List of Asian Americans

Notable Asian Americans include:

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Academia

Science

Further information: Asian Americans in science and technology
Steven Chu

Arts/architecture/design

Business and industry

Indra Nooyi

Entertainment

  • Ruben A. Aquino, animation director, supervising animator for Walt Disney Animation Studios
  • Chang and Eng Bunker, source for the term "Siamese Twins"
  • Ping Chong, theater director, choreographer, video and installation artist
  • David Koh, documentary film producer and director
  • Shin Lim, close-up magician
  • Alain Nu, mentalist, magician

Actors and filmmakers

Aziz Ansari
Dante Basco
John Cho
James Hong
Kelly Hu
Ken Jeong
Mindy Kaling
Nancy Kwan
Bruce Lee
Will Yun Lee
Ken Leung
Justin Lin
Lucy Liu
Pat Morita
Kumail Nanjiani
Sandra Oh
Keanu Reeves
Rob Schneider
Brenda Song
George Takei
Steven Yeun

Choreographers and dancers

Music

Paul Anka
Joe Hahn
Norah Jones
Bruno Mars
Allan Pineda
Mike Shinoda

Groups/bands

Reality TV participants

Fashion

Culinary

Law

For a list of Asian Americans who are or have served as judges, see List of Asian American jurists.
Lance Ito
Fred Korematsu

Literature

See also: List of Asian-American writers

Military

See also: Military History of Asian Americans

Individuals

Eric Shinseki

Foreign military service

News/media/journalism

Politics

Daniel Akaka
Tammy Duckworth
Nikki Haley
Kamala Harris
Daniel Inouye
Bobby Jindal
Andrew Yang
Main article: Asian Americans in politics

Religion

Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl

Space

This section is a list of astronauts of Asian ancestry who are, by birth or naturalization, American citizens. Sorted by first space flight, then by NASA Astronaut Group (if applicable).

No. Image Name
Birth date 		Ancestry Birth Comment Missions (Launch date)
1 Ellison Onizuka
June 24, 1946 		 Japan  United States Selected in 1978 to NASA Astronaut Group 8. First Asian American and first Japanese American in space. Died on the Challenger. STS-51-C (January 24, 1985)
STS-51-L (January 28, 1986)
2 Taylor Gun-Jin Wang
June 16, 1940 		Taiwan Republic of China First person of Chinese ancestry and first Chinese American in space. STS-51-B (April 29, 1985)
3 Franklin Chang-Diaz
April 5, 1950 		Qing dynasty Qing dynasty  Costa Rica  Costa Rica Selected in 1980 to NASA Astronaut Group 9. Joint record holder, since 2002 (with Jerry L. Ross, set two months earlier that year), for most spaceflights by a human. STS-61-C (January 12, 1986)
STS-34 (October 18, 1989)
STS-46 (July 31, 1992)
STS-60 (February 3, 1994)
STS-75 (February 22, 1996)
STS-91 (June 2, 1998)
STS-111 (June 5, 2002)
4 Eugene Trinh
September 14, 1950 		 South Vietnam First Vietnamese American in space. STS-50 (June 25, 1992)
5 Leroy Chiao
August 28, 1960 		Taiwan Taiwan  United States Selected in 1990 to NASA Astronaut Group 13. Served on ISS Expedition 10. STS-65 (July 8, 1994)
STS-72 (January 11, 1996)
STS-92 (October 11, 2000)
Soyuz TMA-5 (October 14, 2004)
6 Ed Lu
July 1, 1963 		Taiwan Republic of China  United States Selected in 1994 to NASA Astronaut Group 15. Served on ISS Expedition 7. STS-84 (May 15, 1997)
STS-106 (September 8, 2000)
Soyuz TMA-2 (April 6, 2003)
7 Kalpana Chawla
March 17, 1962 		 India Selected in 1994 to NASA Astronaut Group 15. First Indian American in space. Died on the Columbia. STS-87 (November 19, 1997)
STS-107 (January 16, 2003)
8 Mark L. Polansky
June 2, 1956 		 Republic of Korea  United States Selected in 1996 to NASA Astronaut Group 16. First Korean American in space. STS-98 (February 7, 2001)
STS-116 (December 9, 2006)
STS-127 (July 15, 2009)
9 Daniel M. Tani
February 1, 1961 		 Japan  United States Selected in 1996 to NASA Astronaut Group 16. Served on ISS Expedition 16. STS-108 (December 5, 2001)
STS-120 (October 23, 2007)
STS-122 (February 7, 2008)
10 Sunita Williams
September 19, 1965 		 India  United States Selected in 1998 to NASA Astronaut Group 17. Served on ISS Expedition 14/15, Expedition 32/33 and Expedition 71/72. Second female commander of ISS. First female astronaut to fly on an orbital spacecraft's maiden flight, i.e., Boeing Starliner. STS-116/117 (December 9, 2006)
Soyuz TMA-05M (July 15, 2012)
Starliner Crewed Flight Test/SpaceX Crew-9 (June 5, 2024)
11 Kjell N. Lindgren
January 23, 1973 		Taiwan Taiwan
 United States 		Taiwan Taiwan Selected in 2009 to NASA Astronaut Group 20. Served on ISS Expedition 44. Soyuz TMA-17M (July 22, 2015)
SpaceX Crew-4 (April 27, 2022)
12 Sirisha Bandla
1988 		 India Indian American sub-orbital, sub-Kármán line, space tourist. Virgin Galactic Unity 22 (July 11, 2021)
13 Raja Chari
June 24, 1977 		 India  United States Selected in 2017 to NASA Astronaut Group 22. SpaceX Crew-3 (November 11, 2021)
14 Andy Sadhwani
1988 		 India  United States Principal Propulsion Engineer at SpaceX United States Galactic 07 (June 8, 2024)[41][42]
15 Ephraim Rabin
? 		 Israel  United States Businessman United States Blue Origin NS-26 (August 29, 2024)
16 Eiman Jahangir
August 5, 1980 		 Iran  United States Associate professor United States Blue Origin NS-26 (August 29, 2024)
17 Jonny Kim
February 5, 1984 		 Republic of Korea  United States Selected in 2017 to NASA Astronaut Group 22.

Sports

Other

See also

Footnotes

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  41. ^ Jonathan McDowell [@planet4589] (June 8, 2024). "Galactic 07 was dropped and fired its rocket engine at about 1526:30 UTC and landed at around 1541 UTC. Apogee not yet known" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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