Welcome to our 13th #aroundtheworld! Today, we will be discussing 5 Pacific Islanders who are changing the Entertainment Industry. Enjoy our article on Tiana Masaniai, Pia Mia, Kelly Hu, Keisha Castle Hughes and Auliʻi Cravalho!
Tiana Masaniai
Tiana Masaniai was born on November 17,1987 in Fountain Valley, California. Her mother is from the Polynesian island of American Samoa and her father is of Egyptian descent. Tiana spent the first 5 years of her life in American Samoa, then moving to Santa Ana, CA with her mother's family. When Tiana was 18 years old, she was scouted for modeling, and she began to discover her keen interest in the entertainment industry. It wasn't long after she had her first theatrical audition, IMperfect (2016), where she landed a lead role and won the award for Best Actress at the Love International Film Festival. A few months later, she booked another lead role in the Netflix Sci-Fi film, Stasis (2017), where she played as an assassin from the future.
Pia Mia
Pia Mia Perez was born on September 19, 1996 in Guam, United States. She is of Chamorro, Italian, Dutch and Hungarian descent. She is the daughter of Peter Perez Jr. and Angela Terlaje Perez. She is a singer, actress, songwriter, and a model. She has sung multiple hit songs and also starred in multiple films and television series including After (2019), After We Collided (2020), East Los High (2016), and Happy Together (2018) respectively.
Kelly Hu
Kelly Ann Hu was born on February 13th, 1968. She has an ancestry of Chinese, English, and Hawaiian and was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her father, Herbert, was a salesman and her mother, Juanita, worked many odd jobs to help support the family. She is a former Miss Teen USA, and has modeled in Japan and Italy for several months before deciding to relocate to L.A. and try her hand at show business. Hu starred as Dr. Rae Chang on the American television soap opera “Sunset Beach” and Michelle Chan on the American television police drama series “Nash Bridges”. She has also starred in numerous films including The Scorpion King (2002) as Cassandra, Cradle 2 the Grave (2003) as Sona, X2 as Yuriko Oyama / Lady Deathstrike (2003), The Tournament (2009) as Lai Lai Zhen, and White Frog (2012).
Keisha Castle Hughes
Keisha Castle-Hughes was born on 1990 in Donnybrook, Western Australia, to a Māori mother, Desrae Hughes, and Tim Castle, an Anglo-Australian father. Her family moved to Auckland, New Zealand when she was four years old and she attained her citizenship in 2001. She is an actress and producer, known for Whale Rider (2002), The Nativity Story (2006) and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005). In 2015, she joined the cast of the HBO TV series Game of Thrones in season 5 as Obara Sand.
Auliʻi Cravalho
Chloe Auliʻi Cravalho was born in Kohala, Hawaii, to Cathleen Puanani Cravalho, of Native Hawaiian descent, and Dwayne Cravalho of mixed Puerto Rican, Portuguese, Chinese, and Irish descent. At the time, when she made her breakthrough, she was living in Mililani, Hawaii with her mother. She is an actress, known for Moana (2016), Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) and All Together Now (2020).
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