5 Celebrities at Past BAAFF Events

...and 5 reason why they're awesome:
By: Eugenia Beh

1. Ang Lee (The Wedding Banquet; BAAFF 2013)

• Only director of color to win the Oscar for Best Director TWICE (so far) - in 2005 for “Brokeback Mountain” and in 2012 for “Life of Pi.” (Too bad, the Academy wasn’t smart enough to give his films Best Picture, too - boo!)
  
  
• His next project is going to be about boxing - and it’s going to be in 3D!
  
  
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the highest grossing foreign language film in the U.S.
  
  
• Never does the same kind of film twice because he wants to explore different things.
  
  
• Went to NYU with director Spike Lee (no relation).
  
  

2. James Hong

• One of the founders of the East-West Players, the oldest Asian American theater in Los Angeles.
  
  
• Former president of the Association of Asian/Pacific American Artists (AAPAA).
  
  
• He didn’t get the part of Sulu, but he got to face off against George Takei in a MacGuyer episode. (I need to know who won!)
  
  
• Played Senator Daniel Inouye’s father on the Hawai’i episode of Drunk History.
  
  
• Most well known roles: Lo Pan in “Big Trouble in Little China,” the eye manufacturer Chew in Blade Runner, Chi Fu in Mulan and Mr. Ping in the Kung Fu Panda films.
  
  

3. Booboo Stewart (White Frog; BAAFF 2012)

• Most widely recognized for playing Seth Clearwater in the Twilight films, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn Parts 1 and 2, and as Warpath in “X-Men: Days of Future Past.”
  
  
• Mother is Chinese, Japanese and Korean; father is Blackfoot Native American, Scottish and Russian.
  
  
• Inducted into the Martial Arts Junior Hall of Fame in 2004.
  
  
• Former member of Disney’s T-Squad.
  
  
• Is currently in a band with his sister, Fivel.
  
  

4. Tina Chen

• Received a Golden Globe nomination for her supporting performance in the film, “The Hawai’ians.”
  
  
• Played opposite Robert Redford in “Three Days of the Condor.”
  
  
• Starred in 2 of Bertha Bay-Sa Pan’s films: “Almost Perfect” and “Face.”
  
  
• Started Food Liberation, one of the first health food stores in NYC.
  
  
• Volunteers as a reader to the sight-impaired at Lighthouse International.
  
  

5. David Henry Hwang

• One of America’s greatest playwrights, screenwriters and librettists.
  
  
• Best known as the author of M. Butterfly. Also wrote the screenplay for the film version of “M. Butterfly.”
  
  
• Was an executive producer for (and also an actor in) “White Frog,” which starred Booboo Stewart.
  
  
• Developing an original television series, “Shanghai,” for Lionsgate and the Bravo Network.
  
  
• Director of Columbia University’s School of the Arts' M.F.A. program in playwriting.