole Bloom, whom readers of this blog will recognize as Nichole O’Connor, the cute girl with the goofy laugh from that State Farm commercial with Bob Barker. This dramatic starring role is quite a departure from her character in that ad.

Model Minority, a film based on true events (names and places have been changed), tells the story of Kayla Tanaka, a 16-year-old girl who is half-Japanese, half-white, and all-American. She and her sister, 14-year-old Amberlyn, live with their parents Ken (Japanese-American) and Angie (white) in a low-income section of Los Angeles. Kayla aspires to be an artist, but she puts her future in doubt when she becomes involved with a drug dealer.

The film, which also stars Courtney Mun, Chris Tashima, and Jessica Tuck, is scheduled for release in July 2012.

For more information, check out the following links:
Model Minority official website
Model Minority Facebook page
Model Minority IMDb page
Lily Mariye official website
Nichole Bloom O’Connor official website
Nichole O’Connor

Today is Olivia Munn‘s 31st birthday, and once again, I’m using a birthday as an excuse to post a bunch of pictures and videos of the birthday girl. Hope you folks don’t mind.

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From her website bio:

“Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Nichole Bloom O’Connor made the transition to Los Angeles at 14 and is now a soon-to-be graduate from the University of Southern California where she studies theater and visual arts. As an actress she may be recognizable from her commercial work, and now Nichole will soon made her feature film debut in Project X, a new comedy directed by Nima Nourizadeh and produced by Todd Phillips.”

You might recognize her as Sarah from the recent “Magic Jingle Bob Barker” State Farm commercial. My favorite part of the ad is Nichole’s goofy laugh at the 18 second mark. Check it out:

She previously starred in a couple of 2007 McDonald’s commercials and a 2008 Honda Civic commercial. I’ve attached those to the end of this post (courtesy of YouTube user madcowe).

You can find out more about Nichole from her official website and her IMDb entry.

Note: I have no confirmation that she is half-Asian (other than my hapa-dar saying so), but based on her name and her look, my best guess is that she is Korean and Irish. Hopefully someone out there can confirm or correct this for me. (UPDATE: A commenter on this post has confirmed that Nichole is actually half Japanese and half Irish.)

Pictures and video after the jump.

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Plunder Guide posted this photo gallery of import model Vanessa Monique, who is of Mexican, Japanese, Irish, and Hawaiian descent.

Vanessa Monique [Plunder Guide]

Whenever I watch an American beauty pageant, I always keep an eye out for the representative from Hawaii. They’re always amongst the most beautiful of the contestants, and, not coincidentally, they’re often mixed Asian. For example, this year’s Miss Hawaii USA and Miss Hawaii Teen USA, Angela Byrd and Courtney Coleman, are both hapa.

Sonya Balmores Chung is another example. The actress/model/surfer (of Filipina, Irish, and Native American descent) was Miss Hawaii Teen USA in 2004, and placed first runner-up in the Miss Teen USA pageant that year. She later starred as Kai Kealoha in the TV series Beyond the Break, which aired on The N from 2006 to 2009, and she currently stars as Bethany Hamilton’s nemesis Malina Birch in the film Soul Surfer.

Sonya is on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. You can learn more about her from Wikipedia and IMDb, as well as this interview with Asians on Film.

Pictures and video after the jump.

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